E. Moody Boynton patented plans for a monorailway which were approved by such ex at fixed intervals are trusses, or bents, joined by cross pieces at the top and supporting the guides which prevent the car from toppling over. The car itself also embodies some unique and interesting features. It is narrower than the standard trolley or railroad car and rests on a single pair of wheels, or, in the full-size coach, on two trucks of two wheels each, ar ranged tandem, just under the centre of the floor, the platform and superstructure being balanced on them. The car is balanced on the single rail, the wheels being of the grooved pattern. So accurately are the weights ad justed that a slight lurch of the body will sway the car from side to side. At first some appre hension was expressed that in going around curves the centrifugal motion of the car would impose too great a strain on the bents. but this fear has proved wholly groundless. By allow ing for the centrifugal force by the slant toward the inner side of the circle which is accomplished on ordinary roads by raising the other rail the weight is thrown off the bents and approximately equalized.
The English monorail known as the Behr System, here illustrated, has been in operation for a number of years at Ballybunnion, Ireland, and was successfully tested by the Belgian gov ernment, securing a speed of 83 miles per hour with a car weighing 70 tons. In 1901 and 1902 the English Parliament granted Mr. Behr's company the right to construct a road between Manchester and Liverpool, after the plans had been examined and approved by many eminent engineers.
The track is a single rail of-the same shape and weight as generally used on steam roads. This rail is fastened at the top of an A-shaped structure made of steel. The structure is riveted to steel ties firmly, imbedded in cement and rock ballast. The triangular supports for the rail are only four feet high, and one is placed every three feet three inches. At each side and 18 inches from the ground is placed a light guide rail to keep the moving car in position. The entire weight of the car rests upon large grooved wheels which travel upon the large rail at the top of the framework. As electric motors are used to propel the train, each of these wheels is a "driver?' Current is conducted on rails placed upon the ties, but insulated from them.
The car consists of two compartments, one on each side of the structure, and are 60 feet long, weighing four tons each.
The monorail idea has been exploited in Germany, France and Russia in its application to hanging cars, but Germany alone has se cured results. A suspended overhead railway of rapid transit is now in operation between the three manufacturing towns of Voh winkel, Eberfeld and Barmen, near Cologne, Germany. The road is built on a system of
latticed longitudinal girders, one vertical and two horizontal, assembled into the form of an Irsection. The main girders form the web of the I, and the lateral girders, which give the requisite lateral stiffness, serve as the top and bottom flanges of the I. Diagonal tie-rods ex tend from the upper panel points of the central girder to a connection with the chords of the bottom lateral girder. The last mentioned chords consist of steel I-beams, and upon their upper flanges is laid the single Trail, from which the cars depend and on which they run. The girders, which vary in span from 21 to 33 metres (68.88 feet to 108.24 feet), are car ried upon supports varying in structure with the locality where they are used. Where the railway is carried immediately above the VVup per River the A-frame style of pier is used, while in the towns through which the line passes the trusses are carried upon substantial U-frames. The A-frame consists of two rec tangular latticed struts, which are united at the top by a rectangular plate yoke.
The cars are 37.7 feet gong, 8.5 feet high and 6.88 feet wide; are therefore fairly long and narrow, and are slightly tapered at the ends.
They have a seating capacity of 50, and are built with two side doors opening inwardly, and two auxiliary doors at the ends. The total weight of each car is 12 tons. The cars are freely suspended from two trucks spaced eight metres apart and having a diameter of 0.9 metres. The wheels are mounted in tandem to run on a single rail and are driven by two electric motors of 36 horse power each, through the medium of transmission gearing. The motor trucks receive current by means of a slipshoe and a contact rail, which is carried on the bottom of the lateral girder, somewhat to the inside of the main supporting beam.
The truck-frames embrace the rail-girders and the rails so closely that a play of seven millimetres is allowed and that derailment is impossible. If a wheel or axle should break the cars would be held up by the frames.
Oscillation of the car is limited by two pro jections on the lower part of the hook-shaped frame...The cars swing around the curve in a inclined position and spontaneously re assume their normal vertical position when a straight part of the rail is reached. To the passengers the change in equilibrium is imper ceptible. Since a sudden change in equilibrium causes an oscillation proportionate to the veloc ity and the angle determined by the radius of the curve, which oscillation lies within twice the value of this angle, comparatively long transi tional bends have been provided by reason of which the equilibrium is gradually changed, result that almost inappreciable oscillations are produced.