
Wuppertal Suspension Railway - yitchelle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Suspension_Railway
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Animats
The Tokyo area has two suspended monorails. Chiba's [1] is well known. It's a
big, heavy-duty system in an urban area. Less known is the Shonan line in
Kanagawa Prefecture.[2] It's a single-track system with passing sidings at
stations. This line was crammed into a suburban area, and there are lots of
turns to get around obstacles. The support columns are in odd places. That's
the monorail dream, to be able to put in a system without severe impact on the
area. It's worth watching the video to see how that worked out.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOsJrU5XUIw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOsJrU5XUIw)
[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvgTr37v0EE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvgTr37v0EE)

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chunkiestbacon
I recommend everyone who's visiting Tokyo to take a trip to Enoshima and use
the Shonan Line to get there. Enoshima is a scenic tiny island and there's a
long beach. Great in summer, when there are firework festivals.

Japan also has some great non-suspended monorails. For example the one in
Kitakyushu (I love the station architecture) or the one in Naha, Okinawa.

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sdflkdkl093
In the german wikipedia article are some interesting details and stories. Once
there was an accident where an elephant travelled with the Schwebebahn and
fell in the river Wupper; not kidding.

Also, there is a Simulator for Windows, OS X and the Wii U:
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwebebahn-
Simulator_2013](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwebebahn-Simulator_2013)

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tobias2014
Even the english wikipedia has information about the elephant Tuffi:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuffi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuffi)

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cm3
It's despicable that animals can still be abused anywhere for show and that
Wuppertal's tourist department makes money off Tuffi but probably doesn't
donate it all to animal causes is the icing on top. Steve-O at least got paid
for the abuse and had a choice.

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autopov
I made a side trip to Wuppertal when I visited Köln because I'm a monorail
enthusiast.

The system was amazing for its time and its safety per passenger-distance is
quite good for rail.

It was full of schoolchildren heading home at a leisurely pace, suspended over
the river.

I had forgotten that you have to disembark at the end station so that the cars
can be manually pushed onto outbound rail. I got some puzzled looks when I
didn't de-train right away.

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erispoe
Are you a monorail enthusiast because you think monorails are fun or because
you think they genuinely have their place in a transit network? And if so,
why?

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mulle_nat
Wuppertal is a basically in a narrow valley surrounded by steep hills (think
SF steep). Building a train atop of the river was very space efficient and
probably much cheaper than digging a subway on groundwater level. Also it
doesn't interfere with other vehicles. Last but not least, the Schwebebahn is
just a very enjoyable ride.

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Spone
The railway is wonderfully featured in Wim Wenders' movie "Pina" (an homage to
choreographer Pina Bausch).

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redwood
Recommend this film? Was unaware of it love Wings of Desire

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Avshalom
It is visually stunning. Though it's basically talking head reminiscing about
Pina intercut with clips dancing so not a narrative film.

Also it's on Netflix in the US.

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capote
Heh, I was just riding on a train from Hamburg to Frankfurt and passed
Wuppertal, looked out the window and saw a suspended upside-down monorail
cruising over a river. Googled for 5 minutes before finding this.

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WalterBright
I wonder why more of these weren't built.

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joelhaasnoot
I've ridden this - I now know why. The infrastructure required to elevate a
hanging rail is immense. In Wuppertal they get away with it with large
portions of the track hanging over the local river. Wuppertal doesn't seem to
want to give their Schwebebahn up: they are replacing the existing cars soon.

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knucklesandwich
It's more of a Shelbyville idea.

