
Unbuilt London: The “railway arcade” above the streets - gullyfur
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2018/08/05/unbuilt-london-the-railway-arcade-above-the-streets/
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Theodores
The illustration looks lovely, however, the realisation would probably have
been more like Docklands Light Railway, which is elevated but not following
the existing streets as per the illustration. There is a certain amount of
wasteland that goes in the immediate vicinity of the DLR, which is a 'light'
railway with the electric propulsion that was what they were looking for with
the pneumatic system.

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bsdubernerd
Absolutely tangential but I love this style of illustration, especially all
the technical drawings of the era. Works of art on themselves.

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toddmorey
Elevated railways like monorails aren't more widespread because of the added
expense around elevated track and especially elevated stations. Somehow,
you've got to get folks up and down from there. I'm glad because they are
pretty unsightly.

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zwayhowder
All costing I've seen for elevated tracks is actually significantly cheaper
than at grade or underground options. I used to be on my local government and
worked with the state government on a number of transport projects so I can't
cite sources directly. This website has some comparisons, but obviously is
biased towards monorails.
[https://www.monorailsaustralia.com.au/](https://www.monorailsaustralia.com.au/)

If you look at countries such as Japan that asides from population density
have a very relaxed attitude to multifloor buildings having entrances at
different levels you can see successful elevated railway implementations
because the stations are integrated to existing large buildings such as malls,
hotels & commercial offices.

One thing I've noticed in Sydney was people don't tend to look up if their not
expecting something, so in Chinatown and Koreatown (We don't really have a
Japantown yet but Sydney Central Park is getting there) buildings have
advertisements on the other floors to let people know they are upstairs. In
the rest of the city you can walk past a building and have no idea who the
tenants are on the other floors. This also stopped Sydney from noticing the
(in hindsight) blatantly obvious, almost Jetsonesque monorail stations right
above their heads.

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teruakohatu
Serious question: do you think The Simpsons hurt the monorail industry?

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mannykannot
An atmospheric railway would not be silent. Steel wheels on steel rails make a
lot of noise, especially before the development of continuous welded rail, and
also when without the dampening effect of being on the ground.

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kitd
This was pointed out in the article.

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thescriptkiddie
Here's an amusing podcast (with slides) about the atmospheric railway and why
it didn't work. I recommend watching at 1.5x speed.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaRVy31lTlQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaRVy31lTlQ)

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rwmj
There's a good radio programme about Brunel's Atmospheric Railway (and Musk's
Hyperloop):
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00027mg](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00027mg)

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DenisM
That looks exactly like Seattle monorail.

[https://www.seattlemonorail.com/events-and-news/this-week-
at...](https://www.seattlemonorail.com/events-and-news/this-week-at-seattle-
center/)

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romwell
No, the whole point is that it does not: the arcades would be connected to the
buildings, providing a roof which people could under lengthwise.

This is important, because that meant, as the article says, that the building
facades had to be rebuilt _all the way through_.

And this was a major reason for a no-go for the project.

Seattle Monorail runs on a track that is supported by wide pillars, not an
arcade. You can't walk length-wise under it, the pillars are in the way. But
the pillars mean that it does not need to touch the buildings it runs next to.
It can (and does) go in the middle of the street.

In short, it's not an arcade.

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take_a_breath
Similar to Chicago's "L" in the downtown Loop. Although that one is in the
middle of the street, not over the sidewalks.

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hbosch
I believe it's spelled "El", as in, "elevated".

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idreyn
this is maybe my least favorite bit of transit-related pedantry, but it's
officially designated the 'L' (in single quotes) by the CTA.

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drewbug01
> this is maybe my least favorite bit of transit-related pedantry

I'm most impressed that you've stack-ranked your various bits of transit-
related pedantry.

But, in the interest of science, what is your most favorite bit of transit-
related pedantry?

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ummwhat
The thing that connects a train to overhead wires is called a pantograph. The
connection to a third rail is not a pantograph.

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growlist
'Umbrella manufacturers hate him!'

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DonHopkins
What kind of games did they have for arcades in Victorian London? Was it
mainly pinball? ;)

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londons_explore
Pretty much this design was built... They just flipped the positions of the
people and the trains...

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bobthepanda
Well, no, they dug up the street to build the railway.

A true flipping would've been the construction of a new street level above the
old one, and then the dedication of the old one to railway uses.

Chicago did do this, but for the purposes of building sewers:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago)

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dTal
Wow, now this really is a forgotten gem of history. They raised every building
in Chicago on jacks, with people still inside them!

"One patron was puzzled to note that the front steps leading from the street
into the hotel were becoming steeper every day and that when he checked out,
the windows were several feet above his head, whereas before they had been at
eye level."

