The Bennie Railplane, 1929 Glasgow
| Although this is perhaps the most quixotic of all the items in this list, it ran on a prototype track near Glasgow, in Scotland and is technically not a monorail, since it had a second guide rail at the bottom. However, in terms of design history it fits into the same niche as monorails. |
Suspended monorail in Wuppertal, Germany
Designed in 1900 and originally intended for Berlin, this monorail is still in use today.
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Disneyland Monorail, 1959
| Perhaps nothing symbolizes the retro futuristic nature of monorails, than the Disney Anaheim version.Interestingly,
it claims to be the first monorail in the Western hemisphere, but there
are ones that predate by half a century in France and Ireland and in
the US, the Houston monorail seems to predate it. Perhaps someone can help clarify, in the comments. |
New York Worlds Fair Monorail
Built by American Machine and Foundry for the 1964 Fair.
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Worlds First Monorail, theLartigue, Ireland
| Built by a French engineer, this monorail dates from the 1880s. |
ALWEG monorail test track, Germany 1952
| Developed in Germany by a Swedish engineer, the ALWEG was used for the first Disney monrails. |
US Centennial Monorail, 1876
| A steam driven double-decker train that was built for the expo to celebrate hundredth anniversary of the US. |
Boyes Monorail, Seattle 1911
| This was a prototype system built near Seattle, that was never fully developed. Still its a good example of a key piece of technology, since the shape and design of the classic monorail is starting to emerge. |
Skyway monorail, Houston, 1956
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