Something for the ambitous scratchbuilder - and saves on wheels

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

You can get lost in Wikipedia…

A recent post on “What kind of track switch is this” had a link to the Wikipedia entry on railroad track switches which described monorail track switching which had a link to monorails which had a link to this interesting contraption from 100 years ago…

Gyro Monorail

For the full article go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_monorail

Off topic? Hey, it runs on rails…um. uh… I mean, rail. So, anyone want to model that? The Wikipedia page has all the physics equations for you!

George V.

2

Works great until the gyro stops!

Would be hard to manage in a model unless you make it large scale and power it with onboard batteries - getting track power to it would be a bit of a problem!

–Randy

3

Methinks you’ve been duped by a clever photo shopper…

4

Nope. I tracked down the sources. But I suspect I know the Photoshopper yu mean. Brennan’s a real person, there really is a Journal of Irish Railroads, And that thing probably shouldn’t have made it off the drawing board.

5

I agree. This one track wonder illustrates the principle that just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should![:-^]

-George

6

Pretty EZ to check if your rail (singular) is in gauge.[:-^]

7

MR had a photo of a similar monorail setup—on Staten Island, NY—in their “Railroad Oddities,” back in the '50s, except that one was actually 2-rail, one under, one above, probably to keep it from falling over!