The Regents Canal Monorail

[David Mack]

An interesting might-have-been.

.

[ditchcrawler]

I watched that last night as well

[Bod]

Anyone remember the mono-rail at Earith Cambs?

 

Bod

[GUMPY]

1 hour ago, Bod said:

Anyone remember the mono-rail at Earith Cambs?

 

Bod

Aren't the remains of the rail-car next to the NVR station in Peterborough?

Who remebers Mag-Lev at Birmingham Airport that was more exciting than gettin on the Aeroplane

 

[dixi188]

38 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Aren't the remains of the rail-car next to the NVR station in Peterborough?

Who remebers Mag-Lev at Birmingham Airport that was more exciting than gettin on the Aeroplane

 

Yes to the BHX Maglev.

Best I've been on is the Wuppertal monorail.

[GUMPY]

5 minutes ago, dixi188 said:

Wuppertal monorail

Despite working over in Germany for a  part of my life, I never got round to that.

I do like ICE trains

 

 

[Tim Lewis]

2 hours ago, Bod said:

Anyone remember the mono-rail at Earith Cambs?

 

Bod

 

Anyone remember the monorail at Merry Hill Shopping Centre? Not far from the Dudley Canal.

[Chris Lowe]

or the Beaulieu monorail

 

 

[Ronaldo47]

I remember reading about what I think was called  the "Bennie Airspeed Monorail" in a 1950's Eagle annual, where the propulsion was by  propellors at each end of the car.  I later discovered that an experimental line had actually been built over a railway branch line near Glasgow.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Ronaldo47
typos

[Chris Lowe]

Then there was the Areotrain

 

 

[BEngo]

There is a working steam-powered monorail at the Indian national railway museum in Delhi.  Amazing contraption.

N

[Stilllearning]

Hyperloop are building a trial section near us. It is an amusing waste of someone’s money, employs local university boffins but has been sited on the track of an old light railway, which has been a really good bridleway and footpath, now blocked of course.

It is also not a transport system you will ever find me using, that fast plus that much technology means a big ‘oops’ at some point.

[Guest]

Monorails are allegedly incredibly expensive to run and maintain.

 

It is often said that the pretty extensive one at Disney in Orlando is by far their most expensive piece of kit that they have to run and maintain. But when rumours start that they may close it there is always a backlash from die hard fans so they keep pumping dosh into it to keep it running.

[Slow and Steady]

Dunno about expensive - even Butlins in Skegness had one.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Slow and Steady

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:

Dunno about expensive - even Butlins in Skegness had one.

 

 

Disney's is a bit less crude and basic.

[Chris Lowe]

Chessington had one as well, the safari skyway.

 

[billh]

A monorail system was set up on the Ashton & Peak Forest Canals exactly 50years ago this month. Used in connection with the Ashtac canal restoration event when 800 volunteers descended on the canal to clear it for navigation. Unfortunately, a quantity of the monorail track was stolen after it was dismantled and stored ready for collection by the hire company😧. A couple of weeks after the Ashtac event itself enabled maintainence  motor NB Joel to navigate between Portland Basin and Fairfield top lock  for the first time since 1962. The whole of the Ashton & Peak Forest  was re-opened in 1974.

[pearley]

On 24/03/2022 at 17:47, Bod said:

Anyone remember the mono-rail at Earith Cambs?

 

Bod

Made me Google it and found this film

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cambridgeshires-space-age-hovertrain-float-12605298.amp

[Stroudwater1]

Stansted airport has one I seem to recall. Was too busy thanking my lucky stars that I realised in time that I needed to take a train to get to the plane for embarkation to take any photos. 

 

 

[Tim Lewis]

55 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

Stansted airport has one I seem to recall. Was too busy thanking my lucky stars that I realised in time that I needed to take a train to get to the plane for embarkation to take any photos. 

 

 

 

I believe that the Stanstead airpot tram is rubber tyred, not a monorail

On 24/03/2022 at 20:35, Tim Lewis said:

 

Anyone remember the monorail at Merry Hill Shopping Centre? Not far from the Dudley Canal.

 

The Merry Hill Monorail

 

The Merry Hill Monorail - Part 2 - Bing video

Edited March 28, 2022 by Tim Lewis

[magpie patrick]

They could have just built one of these down the towpath... 

 

 

[Richard Carter]

2 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

They could have just built one of these down the towpath... 

 

 

 

Is that Edward Elgar at the controls?

[David Mack]

9 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

They could have just built one of these down the towpath... 

 

 

That looks prone to the sort of disaster that befell Alan Bristow's Briway system -unfortunately on a day the TV cameras were visiting:

 

 

[Tim Lewis]

On 28/03/2022 at 09:39, billh said:

A monorail system was set up on the Ashton & Peak Forest Canals exactly 50years ago this month. Used in connection with the Ashtac canal restoration event when 800 volunteers descended on the canal to clear it for navigation. Unfortunately, a quantity of the monorail track was stolen after it was dismantled and stored ready for collection by the hire company😧. A couple of weeks after the Ashtac event itself enabled maintainence  motor NB Joel to navigate between Portland Basin and Fairfield top lock  for the first time since 1962. The whole of the Ashton & Peak Forest  was re-opened in 1974.

 

We used a monorail on the Stroudwater navigation restoration many years ago!

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Tim Lewis

[magpie patrick]

14 minutes ago, Tim Lewis said:

 

We used a monorail on the Stroudwater navigation restoration many years ago!

 

 

 

 I can see a rather niche area of waterway and railway history unfolding here - who's going to volunteer a paper on "monorails of the canal restoration movement""?