Riding high in Germany on the world's oldest suspended railway
6 comments
·June 8, 2025somat
thoeri2o34j234
+1 for the Shonan-Monorail.
For those travelling to Tokyo, go to Kamakura, take the famous Enoden to Enoshima, then take Shonan-Monorail to Ofuna and return to Tokyo.
tormeh
This does seem like a superior way to build elevated rail. Less noise in particular, as turning doesn't induce slippage like on a normal train. Wonder why it's so rare.
frosted-flakes
Lots of unnecessary complexity. In this case it makes sense because the majority of the line is directly over a river due to space constraints, but it's a lot simpler to build a concrete viaduct and run normal trains ovwr it. This also allows the train to transition to run underground or at-grade.
highcountess
[dead]
vegabook
Bit of an HDR vibe going on in the photos.
Dangle-trains are one of those things that appeal to me for unknown reasons, they just look so cool. But I am unable to really quantify the appeal, so here is my attempt.
Advantages:
keeps your electrical plant out of the weather
allows the track to be out of the road while allowing street level access to train. This one is a bit iffy as the dangle train will usually be put above street traffic.
Disadvantages:
look at how much steel it takes to make that box beam.
Every thing is in tension, leading to complicated structure to contain it, joints can be much simpler in compression.
Any how as a dangle-train connoisseur I leave you with two additional videos.
A dangle train in japan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGLrP5eawdY
The Tim Traveler (perhaps the best all around lo-fi travel channel) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kwpj1UOrhs