This Insane Plane/Train hybrid - The George Benny Rail Plane!
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- čas přidán 7. 08. 2021
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So, what did the Bennie Railcar actually look like? It was cigar-shaped, reminiscent of a small submarine or robotic underwater vessel. For its time it was cutting-edge in design and could be described as elegant and streamlined, looking also somewhat like an airship gondola -
you know, a smaller, less blimp version of the Hindenburg.
The mechanics of the Railcar were fairly simple: it ran along the underside of an overhead monorail, very much like monorails seen at airports and amusement resorts today.
Two bogies with wheels, also known as ‘trucks, and which you’ll remember were referred to in the patent, were attached to the top rail so that the railcar could be held securely in place.
Wheels which rested on another rail would be suspended 16 feet above the ground . These wheels helped stabilise the train when in motion.
Critically for its design, the railcar would be moved by propellers powered by on-board motors. The Bennie Railcar had two aircraft propellers, one on each side.
The propellers could be reversed, It was these two aircraft propellers that not only made the train unique in design concept, but also gave it its name - the Railplane.
The train also featured a braking system on the top rail that would hold the train steady at stations. The propellers were integral to the braking system, as the Railpane would come to a halt when they were reversed.
Each car or carriage was designed to carry a maximum of 48 people, although the first and only prototype had seating for fewer people.
It was important to Bennie that the train not only be a comfortable ride but also luxurious. And so the interior of the prototype was fitted out by master furniture makers and interior decorators Waring and Gillow of London, featuring comfortable seats, stained windows and plush curtains.
The prototype Bennie Railcar at Milngavie was finally opened to the public on July 8th 1930. A test run was done with journalists and guests on board. Although the prototype didn’t exceed 50 miles or 80 kilometres an hour, the test was still a smashing success.
The guests on board loved the experience!
One journalist called it a “wonderful product of British brains”. People were enthused by how smooth and comfortable the Railcar felt when in motion. Conventional trains at the time were anything but smooth and quiet. Those trains were bumpy and loud, wheezing and shuddering as they trundled along. Not that pleasant!
Here was a ride that was luxuriously smooth and oh-so-quiet. An invited guest on the test run had this to say: "the Railplane operated with perfect smoothness and passengers only knew the car was moving by gazing out of the window at the passing landscape. There was no bumping over rails, smoke or whistle shrieking. A ride in the coach is sheer delight."
Which can only mean the Bennie Railcar was set for success, right?
It should be noted that the Bennie Railplane was technically sound and, for all intents and purposes, financially feasible. So, why did the Bennie Railplane fail to raise the needed capital?
A logical, educated guess would be that the rail transport authorities of the day were simply too scared of a popular railcar that would lose them, passengers, on commuter lines.
In fact, Southern Railways made it quite clear that the company was not pleased with the idea of potential loss of revenue
due to having a high-speed competitor transporting passengers over its existing railway lines.
This was made abundantly clear in October 1931, when Bennie claimed he had raised enough money to fund a 20 mile railway from Holborn in central London down to Croydon Airport.
Southern Railways refused access over their railway lines due to potential loss of revenue from their existing service to Croydon.
Ultimately, the Railplane may have just been too viable for its own good.
However, there is a very interesting twist to the tale. By the mid-1930s, the British government was becoming very interested in the Bennie Railplane.
Southern Railways decided to relent and offered Bennie a stretch of line from London Bridge to Dartford via Lewisham.
But Bennie refused the offer, standing by his wish to have the line to Croydon Airport instead.
Bennie would later go on to run a herbalist shop, the polar opposite of what one would expect of a man who once dreamed of high-speed trains! Or perhaps it makes perfect sense that he did that?
As for the prototype sitting at Milngavie, it fell into disrepair and was eventually dismounted and sold for scrap in 1956. Bennie died one year later at a nursing home in Epsom, alone and allegedly penniless.
George Bennie was clearly a tenacious dreamer and man of vision. He was indeed a true son of Scotland, a country renowned for its inventors and innovators.
My house looks over the old site of the railway. Love how the local history has made it to found and explained.
Ah damn
@RITHIK KUMAR K D wdym
You know, planes fly -- key word “FLY” I repeat “FfffffffffffffllLlllllLlllLyyyYyYyyYyyYy”
I remember that as a kid we used to pass it on the road to Milngavie (pronounced - Mull Guy ) just a short length left. Should have been preserved for one of the Museums in Glasgow.
Could you even conceive of a 'track' that costs more to build per kilometer or mile?? This design is the wet dream of steel companies with excess production capacity.
Some of the elevated and tunnel sections of the light rail systems around here can cost as much as US $100 million per mile to build. Doubt this would cost nearly that much to build.
@@thesledgehammerblog My point was, at the time, it would've been hard to come up with a more complicated mechanism for moving a passenger vehicle around, nor one that required more material for its fixed infrastructure. I'm not saying that some modern track systems aren't expensive today. Like in the past, choosing a type of system for a specific transit need is partly practical, and partly political. The press isn't as good for prosaic, economical solutions, as it is for the latest gee-whiz engineering. :^/
@@pbasswil Never underestimate the power of bureaucrats to make things unnecessarily expensive and complicated to keep themselves well employed at someone else's expense.
@@thesledgehammerblog Sure, there are lots of personal interests influencing infrastructure choices, like you say. But also: we're _all_ kinda swayed by gadgets. If we see something new and inovative, we kind of _want_ it to work - even when it may turn out to be impractical, unproven tech, and a big money pit. Hyperloop, for instance, may turn out to be in that category, even though it's appealing.
Passenger cars don't carry as much weight as freighters. The trestles don't have to be as robust as freight trestles. That reduces the cost. Might factor that into your thinking on your cost estimate.
Bennie: struggle with funding for his dream project
The government: hey, maybe we can he-
Bennie: No
Yeah, IDK why he’d do that. Even if he was really dead-set on having the airport line, I’m sure that the other line would prove the car’s viability and justify more (including the airport line) built later.
@@t65bx25 that is probably what got him kicked out of the company
I can guess the reason why this train was never built was because of simple capitalism.
Conventional railway companies at the time were making a ton of money, so therefore they did not want a competitor to draw customers away from them and reduce their profit.
@@ericliu5491 classic capitalists shortshightedness. Yeah, they could make a boatload of money now... But just think, they could've made a boatload of money leasing land, and they had to do none of the work.
Honestly I like seeing a variety of Transport stuff getting coverage, as theres always going to be odd, funky, revolutionary, or bad designs of trains, planes, automobiles and ships through out the history of transportation (at least the modern mechanised transport starting as far back as steam powered vehicles)
I'm curious how well this would have actually worked. One of the key reasons airplanes move so quickly is because the air is a medium with very little resistance. This is especially true the higher up you go as the air thins. This system would have had the resistance of the wheels to contend with. I can't help but think they'd get more speed out of it if they'd attach the electric motor to the wheels rather than to a propeller.
Imagine if the entire train was the electric motor... Or the track was the motor? Eh, all relative.
The more apparatus you put at wheel level the more resistance you get. Protecting the motor inside the air stream fuselage reduces this. Still in theory you get speed, A demand of passenger transport of all kinds, and smoothness, also a plus, of air travel with the economy and convenience of rail. Station to station service rather than airport to airport service.
It's a mystery why he used props instead of driving wheels.
@@iancampbell6925 that's a lot of mechanical linkages. A radial engine has only one linkage. Less friction.
This isn't the only train made with a propellor. The 'rail zeppelin' was another experimental propellor propelled railcar.
"it´s a plane but on rails"
CNN breaking news: Ryanair announced they will enter on the train transportation market and will transport 400 people per wagon
No seats or windows to keep costs and comfort to a minimum
I like it, especially across difficult desert terrain.
And yes they could have added pipes for water.
Well done Benny
Looks like a hot dog - all that’s missing is the Mustard.
F&E > Mustard
The best crossover
mustard refrence
Like the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile but on rails.
Do you mean a Mustard video on this?
A thing that was before the Bullet Train, a revolution in railways.
A revolution that almost was, but never happened.
Much smaller capacity, but nice proof of concept.
Like the Schienenzeppelin from germany
Oh wow those animations and 3d models were great,good job nick,keep up the great work
Thanks as always!
I can only imagine the sound the propeller would make at full speed.
...and the noise of the wheels on the rail... Wuppertal in Germany is struggling with this old concept since it was built.
I know right, and they wanted to make that in Central London 💀
Still its quite as it was tho if it was both props it would of been quiet
well, considering that the propellers are electricity powered instead of gasoline or similar, it wouldn' be much louder than your deskfan!;P
George Bennie: I’m gonna put a rail plane line over the old rail lines!
The rail companies: Gonna stop you right there
Can't imagine how much it would cost to maintain over a longer period 50+ years... like a regular bridge maintenance is time and cost consuming, but for a few hundred mile long structure... unimaginable :D
I know right? but his goal was to make something fast for transport then again if he saw stuff like bullet trains today he be happy
There was also a german rail vehicle similar to this, the Rail Zeppelin, or Schiennenzeppelin. It ran on the normal tracks and it was also streamlined, it had one propeller at the back. However development was discontinued due to the risk of the propeller striking passengers on a platform, the lack of traction on steep slopes and the fact it couldn't pull any aditional cars behind itself.
Russians in USSR also have something similar. Danger was real because prototype actually killed its inventor.
I know Scottish place names are often difficult to pronounce to people who don't live in Scotland so no judgement here but, in case you were wondering, Milngavie is prounounced Mill-guy and the other two are In-shin-an and Ren-frew-shire. Excellent video; I keep hoping to see my great-grandfather in the footage of the Railplane passengers because he was a (rather rich) resident of a town just north of Milngavie but he died in 1931 so would only have known Bennie in the early years of his project
i had to keep replaying it to make sure i was hearing correctly, the most bonkers pronunciation of milngavie i've ever heard!
George Bennie: Alright guys hear me out…a train…but…it is suspended and is driven by a propeller!
Public: George………you’re are genius
Alright guys here me out...an electric car...but it's in an underground narrow tube!!
Alright guys hear me out.. a train.. but it run in a vacuum
Alright guys,hear me out,it's a box with wings
@@sparqqling Adam Something would like to have a word with you
@@sparqqling …Are you thinking about Elon Musk’s Boring Company ?! 🤔
Now time to do the same with Jacques Bertin and his Aérotrain... more or less the same story but set in France in the 60s and with a little bit more success - at least with the duration of the project, the number of prototypes and the length of the various test tracks.
As someone from Scotland. I remember seeing the model of the rail plane in the Kelvingrove museum when I was younger and it always stuck in my head because of how odd it was but it took this channel to teach me more about my own countries history
I know the exact model you're on about! I personally was far too fascinated by the Spitfire in that museum to pay too much attention to it, but wow!
Good thing that you tried something new..as evolving is a rule of nature ..you have to try new things to attract new audience.. just a request: I've always wanted to know more about space vehicles ,so if you'll make something related to space program then it'll be great .
I’ve got a few space videos on my channel!
@@FoundAndExplained yeah like star raker.. but I'm hoping something like moon landing vehicles or the nazi space programs or the Soviet space programs .. you know something like that ,which has a historic end with it
I love Philip Bono projects for reusable SSTO spaceships - Rhombus, Ithacus, Hyperion. He was decades ahead of everyone then and even now.
@@FoundAndExplained
a modern analogue
czcams.com/video/h-TbPqtOoNY/video.html
@@FoundAndExplained Just a thought...maybe the lack of financing had something to do with the Great Depression?
Just a thought...I had the second you mentioned 1930...
This almost reminds me of the Schwebenbahn in Wuppertal, Germany
Yep, interesting comparison. I grew up there. Having the rails suspended over the river is still a big advantage today. Of course the track is relatively short at about 13 kilometres, but then it was mainly designed for local commuting. I don’t think Bennie was aware of this, even though the „Schwebebahn“ in Wuppertal has been in operation since 1887.
I think the larger problem is capacity, same issue with hyperloop concepts, a train needs to have several hundred seats to make sense, not a couple dozen, and at least with the original concept, that just isn't possible.
Nah that's where you forget it's not built for common folk it's been thought of for the rich 1% what twaddle a commoner sitting inside this grandiose marvel of limited engineering dremt up by a mad man
It really is the hyperloop and it even has alot of the same flaws and then some
Sooo… a train, with a less efficient propulsion system..
Is there a single benefit to this system?
Apart from the ones listed?
And let's see. Ignoring friction, a steam train has an efficiency of ~10%. Electric motors have an efficiency of ~85%, (lead acid) batteries ~90% and propellers about 85% giving a total efficiency of about 65%. Even accounting for the worse technology of the time, it's still feesible that this system was more efficient.
@@greghumphreys3397 I guess I wasn’t being very clear,
Having an electrically driven train is a very good idea, and it can be seen with all the electric trains today. (Although having overhead power lines or an onboard diesel generator sounds better than having electric batteries.)
What I was focusing on was being propeller driven vs wheel driven. A driven wheel is going to be much more efficient than any propeller will ever be as it has a solid surface to push against as opposed to pushing against the air.
The reason planes use propellers is because they don’t have a solid surface to push against. Planes are able to go so fast due to the lack of friction, friction that a train is going to experience whether it is wheel driven or propeller driven.
It seems that either Bennie was trying to incorporate design features of the new and revolutionary plane while not understanding the underlying science or was hoping investors would buy into it from the mere fact that it looked futuristic.
@@Fhcghcg1 i dont think efficiency was the goal with propeller trains. Speed was the most important goal. Bennie's design used 60bhp electric propellers to propel the craft 120mph (in theory). which would make it among the fastest railcar of its era. Germany experimented with a highspeed electric rail car that was traditional in design, that could do 130mph in 1903, but it required expensive 3 phase power, which wasn't feasible for decades. But by the end of the 30's, electric motors improved, and single phase motors were powerful enough, to be able to pull not just a railcar, but a whole train up to 130mph, such as the Italian ETR 200. Basically, Bennie's design was too ambition and too late. Though, the overhead railway should've been explored more, or even adapted today.
The thing about propeller driven aircraft is they need a fairly long runway to slow down so how well would this train been able to stop in an emergency?
I wonder if it’s to do with torque rather than power. Modern motors can provide high torque at low RPM due to the clever materials involved to manage the heat created.
A propeller would be able to both spin at whatever speed was needed to get the best power from the motor without overheating, and it would be pushing cooling air over the motors as it turned.
We have a similar thing in electric general aviation. Engines used in light aircraft and even the motors used in the Velis Electro electric trainer can only give maximum performance for a very short period of time.
Without the drag caused by wings I could easily believe the air train could do 120mph on 60hp.
Okay, now that you're covering trains as well you're the ultimate transportation channel! Well done with finding new areas to explore in such a short time!
16:11 - don't apologize for not being able to pronounce "Inchinnan." Start small - like "patent" or "Hindenburg".
George Benny patented vehicle rail plane was basically a flying hyperloop train of the mid 1920s era if put into the present context.Propellers attached to a bogie of streamlined design makes this unique train the grand pappy of the Japanese bullet train and the French TVG train.This impressive train deserved world wide recognition but alas it was shot down to keep the coal and gasoline based trains running.
Thanks for this video. I have had a pet idea for years about a flying train that would use railroad right of ways. One version would actually have short wings and props powered electrically from elevated power coils for wirelessly transmitted power. It would fly a few feet over this power supply cable most of the time but be able to land and take off from the train track..
I'm very pleased to see and hear about this fascinating project. Benny should have had more success, but train monopolies stopped it. Very sad. Driven by electricity this type of airrail is successfully operated as "Wuppertaler Schwebebahn", starting 1901 to present. Unfortunately even this success has been realized only once, i.e. in Wuppertal. Thank you for the wunderful documentary material and the funny animation. Great channel.
There are also suspended trains in Düsseldorf and in Dresden.
Hey man scotsman here love your channel, i actually work in an industrial estate in inchinnan so this video was really awesome to see. PS its pronounced inchinnan(in-shin-an) and Renfrewshire (ren - froo - shire) most locals just call it renfrew but ❤
.. also "Milngrave?!" Nobody ever gets that right.
Spelled Milngavie, but strangely pronounced Mull-guy.. Don't ask.
@@AndyHullMcPenguin when i was younger i thought those where two different places to be fair 😅
This looks like a precursor to Hyperloop, and given that this thing never properly got off the ground, then the same can be said for Hyperloop
This is in no way similar to Hyperloop. Hyperloop is literally unworkable. It literally cannot work. This was very workable and only failed because 1. Rail companies denied access to the land he needed, and 2. He turned out to be a bad businessman.
Think more before you speak.
I thought I was alone looking at the comments the idea of that train really isnt that smart it only takes a few seconds to come to that realisation like it's going to use the rear engine to break but what about in an emergency say the track collapses somehow it needs to stop before that break
It just screams stupidity the electricity could have been used to power the wheels with speeds greater than a coal train and guess what wheels stop quicker than a prop can move air even if it is steel on steel the friction between them is more than that of air
You gave the pronunciation a good go my dude, certainly brought a smile to my face 😂 I live close by to where this was built and it's pronounced Inch-in-an and Ren-frew-sher, but you were close
Definite Steampunk vibes. Love to see it in an alt-history movie or game.
This is totally ahead of time
👏👏👏👏👏
His dreams had finally came true
It is like a slower version of the Hyperloop. It is difficult to join cars/modules/pods into trains due to the propeller propulsion.
Perhaps there could've been a multiple car design had Bennie considered possible overcapacity of the line.
Maybe some twenty years later it could be possible with jet engines. But we all know how it went last time someone wanted to make a jet-powered train
@Ron White Except it offers rather low capacity, and who knows if the pods will ever come to fruition.
It's about time for Elon Musk to invent this technology now.
Who knows what exciting new inventions of the past he has in line to steal before this though? Such genius
The amount of drag caused by that stopped propeller, even when feathered...
Well, that did split in two or more directions, there is the suspended railway in Wuppertal, Germany, the "Wuppertaler Schwebebahn" and there are high speed trains - and both come in a variety of solutions and offsprings and who knows, which was derived from which idea and what came before the Wuppertal train and monorail systems of any kind and so on...
The Wuppertal system opened in 1901
Exactly this came to my mind. Some years ago I was in the vicinity of Wuppertal on a short vacation, and my wife and I decided to take a ride on the Schwebebahn. Of course not very fast and a bit bumpy, but enjoyable nevertheless.
as a native of edinburgh , ive never heard my citys name be murdered like this before . well done on that front
Tom Scott would love this
At his time there was already a monorail hanging train : The "Schwebebahn" in wuppertal/Germany. There he could study his dream
Really interesting video! Never heard of this before despite being from Scotland ;)
"Thank you again. So much for watching." XD
6:14 damn
The r34 Gtr was huge back then
Imagine walking on those tracks and then suddenly just seeing a train/plane/submarine hybrid pummeling towards you rapidly
That was one of the funniest pronunciations of Renfrewshire I have ever heard. Most definitely incorrect, sadly.
What a fantastic idea for a train. Too bad it was never built. I think it's a pretty cool "train" and I would love to take a ride on it! Thank you for the video.
Here's my take: the bogies have built-in magnetos/alternators, charging up some of the ancillaries or the main motors on the move and do regenerative braking for extra juice. Same thing happens to the rear motor; it's essentially a wind turbine unless it is used as thrust reverser.
I enjoy the format of your videos. Any technology will be interesting. Not just aircraft. That being said, very interested in airships, blimps, balloons, dirigibles, etc
R34 airship
**oh no**
oh yes
Guess someone's gotta do it... gimme a minute.
We're not gonna talk about it...
Fascinating as it was sad. I think this George Benny inventor should've taken up that one offer and not complained that it wasn't what he initially wanted. Who knows how rich this could've made him.
If only he has agreed on that line , more lines might have been built and who knows, conventional trains might be even completely replaced in Britain by these faster and quieter trains ,if only that was so...
I bet he probably regreted not doing it later on in life
quieter?
In 1920 it was a lot of steel to be using. Now not much. This is a design worth a second look..
Lol. Quieter and Faster😅
@@rexmann1984 It isn't. I don't see how that's supposed to be more efficient than wheel driven trains
It makes me think to the later french "aero train" that also used aviation technology to fly above a concrete monorail.
Suspended rail does exist and is used commercially today. There are some in Germany and Japan. Its main appeal is that it can be built on top of existing roads or rivers. Of course, there is no need to use propellers to move it, normal electric motors can just turn the wheels.
Now that they have made a plane train, they need to make an air bus.
I loved that. I feel sorry for bennie he was before his time.
To me a suspension train above existing infrastructure makes a lot of sense to me.
Until you come to a tunnel, which happens quite a lot in Britain, where he was planning to build this.
@@rikshepherd9724 well you take existing infrastructure into account, for example in Bangkok, Jakarta etc have big stretches of toll roads, all flat, easy to build that type of rail system above it
@@jantschierschky3461 Now that does make sense; trying to do it in the UK was a bit odd given the terrain, and the way railways run through built up areas.
Fantastic article and superb graphics, well done!
Wish it was saved and put in a museum
If that design is viable in the alternate universe, it would be only running in city centers with the buildings themselves as support structures for overhead rails. And also running over existing railways for convenience.
Good program. He was definitely not an engineer. Thinking that propellers make planes fast😊 He was right about the electric motor and steam had reached its limits. Good story!
This is crazy! I had a weird dream one night of something kinda in this same theme that stretched the length of the United States. It was awesome.
Woah this looks epic!
As a gadgeteer, as a kid and teen I made the usual toy cars from assorted parts, and I can say this about this idea.
While it will work, it isn't the best way to get propulsion for a land vehicle. Wheels driven by a motor provide more power and torque than the same motor with a propeller on it. Propellers work great though on airboats meant for swamps because an in-water propeller would get snagged and stopped in a matter of minutes. And on hovercraft because THAT has no ground contact at all.
This idea could be modified into a cable car system like the pre- existing cable cars, or electrically powered.
Me personally I'd wonder about the noise levels put out by the propellers: The SMALL quadrotors make a racket and they are four propellers an inch across... just imagine how LOUD this train would have been.
Brilliant brilliant video.
Thank you 😊
I really wish someday, I could be like him... An innovator, even tho I never have any engineering skills.
Sadly I'm not rich or having money to turn my designs into reality. People even not interested in some of my designs in my art galleries.
This channel gets a little bit like Mustard - just with more frequent videos
Mustard doesn't abuse the 'premiere' function by spamming our subscription lists everytime he releases a video tho
@@kirkc9643 Thats a point - but I prefer more videos
Fantastic, so interesting and informative. Thank you very much! :-)
Wow your new graphics look so good!
Great video and topic. A small piece of advice though: try to get the basic pronounciations right like Edinburgh and Hindenburg before having a crack at those tough Glasgow suburbs.
And Dagenham :-)
Some British place names are pronounced fairly oddly and we learn them by hearing them so if you aren't British probably best to find some examples :-)
Bit like the US with Kansas and Arkansas !
I always thought this channel was akin to "Tales of Future Past" like what David Szondy chronicled on his website
That’s a cool niche
That thing could have been cool imagine a cargo version of that it would be fast as hecc
Would be nice if you could make a video about French Aerotrain (an air cushion train by J.Bertin).
If you think the rail plane was crazy wait till you hear the German submarine that sank a train
I did misread the title "The Benny HILL Rail plane". I was thinking WTF has Benny Hill to do with planes and rails?😉😁
When you think been hit by normal train is bad enough
Okay, we've found the perfect train to go on the baloon-carried floating bridge over the english channel
A shame it wasn’t built, this sounds one of those ideas that sounded both futuristic and practical. Your showing of the comparison between Bennie’s railplane versus IRL current rail speeds is astounding.
You should do an episode on the vacuum train from 1799.
It looks good for the old TV children's show called "The Thunderbirds!"
Finds steam inefficient, proceeds to create a "train" that is powered by a propeller...
Fantastic Fantastic documentary.
The Dead Sea isn't in Egypt - the Red Sea is. But fascinating story, well told!
I thought the narrator's pronunciaiton of Renfrewshire was hillarious, but Milngavie? Oh My God, that was just downright funny!
Just be thankful Bennie didn't set up in Kircudbright...
We need more Dreamers like him that can get past the coporate corruption. The USA has always wanted high speed trains for passengers. Our rail system sucks for this between frieght train service and the condition of the tracks. Already have the Right of Way! Why not just add another level up! Very informative! Thank You
Thats a more complicated version of the wuppertal schwebebahn, the propulsion by propeller was just the spirit of that time.
Loved this video. Fantastic topic expertly explained and presented :)
What tools are you using for the 3D animations? Is it coming from a game engine like UE5?
Incredibly interesting 👍🏻
At Wuppertal there is the Schwebebahn. A bit less outlandish, still working.
7:45 trees are pink
"Inch-in-an, Ren-froo-shire". Simples. 😏
There's an alternate universe where this was successful.
Take me there now
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This seems like it still be viable in a lot of places and situations today and may be worth a revisit.
we can use tubrojet... it will increase speed
*cue Cypress Hill beat*
"Inside of the plane train!
Insane in the brain!" 😂
This looks like something out of the old Flash Gordon serial. Besides: 12:10: That's where I live.
i want this to actually be a thing
someone bring this back.
The problem is, you could make this without the plane parts. And only one above track. It's called a suspended monorail. And it was invented in...1901. Before even this was invented. The one advantage this train had was the extra speed. And well, that wouldn't be an advantage today because of high speed rail. All that said, this should have gotten built in 1930. It would have been amazing for its time and lasted well into the 1960s at least. Probably even longer in the UK because of failed high speed rail.
Monorails never fail! 👍
Obviously there's a bunch of ways this could be improved with modern technology, but it just occurred to me that the main idea - directional momentum provided by airplane-like thrust, instead of powered wheels against tracks - could potentially overcome the problems that conventional trains have with climbing a slope with more than a very modest gradient.
Yes, I know there are tooth & gear type tracks in a few places, but I seem to recall them having some drawbacks/limitations of their own (although I don't recall specifics).
It's not just hills or mountains that could provide a potential market for something like this, either. I recently watched a video about the various issues related to creating a rail tunnel under a large body of water. 1 of the issues was that they'd have to massively extend the tunnel at each end to reduce the gradient, so that trains would be able to actually traverse the inclined section of the tunnel. If the vehicle's ability to move forward wasn't dependent on traction between steel wheels & steel tracks, and with a bit more thrust, I reckon it could be a viable solution.
8:13
Yes, lean in towards the spinning propellers. 🤔
The propellers made no sense. It was suspended by a pair of wheeled bogeys, so simply use electricity to power the drive bogey.
If he could have reduced the materials needed for the gantries (like a simple vertical post as in telephone poles which featured trapezoidal braces or guy wires near the ground) then this would have been HUGELY economically successful.
As the vid states, it would have freed up the ground lines for cargo transport. This alone should have gotten the Gov't interested and them grant him construction contracts.
I wish that we had more Suspended Light Monorail systems in the USA. Here in Houston it would DRAMATICALLY free up the roadways, which are constantly stymied by frequently stopping buses and trucks/lorries, slow moving rail trains which crisscross the city's streets, and of course passenger cars.
Just imagine if we had aerial monorails like NYC, London and Moscow have subways. Our wet soil (swamps and bayous) don't permit much tunnel traffic. And creating sub-grade roadways is prohibitively expensive due to all the drainage and soil shoring required. So normally our only tunnels are above ground level between skyscrapers, or beneath mounded berm bridges.
Can you just imagine all of the City Buses and School buses that could be removed from the streets? Not to mention all of the "ride share" and taxi services that actually triple the road miles travelled getting to and from the passenger for pickup.
That looks like a flying jelly bean