Paul Langan has retyped 20 articles from old science magazines extoling the virtues of the latest monorail type scheme. Each includes the cover for the relevant magazine, as well as many of the photos and diagrams that accompany the text.
Prett much every single scheme failed to take off. The exception is the Chicago World's Fair "Sky Ride" which existed for the duration of the fair, but is arguably a transporter bridge. Certainly not a monorail, as the cars moved along a set of wires.
The promotors of each scheme were very gun-ho, with tracts of countryside being opened up in Canada, and pretty much all major US cities due to have their traffic problems solved. I'd be interested in a more detailed book that tells the fuller story of the rise, and fall of each. What happened? (I really should sit down and read Adrian S Gardeners books which probably provide this)
There are regular mentions of the Wuppertal system, and Binnie Railplane, both of which actually existed, even in the latter was only 130 yards long, not something many articles care to mention.
Illustrations uniformly show something from a Flash Gordon film, with many truly amazing craft to be found zipping along in the future. There are some clever ideas too - one system has the cars running on a incredibly thin film of water for frictionless travel.
Overall, this is a tale of misplaced optimism from a world where the future was going to be amazing. It's such a shame that none of it was ever realised.
Monorails in magazines on Amazon.
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