b16294051_0017_036

THE HI-SPEED RAILWAY OF THE FUTURE.
AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF THE PIONEER MONO-RAIL
SYSTEM.
By H. G. ARCHER.

ON March 1st, 1888, a select company of scientists and
— local gentry were invited to take part in the opening of an unique railway in a wild and, as it was then, little known part of Ireland. This railway, originally known as the Latigue, after the name of the inventor of the system, connects the important town of Listowel, in the County Kerry, with a delightful seaside resort, named Ballybunnion, picturesquely situated on the beautiful west coast of Ireland. The Latigue railway, now better known as the Behr mono-rail, owing to the refinements which have been effected by Mr. F. B. Behr, the enterprising manager of the Latigue Railway Construction Company, is, as we have said, unique in every respect and, in fact, without seeing the railway and how he rolling stock runs over it, it is no easy matter to grasp the details of the system. However, the principle of the mono-rail may be briefly explained as follows: The rolling stock, instead of resting on a track formed by a pair of rails, is suspended from one, a carrying rail, while it is kept in position by a pair of guide or check rails, which take the lateral pressure and so prevent oscillation. The reader, therefore, will realise at once that the permanent way of a mono-rail railway must be very different from the everyday article, so we may proceed to explain the system of the former’s construction.
The mono-rail track consists of A-shaped trestles, 3 ft. 3 in. in height. and placed 3 ft. 3 in. apart, supporting a double- headed rail, weighing 27 lb. per yard. The trestles, it should be added, are supported by metal plates, which are secured to transverse wooden sleepers. Light guiding or check rails are fixed on each side of the trestles at a distance of 2 ft. 4 in. below the level of the carrying rail. From the foregoing description it will be seen that the term mono-rail is rather a misnomer. Strictly speaking, the system is a three-rail line, one rail being carried on each side of an A frame, and one on the top, while the rolling-stock straddles across the A frame on the camel-back principle. -
Such is the permanent way of the famous Listowel and Ballybunnion Railway, which is 93 ½ miles in length, and was constructed in nine months’ time at the remarkably low cost of 3ooo per mile, including the purchase of land, tile cost of rolling stock, and all other equipments. Now let us describe the rolling stock which plies on this curious railway. First there are the steam locomotives, which have two boilers: two funnels, two fireboxes, etc., all placed parallel one to the other, the twin boilers being connected with pipes, thereby equalising the water-level and steam- pressure. Each of the “L, and B.” locomotives, and the company possess four, is carried on three coupled wheels of 2 ft. diameter (the central wheel being the driving one), which are situated between the boilers; while, lower down, there are four guide wheels, two on each side, of 10 in. diameter. These guide wheels or rollers are arranged on vertical axles with spiral springs, and they engage with the guide rail on either side of tile trestle. Their function is merely to guide, for they carry no weight and have nothing to do with the work of propulsion; while they cause very little friction. Attached to the locomotive is a double tender, with a capacity for 2oo gallons of water and 10 cwt. of coal. The double tender is carried on two wheels of 2 ft. diameter, situated between the twin receptacles,:
and it also has two guide wheels of 10 in. diameter on each side. In short, every type of vehicle running on this railway has the same number of guide wheels—viz, two on each side, and all guide wheels are of 10 in. diameter.
The remainder of the company’s rolling stock, which comprises passenger coaches,:
guards’ vans, covered and open goods waggons, and timber, coal, and sand trucks, is a1l arranged in two divisions and carried on a single row of wheels. The passenger coaches, first and third class only) are 7 ft. high, 8 ft 6 in. wide, and i8 ft. long, each coach accommodating twenty-four passengers, who sit back’ to back, twelve a side; but there is no internal communication between the two halves of the’ carriage. Each of these coaches is suspended on four wheels of 19 in. diameter, arranged” in a pair at each end of the vehicle, so that they act as a pair of bogeys and thus enable the coach to round sharp curves with ease. The guards’ vans, goods waggons, and timber’ and sand trucks are precisely similar as regards divisions, but the first named have internal communication from one side to the, other for obvious reasons. It should be explained that the elevated mono-rail, system is
a bar to getting from one side of a train to:
the other, necessitating special arrangements to overcome, notably, the use of a very peculiar, kind of rolling stock, which is none other than a foot-bridge on wheels. These portable’ staircases, which are included in the make up of all passenger trains, where they are placed in the centre of each, although they can be placed in any part, have their own wheels, buffers, couplings, and brake mechanism. The guards’ vans, however, have staircases inside over the rail, and these are the only vehicles so equipped.
Returning to the permanent way, we most:, devote a few lines to explaining how ‘the engines and rolling stock are shunted or made to, change tracks. Switches are manifestly out of the question, and the problem is solved by having movable sections of rail of 20 ft. diameter. The latter are really turn-tables, and all are slightly curved in the shape of the letter S, for if the movable section were straight only one through road could be obtained, whereas with this refinement as many as four distinct branches or changes of track can be made at any one point. These movable sections of the rail are fastened to the line at each end by interlocking apparatus, which forbids any contradictor’ movement, while they are, also interlocked with the signals. Another
track curiosity is furnished by the fly- or drawbridges, which exist for facilitating the crossing of the line at occupation crossings.
These drawbridges are so simple that they can he raised or lowered by a child, hut to lower them one requires a key, and only the farmers who live nearest the crossing are provided with keys. Having utilised the crossing, the individual is hound, under penalty of legal proceedings, to see that all is right before leaving, and when the traffic is passed over the bridge the latter is raised by pulling a chain, which is securely fastened by a patent process.
The working of the machinery of a drawbridge regulates a signal placed above, by which the driver of a train is able to see from some distance away whether or not the track is clear. It should he added that the public roads are
carried over the track by means of ordinary fixed bridges. The speed of the trains on the
Listowel and Ballyhunnion Railway is only humdrum. The locomotives can attain a rate of speed of thirty miles per hour, hut the average working speed is not above eighteen. It is impossible for the rolling stock to be derailed, even in a collision. But if the locomotives cannot be termed fast, they are very powerful machines. On the level they are capable of hauling a load of 240 tons, while up an incline of 1 in 50- and the latter is the severest gradient on this quaint Irish railway— they can manage a load of 40 tons, which in the case of an ordinary light railway would have to be reduced by one-half.
It is no exaggeration to state that this, the pioneer of mono-railways, has proved of inestimable service to the locality which it serves, and converted Ballyhunnion from a desolate seaside hamlet into the popular pleasure resort which its natural advantages, in the way of excellent bathing and magnificent cliff and rock scenery, qualified it to be. The traffic, in fact, is mainly derived from excursionists to this lovely bay during the, summer months, although there is also the transport of thousands of tons of sea-sand annually from that place, the article being largely used by the farmers of Kerry for top-dressing and manuring their land. The sand trucks are small iron vehicles, and are the only ones that have hut two wheels, one at each end.
But Mr. Behr has vastly improved on the Ballyhunnion Railway where speed is concerned, his ambitious intention being to revolutionise travel by running single carriages electrically on the mono-rail system at the rate of speed of from no to 130 miles per hour. At the Brussels International Exhibition of 1897 he installed - a mono-rail track three miles in length, and over this high-speed railway an electrically driven, steel-framed car, 59 ft. long, ii ft. wide, and 70 tons in weight, and with seating accommodation for 100 passengers, attained a rate of speed of nearly 90 miles per hour. The running was quite satisfactory, both from the constructor’s and passengers’ point of view, for the special shape of each seat in the car, which was of prow-shaped design in front and behind, in order to minimise air resistance and air suction respectively, obviated the unpleasant results of centrifugal force in passing round curves.
Since the Brussels experiments, Mr. Behr has arranged for the construction of an electrical high-speed mono-rail line between Manchester and Liverpool. The first scheme was rejected in Parliament, hut another bill was brought in for the session of 1901 on the following basis: Length of line, 4 miles 3 furlongs, a service of 204 one-carriage trains per day, running at about ho miles per hour, and thus completing the journey in twenty minutes. The Lords Committee passed the bill with the proviso that the centre of gravity should be at least 12 in. below the carrying rail, and the Commons Committee also sanctioned it. With a railway of this description the carrying rail would have to be far stronger and heavier than is the case with the Ballybunnion line, and the curves of far larger radius than is permissible on existing railways, while there will probably he two guide. rails, instead of one, on each side of tile A-shaped trestles. If ever these electrical high-speed railways come to pass—and we hear of plans for their construction all over the kingdom— the revolution in our means of communication will be as great as that produced by the substitution of the “iron horse” for the mail coach, and Mr. Behr himself will attain the fame of a second Stephenson.