This Iron Horse Don't Need Any Tracks

steamman

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May 26, 2020
Location
Columbus, Ga
This iron horse don’t need any tracks.

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A car from the Listowel & Ballybunion Railways. MICHAEL WHITEHOUSE COLLECTION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lartigue_Monorail

Loads had to be evenly balanced. If a farmer wanted to send a cow to market, he would have to send two calves to balance it, which would travel back on opposite sides of the same freight wagon, thereby balancing each other.[4]Passengers could not pass from one side of a carriage to another while in motion. A kind of footbridge was built into one end of some of the passenger coaches, while at least one such bridge was carried on a separate wagon. This allowed passengers to cross from one side of the train to the other when stopped at a station.

he three locomotives were of the 0-3-0 type, constructed by the Hunslet Engine Company.[5] They were specially built with two boilers to balance on the track, and consequently two fireboxes, one of which had to be stoked by the driver. They were also fitted with powered tenders for auxiliary use on hills. The tender wheels were driven by two cylinders via spur gears. Two small chimneys were fitted to each tender to discharge the exhaust steam from these cylinders. A smaller engine, nicknamed the "coffee pot", was used in the construction of the railway, having been used previously on a demonstration line at Tothill Fields in London. It can be seen on an early photo of 1888
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Next trip over to County Kerry, you can actually ride one! (Assuming the covid-inspired shutdown is ended.)


Bring your own Guinness.

Interrresting view from the "Guard's Van" (aka 'caboose'):
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I wonder if they used them in mines? I could see that working well with containers full of coal or other material on either side. The portability of the rails would be a great advantage there as you could move the track when veins played out and mining shifted to new areas.
Plus you wouldn't have to worry about fuel - just chip some off the walls :wink:
 
I wonder if they used them in mines? I could see that working well with containers full of coal or other material on either side. The portability of the rails would be a great advantage there as you could move the track when veins played out and mining shifted to new areas.
IMHO the fumes from the engine would kill all the miner's.
 
I understand the dynamics of a two-track locomotive being 'pulled' along by it's wheels, but this monorail system has me a bit baffled on the mechanism used to 'pull' it along.
Lubliner.
 
Next trip over to County Kerry, you can actually ride one! (Assuming the covid-inspired shutdown is ended.)


Bring your own Guinness.

Interrresting view from the "Guard's Van" (aka 'caboose'):
View attachment 390486
Your second link wasn't working for me. The first one did, and on the right-hand side of the page is a further link to general information on current monorails, http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/monorail.htm. I was looking for the Williamsburg Va., Anhueser-Busch Gardens monorail system and see one for Disney and Van Nuys. The one at Williamsburg opened up in the late 70's and I see where some have closed down due to not being cost-effective. Thanks for the links!
Lubliner.
 
Had a "monorail" line called the Bradford & Foster Brook Railway, nicknamed the "Peg Leg" that ran for a few years (late 1870's) in the area of Bradford, PA during the oil exploration boom of the Bradford oil field. Col. Roy Stone, yes ACW Col. Roy Stone, was behind this venture.
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The "Peg Leg" did not last long– Financially it was a mess. Then in 1879 one of the locomotives suffered a boiler explosion which ended up killing and wounding several.

One interesting tidbit is that for a couple miles, the "Peg Leg" paralleled a narrow-gauge line, which triggered stories of "races" between the monorail and the 3' gauged line.
 
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