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Belair "We Want a Futuristic Monorail not Your Icky Subway"

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Belair "We Want a Futuristic Monorail not Your Icky Subway"
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Saturday, February 12, 2022 7:56 PM
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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, February 12, 2022 10:45 PM

Monorails are futuristic. Look at the one in Wuppertal, Germany. Built in what, 1904? Disneylands' monorail has been showing us the way since 1955! All aboard for the future because there's nothing like an genuine, electrified, bonafide monorail! 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, February 13, 2022 9:43 AM

Don't kid yourselves, if the monorail has the possibility of being a noisy eyesore, and it just might, they won't want that either.

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Sunday, February 13, 2022 12:44 PM

54light15
All aboard for the future because there's nothing like an genuine, electrified, bonafide monorail! 

Isn't that an almost direct quote from the "Simpsons"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taJ4MFCxiuo

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_vs._the_Monorail

 

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Sunday, February 13, 2022 12:46 PM

Flintlock76
Don't kid yourselves, if the monorail has the possibility of being a noisy eyesore, and it just might, they won't want that either.

But monorails are kewl !

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Posted by n012944 on Sunday, February 13, 2022 1:53 PM

A monorail is more of a Shelbyville idea.

An "expensive model collector"

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Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, February 13, 2022 2:51 PM

Hey!  We're twice as smart as Shelbyville.  Tell us your idea and we'll vote for it!

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Sunday, February 13, 2022 10:34 PM

54light15

Disneylands' monorail has been showing us the way since 1955!

Think it is more like 1959 - 1960. Before that they had a scaled down Aerotrain running, IIRC, a separate track from the steam powered Disneyland RR.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Monday, February 14, 2022 10:04 AM

People get deceived by appearances quite easily.  That being said, the structure needed by a monorail is not that different than the structure used on the sections of the CTA Orange Line that aren't on an embankment.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, February 14, 2022 10:40 AM

Erik_Mag

 

 
54light15

Disneylands' monorail has been showing us the way since 1955!

 

 

Think it is more like 1959 - 1960. Before that they had a scaled down Aerotrain running, IIRC, a separate track from the steam powered Disneyland RR.

 

Hmmm, I wonder if BelAir would like a steam-powered commuter line a la' Disneyland?  Dont' call it transportation, call it a ride!  

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Monday, February 14, 2022 7:06 PM

Make sure they have to buy E tickets

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 12:06 AM

Flintlock76

Hmmm, I wonder if BelAir would like a steam-powered commuter line a la' Disneyland?  Dont' call it transportation, call it a ride!  

Hmmm, maybe make some of the engines from Thomas and Friends to give it some personality as well?

On a slightly more realistic note, the "subway" cars will work perfectly fine on elevated tracks, which would probably cost less than a monorail and offer better service.

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 7:59 AM

Deleted

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 8:04 AM

Flintlock76
Hmmm, I wonder if BelAir would like a steam-powered commuter line a la' Disneyland?

Make sure it's coal fired with some nice dirty sub-bituminus to really twist their knickers outta shape

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 8:27 AM

BEAUSABRE

 

 
Flintlock76
Hmmm, I wonder if BelAir would like a steam-powered commuter line a la' Disneyland?

 

Make sure it's coal fired with some nice dirty sub-bituminus to reaaly twist them outa shape

 

No, I'd be a little kinder than that.  I'd have the engines burn recycled fryer oil from area McDonalds so the trains smell like French fries. 

Hey, who doesn't like Micky D's French fries?  Dinner

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 9:07 AM

Flintlock76
Hey, who doesn't like Micky D's French fries?

People feom Belair - they're all on wacky "healthy" diets and view fries as the work of the Devil - no, wait they don't believe in the Devil, substitute Donald Trump

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 9:43 AM

BEAUSABRE
People feom Belair - they're all on wacky "healthy" diets and view fries as the work of the Devil - no, wait they don't believe in the Devil, substitute Donald Trump

I know a large number of people in Bel Air and none of the ones I know are weird.  And a gratuitous poke either at or for Trump has no place here.

I am actually going back to revive Andreas Schwander's monorail design to see if it could be adapted to dual-mode hydrogen firing.  That would be a showpiece!

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 6:01 PM

I'd like to see that.

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Posted by 54light15 on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 7:59 PM

The people of Bel Air want the monorail for the servants to ride. I highly doubt that they would ride it themselves. 

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 7:35 AM

54light15
The people of Bel Air want the monorail for the servants to ride. I highly doubt that they would ride it themselves.

And in what way is an elevated structure preferable to a nice underground channel for the 'servants' to scuttle in and out?

I was involved in some of the planning for the Memphis airport extension -- which I understood as being justified by people 'downtown' being able to get quickly and reliably to the international airport terminals regardless of weather or traffic.  The alternative -- express buses -- is easily provided by MATA if you can tolerate negotiating access to several Interstates, and of course could be run with their paratransit equipment.  The basic route I was promoting was the Cleveland Avenue hospital extension of the existing trolley, with a jump-off to the existing NS local line just east of Danny Thomas Blvd, with new construction reaching a point south of the airport, probably close to Democrat Rd. where construction would not impede current road traffic access, which would be served by shuttles to the various terminals.

What happened instead was precisely that the commission discussing the project decided it was for the equivalent of 'servants' to get to the airport.  So it was re-routed, very intrusively and expensively and not very safely, to cross into a couple of major streets, at grade, and then have multiple stops on non-level trackage, winding through a sort of 'watershed' of low-income neighborhoods that could benefit from cheap reliable access to airport jobs.  The result being something like an agonizing 45-minute travel time, with no particular access to or handling of luggage, with a great many difficult-to-execute-smoothly stops ... for about $4 billion (yes, with a B) projected cost that I expected would only go higher.

Perhaps needless to say, the idea died right there.  For that amount, we could Uber employees free upon their request, and have enough left over to build a real airport line...

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Posted by ORNHOO on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 3:03 PM

Everything old is new again. I found this article on the state of the (monorail) art from 1956: https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v12n02_1956-06/page/n49/mode/2up

wherein Willy Ley mentions a then current proposal to install monorail from Los Angeles to Van Nuys, using the median of a then proposed freeway (would that be the 405?).

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Posted by D.Carleton on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 5:33 PM

SD70Dude
Hey!  We're twice as smart as Shelbyville.  Tell us your idea and we'll vote for it!

The Coco who wrote that episode said he wanted to tie together The Music Man, Irwin Allen movies and bad ideas for mass transit. Suffice to say he succeeded.

Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak

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Posted by 54light15 on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 6:08 PM

It was one of the best Simpson's episodes. Note that the monorail station is pure German art-deco like the terminal at Templehof field in Berlin. They did their homework on that one. 

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