Overseas news From the LRTA – Wuppertal ‘Monorail’ Closed

The following news item shows the problems of not doing proper maintenance on a transit system, especially a ‘grade seperated’ transit system. In the winter, in the least desirable time, the Wuppertal Schwebebahn is closed due to serious safety concerns with the support columns, until they are replaced, sometime near Easter. The problem with expensive […]

The Dreseden Schwebebahn – A monrail funicular

Of course, let us not forget Germany’s other Schwebeban (hanging railway), Dresden’s unique monorail funicular. Though not a true rapid transit system, the historic funicular does predate the Wuppertal Schwebeban by a few years and is worthy of a look. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezsn4D_mKyA]

The Wuppertal Schwebebahn – Let’s take a ride!

There has been a lot of interest shown in the RFV blog about the Wuppertal Schwebebahn so I have included this video to give the full flavour of this historic monorail transit system. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfE8SKK-ms4]

Lartigue monorail, a very early gadgetbahnen – A history lesson for TransLink

The Listowel & Ballybunion Railway, a steam operated Lartigue monorail, ran from 1880 -1928 and is another good example that proprietary railways, even though they may operate in revenue service on one or two lines, fail to become a successful transit mode and are seldom copied. Intriguing yes, practical no, but for fun let’s have […]