MONORAILS - Ideas, Concepts, and Magnetic Levitation

Definition of monorail - A single rail serving as a track for passenger or freight vehicles. In most cases rail is elevated, but monorails can also run at grade, below grade or in subway tunnels. Vehicles are either suspended from or straddle a narrow guideway. Monorail vehicles are WIDER than the guideway that supports them.

As early as the 1820s Russian inventors had been toying with the one-rail idea called monorail. 

As new ideas for monorail construction moved into the Twentieth Century some concepts became reality in built-systems throughout the world. Some had glitzy futuristic designs, some were simple, some hung from the mono-track, and most ran atop one track. Almost 100 years would pass before the monorail would enter into realistic competition, and a future of its own.

Ever since I was 8-years old and visited Disneyland with my dad I fell in love with the monorail. It was, for me, the igniter of dreaming about the 21st Century, even way-back in 1959. My dad, at the time, was a station-agent and telegrapher (telegraph operator) for the Southern Pacific Railroad (now part of Union Pacific). My dad and I were always out looking at trains. But, the monorail, wow, it was so different. And then came the Seattle World's Fair (1962) and the company which built the Disneyland Monorail, Alweg Company, built Seattle's Monorail, and underwrote all the costs. They were able to make all their money back before the fair ended its six-month run. The Seattle Center Monorail continues to be a valuable part of Seattle's transportation rail systems, having been joined by Seattle Streetcar and a new light-rail system connecting Seattle with its International Airport (Sea-Tac).

The Seattle Monorail is made up of two identical tracks and trains, the Red Train and the Blue Train. Each train has its own track.  There is no interchanging junction.

The monorail was a new mass-transportation concept introduced at the dawn of the 20th Century, and a precursor for green-transportation in the 21st Century. The first 20th Century monorail was in testing-operation in 1908. It was called the gyro-monorail or the gyroscopic monorail, and its builder-designer was Louis Brennan, of Gillingham, Kent, UK.

At the time the British government could not see the applicability of the gyro-system to matters of war and neither were they very enthusiastic about supporting its development for use in far-away areas of their empire, where the laying of track over long distances would have been cheap. And, the railway companies were not about to get involved in something that, if successful, would have them starting at “square one” again.

The Federal Railroad Administration defines Maglev as "an advanced technology in which magnetic forces lift, propel, and guide a vehicle over a guideway."

Not all “maglev” trains are monorails. Some maglevs operate in a wide-contained space (or trough) such as the Yamanashi Maglev. It is not a monorail. Maglav Monorails operate the same way as conventional monorails except they are lifted and propeled by magnetics, and wrap-around their guideways.

AMT Test Track - Powder Springs, Georgia

You can take a ride on a Maglev train and hear how quiet it is by visiting AMT at:  http://american-maglev.com/index.php?option=com_expose&Itemid=52

"Transrapid Test Facility (Emsland, Germany): Opened 1984

Since opening, several generations of Transrapid trains have been tested.The test-track is 31.5 km or 19.6 miles long. The Transrapid 07 has covered a distance of more than 550,000 km at Emsland. More than 220,000 paying passengers from all over the world have ridden Transrapid on demonstration runs at speeds of up to 420 km/h.

On June 10, 1993, the Transrapid 07 established a world record for passenger-carrying maglev vehicles when it reached a speed of 450 km/h (279mph). The Transrapid 08, a 3-section, passenger train began operating in 1999 and was built to obtain the type approval certification required for commercial operations. Designed for 550 km/h operation, the new train is lighter, more aerodynamic and quieter than its predecessor, the Transrapid 07." (3)

"Shanghai Magnetic Levitation Demonstration Operation Line" is the first commercial high-speed maglev line in the world. The system and trains were built to the Transrapid Standard. Construction began in March 2001, and public service commenced on 1 January 2004.

During a test run on 12 November 2003, a maglev vehicle achieved a Chinese record speed of 501 km/h (311 mph).

The entire system is 8.3 miles long and consists of one line.  The system opened in 1901 and continues in-operation to this day.  About 80% of the system is built above water, thus, offering spectacular views. There are 20 stations spaced about 2,300 feet apart, or 0.43 miles. Number of passengers per year are about 23 million. Total travel distance in passenger-miles equals 63.95 million. Daily passenger totals average 72,000. Occupancy averages about 53%. The average passenger rides 2.9 miles.

Total energy used per year is 3.28 million KWh. Energy use per mile is 4.79 KWh. Energy use per 100 passenger-miles is 3.62 KWh.

monorails. org

schwebebahn.com

darkroastedblend.com/2009/04/one-track-wonders-early-monorails.html

alweg.com

wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train

lvmonorail.com

railblog.ru/shanxajskij-magnitoplan-ekspress-skorostnoe-dvizhenie-v-kitae/

(1) Alweg Company: http://alweg.com

(2) (3) Monorails.org: http://www.monorails.org/tmspages/MagWhat.html