Re: New form of rail transportation

[James Robinson <wascana@my-deja.com>]

Peter Berrett wrote:

> Essentially the mode of transport is a normal rail line suspended in the
> air. the wheels run on top of the rail line but the carriage hangs down
> underneath the rails. Such a system would be similar to a cable car except
> that the cars would hang off two rails, not one wire.They could also change
> tracks.

Not a new idea.  In fact, the Schwebebahn in Germany's Ruhr opened for
service almost 100 years ago, and has operated almost continuously since
then.  They will be celebrating the centennial of the system on March
first, next year.  Here is the official web site, but other than one
English page, everything else is in German.  You can look at some of the
photos and technical details of the system, at least.

http://www.wsw-online.de/_frames/schwebebahn/engl_f.html

Here's an article about the system in English, with a number of good
photographs:

http://www.elevator-world.com/magazine/archive01/9712-001.html-ssi