Suspension railway

A monorail is a track-guided transport, in which the vehicle is located below the bearing, rigid guideway at least two points behind the other hanging and due to this hanging structure can oscillate about a longitudinal axis above the vehicle. They are thus a subcategory of monorails. On the other hand include trolleys, in which the load depends only to a point on the supporting infrastructure, which enables pendular movements in all directions, not one of the monorails in this sense, just as cable cars, whose load-bearing element is not rigid..

Three carrying systems

The suspension can be realized in principle in three different ways:

  • A wheel, or rather a single-track undercarriage with two wheels one after the other running on a rail and has to prevent slipping from the rail, for example by a Doppelkranzrad. This design was implemented according to the design by Eugen Langen, including at the Wuppertal " monorail " as well as their sister in Dresden. The principle is also found in the monorail in Zoo Ueno of Tokyo and the monorail Memphis. The hanger is led on one side in an arc around the rail and its support structure. Optionally, horizontally running guide rollers impede vibration of the vehicle support structure against the rail, which must then be compensated by a hinge below.
  • A pair of inner rollers running inside a box-shaped, downwardly open support connected to an axle at the middle of the hanger is mounted on the suspended vehicle. The wheels can run as iron wheels with wheel flange to rail within the carrier or rubber wheels on the tread designed as slotted bottom of the box-shaped carrier. The hanger then has to be mounted a joint to allow swinging of the vehicle about the aforementioned longitudinal axis.
  • In an inverted T-beam, a pair of outer rollers running on running webs of the T. Again, in the suspension device has a pivot to be mounted. This occurs in the illustrated in a separate article monorail mining application in which the T-bar suspended by chains or cables to the ceiling of the tunnel.

The latter two principles are also found in the installation of curtains and draperies. A derailment is excluded constructively in the hollow rail and the rigid T- holders, but you will achieve in the industrial application by horizontally running guide rollers run more smoothly.

Drive systems

The drive is either

  • Like a funicular on a pull rope: Dresden suspension railway, opened in 1901, with the same support mechanism such as the Wuppertal " floating " track, but pulled due to the strong gradient of the line of a rope;
  • Monorail Memphis, opened in 1982;
  • En: Skyrail Midorizaka Line ( s), a monorail system in Hiroshima, at these cabins are transported to a rigid pavement hanging from a pull rope from station to station, and driven in the stations by means of linear motors
  • About engines on the vehicle and power purchase via busbars: Opened Wuppertal suspension railway, 1901
  • H -Bahn in Dortmund and Dusseldorf
  • Ueno Zoo Monorail in Tokyo
  • Shonan Monorail
  • Chiba Monorail
  • Aerobus
  • On diesel or air motors on the vehicle: the suspended monorail in mining

Areas of application

Trolley tracks are everywhere there as a solution of transport problems, where a high degree of independence is required from ground transportation, or difficult terrain makes it difficult to manufacture a flat line on the earth's surface. But are stations for passenger exchange more expensive because they have to be built into the air, which also means a barrier to access of passengers. In addition, hanging vehicles are at greater risk of side winds, as vehicles that are available on a wider track on earth. While it is pleasant to passengers when put hanging vehicles automatically by centrifugal force into the curve, has to either the infrastructure for higher cornering speeds are supported laterally, or the driving speed can be limited, which in turn use on long routes can be uneconomical. Thus, the H-Bahn is limited to a maximum of 50 km / h.

Often monorails are used for internal transportation, since the floating transport of loads allows the optimum utilization of warehouse space for production or storage purposes. For these purposes, there are some sophisticated system solutions from various manufacturers, which are often designed as electric or rope monorail, especially for smaller systems and the drive by means of torsion waves is very popular.

Overhead conveyors are used to on some spectacular exceptions for passenger traffic, almost exclusively for industrial applications ( under industrial hall ceiling or free standing overhead crane tracks ), because the structures are to build rather complex for the rails.

A monorail over a body of water away is ( inaccurately ) called Transporter Bridge.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Chiba Urban Monorail Kamakura, Kanagawa Chiba, Chiba Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)
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