Unique monorail in Wuppertal

The main attraction of the German city of Wuppertal is the Eugen Langen monorail cableway (or simply the "Cableway", German Schwebebahn). The 13-kilometer steel structure is more than 100 years old, it became the embodiment of ideas about the public transport of the future. Until now, the “inverted tram” flying through the air amazes tourists with its uniqueness, surprises engineers with its scale, and is the pride of the inhabitants of Wuppertal.

The movement of trains along the Trans-Siberian Railway began in 1901. At the same time in the German city of Wuppertal (federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, German: Wuppertal) a monorail suspension road was launched.

So the engineers represented urban public transport of the future. And this is exactly how the transport problem was solved in the city, where there was no place for a surface tram.

During my trip to NRV, I specifically went to Wuppertal to watch and ride over the riverbed of the Wuppert River in this unique vehicle.

Suspension system.

About 10 kilometers of the route passes over the river. This is how the supports look:

"Flying tram".

The length of the train is 24 meters.

In Wuppertal, there is only one monorail line, the rest are ordinary tram lines. In total, 20 stations serving the overhead road were built.

Over more than 100 years of operation, several accidents have occurred. One of them claimed the lives of 5 people in 1999 when the train fell into the river due to metal clamps left on the track at the end of the repair work. The most unusual incident occurred in 1950, when an elephant (!) Fell out of a carriage and they decided to ride an elephant on a cableway for advertising purposes. He fell from a height of 5 meters into the water and received no serious damage. The moment of the fall was not captured on film, only one well-known illustration of that time was preserved.

Such a unique structure.

Watch the video: Suspension Railway in Wuppertal, Germany schwebebahn (April 2024).