The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-08-04
RUNNING TRAINS ON ONE RAIL
Several Different Types Of Monorail
Roads that Have Proven Practical.

Within a few months the term
monorail road has acquired a new sig
nifcance which is likely to become
exclusive, in the successful opera
ton of the gyroscope cars upon
single rail laid upon the level of the
ground, says writer in the New
York Press.
In the older application of the
name to the cars or trains suspend
ed from an overhead rail no new
principle was involved. The balance
of the moving car was nothing more
than the usual result of the attrac-
ton of gravity.
In the Elberfeld to Barmen rail-
way, which runs along the valley of
the Wupper, in Rhenish Prussia, the
monorail, or single rail, is carried on
steel girders supported by A-shaped
trestles, the cars hanging downward
and running between the legs of the
A. This road is something over eight
miles long, and proceeds partly
through the main streets of the towns
it traverses, and partly suspended
over the river Wupper.
It's steepest grade is one foot in
twenty-five feet, and the sharpest
curve is a radical swing of 295 feet.
The working speed is about thirty
miles an hour.
The cars are 37.5 feet long and
6.5 feet wide, with capacity of
fifty passengers.
Each car is hung from two two
wheeled trucks, or bogies, twenty
six feet apart, the wheels of which
are thirty-fve inches in diameter.
These wheels are driven by electric
motors mounted on the bogies. A
car when loaded with fifty passengers
makes up a total weight of fourteen
tons, or an average weight of about
$40 pounds per passenger, which
compares favorably with the weight
per passenger carried on A-shaped
trestles, as in the Elberfeld road, but
running on the outside of the legs OF
A, instead of between them. In ad-
dition to the supporting rail at the
| TOP there are two bearing rails on
each leg of the A and steady the cars
when in motion.
Such a road is projected between
Liverpool and Manchester and at the
proposed speed of 120 miles per hour,
the distance, thirty-two miles, would
be covered in but little over quar-
ter of an hour, including stops. A
road built on this principle, with some
Variations, is projected to run through
Pelham Bay Park to City Island, in
the Bronx, New York city.
A third class of monorail road con-
sists of single rail laid on the level
of the ground, being essentially half
of an ordinary two-rail road. The
balance of the cars is maintained by
arms, which reach out laterally, and
are supported by man or horse
walking at one side and supplying
the motive power at the same time.
1t is a simple and effective mode of
transportation for loads which would
require much more expensive power
proportionally to move by usual
methods.
To form a fourth class comes the
eyroscope car, running on single
rail and preserving its own balance
the germ of the monorail road par
excellence. Two types of the gyro-
scope car have been produced, the
first by Louis Brennan, of England,
who exhibited model car early in
1907, and a practical service car for
ty feet long and ten feet wide and
weighing twenty-five tons, which
successfully carried forty passengers
in December, 1909.
The force made use of in main
tanning the balance of the gyroscope
cars is the resistance which rapid
ly revolving wheel exerts against any
change of the plane in which it is ro-
tating.
In the Brennan car the upright po-
sition upon a single rail is preserved
by two wheels revolving side by side
in parallel vertical planes. These
wheels weigh 1900 pounds each, and
are placed in vacuum chambers to
escape friction They are made to re-
volve in contrary directions to
counteract certain tendencies to wab-
bling, and at a speed of 5000 revolu-
tions per minute.
The other gyroscope car was in
vented in Germany by Richard
Scheri 1t differs from the Brennan
car in that the gyroscope wheels ro-
tate edee tO edge in the horizontal