I am new to the community. If so, don't kick right away. It is allowed to place interesting information about railways in the world"? ;)
Wuppertal is the youngest city in Germany - it is 80 years old. And the cableway is 110 years old.
This road is practically the only thing interesting to see in Wuppertal. The factory industrial city left a gloomy feeling. A lot of migrants, garbage and concrete :(
But the road is something. Reminds me of the first part of the game "Siberia", the city of Komsomolsk, who knows - he will understand :))
So. We arrived in the city by car, parked. The one-way trip by cable car takes about 40 minutes.
We sat down at Vohwinkel station. We paid seven euros for three and drove off.
I was immediately swayed.
The platforms are very picturesque in their metallic grandeur.
Stops are old and new. It's old - modern style.
Looking for one.
Station terminus Oberbarmen.
And a passenger on it.
A warning to stowaways. Different languages.
Let's go back. 10 kilometers of the way pass over the river Wupper.
We pass well-built factories a hundred years ago. One of them is the pharmaceutical concern Bayer.
Driver.
Only 3 kilometers 300 meters pass over the city.
In the city, you can see the image of an elephant everywhere. And that's why.
On July 21, 1950, the director of the Althoff circus decided to ride the elephant Tuffy on the monorail for promotional purposes. The elephant was put into the carriage at the Alter Markt station. However, the elephant did not like the idea of the trip and began to get restless. Shortly after departure, Tuffi broke through the wall and fell out of the car. Fortunately, at this time the train was passing over the river. Tuffy fell into the water from a height of five meters and was not seriously injured. During the incident, or rather during the panic that followed after the fall of the elephant, several passengers were also slightly injured.
People at stops.
Controllers.
The monorail is quite reliable vehicle. But the first thing that comes to mind when you swing at a height of 12 meters - what will happen if it all suddenly falls?
In 1999 there was a major accident. 5 people died and 47 were injured. The reason was metal claws forgotten on the tracks during construction work.
Two previous accidents were fatal. After one of them, when a truck crashed into the anchoring of the overhead railway, all the bearing supports had to be reinforced with concrete shafts, which still “decorate” the city.
In the German city of Wuppertal Railway which is over 100 years old. One day an elephant fell off it.
The full name of the road is "Eugen Langen Electric Suspension Railway". The road is a suspension monorail laid back in the 1900s. The first wagon drove along the Wuppertal railway in 1901, and the last ... the last wagon was not there yet - the railway in Wuppertal is still functioning properly.A miracle of German engineering
The monorail is laid at a height of 12 meters above the ground, its total length is more than 13 kilometers. The construction of the railway cost 16 million gold German marks, and about 20 thousand tons of steel were used in its construction. The Wuppertal railway did not work only once - after the bombing at the end of World War II. Already in 1946 it was launched again.
Incidents
On July 21, 1950, the Althoff Circus decided to run a promotion and ride a baby elephant on the Wuppertal Monorail. The baby elephant did not like the idea, so several journalists traveling with him in the car received minor injuries, and the baby elephant fell out of the car. Fortunately, at that time the car was passing over the river and the baby elephant fell into the water, so he was almost not injured. The director of the circus had to pay damages.
After this incident, the baby elephant (by the way, it was a girl) was given the name "Tuffi", which in Italian means "diver". To commemorate the incident with Tuffy, a falling elephant is painted on the wall of one of the houses in Wuppertal. The local dairy also uses the Tuffi brand.
In the entire century-long history of the Wuppertal railway, there were only seven accidents on it. Serious of them was only one, when in 1999 the car ran over a metal tool, forgotten by workers on the monorail. The car fell into the river, killing 5 people and injuring 49 more. The court ruled that the cause of the accident was not the state of the railroad, but the negligence of the workers.
The Wuppertal cable car was opened in 1901 in the city of Wuppertal, Germany. This is one of the oldest monorails in the world, still in operation to this day. What is more interesting is that Wuppertal has not been copied anywhere else in the world as a model. public transport. This is the first and only suspension tram monorail in the world.
Let's find out more about her...
Photo 1. 
At the end of the 19th century, Wundertal experienced the peak of industrialization. The population reached 400,000 and grew further. And even before the beginning of the period of industrialization, it was a prosperous city, surpassing Cologne in size. The roads here were intended for carriages and pedestrians, and there was simply no place for laying tram tracks. Underground metro construction was also ruled out as the area was very rocky, with big amount ground water. The German engineers decided that the only way could be to launch the tram through the air.
Photo 2. 
The construction of the Wuppertal cable car (Schwebebahn) began in 1898, and the first test was made in the same year. In 1900, one of the first official visitors was Kaiser Wilhelm II, who rode the monorail, and already in 1901 the transport was opened to the public. The tram line has become one of the most prominent, in every sense of the word, sights of Wuppertal. Even after 100 years, it is still the easiest and most fast way go around the city
Of course, the suspension road did not start to work fully immediately. Most of its stations were not opened immediately, but within 3 years after the opening. During the war, from 1943 to 1946, the cable car stopped working due to damage.
Photo 3. 
The 13.3-kilometer cableway stretches mostly along the Wapper River at a height of 12 meters, and only a three-kilometer part passes above the streets at a height of 8 meters - it is called the overland route. It was due to the location over the river that the Schwebebahn was able to avoid serious destruction during the Second World War.
Photo 4. 
The monorail served for a full 98 years before the first fatal accident occurred here, thus being the safest public transport system in the world. The only accident happened in April 1999 when the train derailed and fell into the river. 5 people died and 49 were injured.
The two previous accidents were without fatalities. After one of them, when a truck crashed into the anchoring of the overhead railway, all the bearing supports had to be reinforced with concrete shafts, which still “decorate” the city.
The most unusual incident in the history of the road occurred on July 21, 1950. On this day, the director of the circus Althoff decided to ride the elephant Tuffy on the monorail for advertising purposes. The elephant was put on a wagon at the Alter Markt station.
However, the elephant didn't like the idea of riding the monorail and began to get restless. Shortly after departure, Tuffi broke through the wall and fell out of the car. Fortunately, at this time the train was passing over the river. Tuffy fell into the water from a height of five meters and was not seriously injured. During the incident, or rather during the panic that followed after the fall of the elephant, several passengers were also slightly injured.
Now, near the scene of the incident (between the Alter Markt Adlerbrücke stations), a falling elephant is painted on the wall of the house.
Photo 5. 
The Wuppertal cableway (German: Wuppertaler Schwebebahn) is one of the types of public transport in the city of Wuppertal, which is a monorail two-track suspension system on overpasses, with 20 stations, with a total length of 13.3 km, 10 kilometers of tracks pass above the Wupper River at an altitude of about 12 meters, the rest 3.3 km above the streets of the city at a height of about 8 meters. The maximum speed of the trains on the road is 60 km/h.
The road was built in 1900 and put into operation in 1901. Official name roads - it. Einschienige Hängebahn System Eugen Langen (Monorail cableway of the Eugen Langen system).
Specifications
Length: 13.2 km
Electrification: 600V DC
Maximum slope: 40 thousandths
Maximum speed: 60 km/h
Average operating speed: 27 km/h
Travel time: 30 min
The construction of the road began in 1898, and on March 1, 1901, the monorail was put into operation.
Photo 6. 
About the Wuppertal cable car in numbers
- The Wuppertal cableway has a monorail double-track suspended structure, thanks to which two trains can travel along the tracks at once, in different directions.
- The total length of the cableway is 13.3 km, of which 10 km pass over the Wupper River at a height of 12 meters, and the remaining 3.3 km - above the city streets at a height of about 5 meters.
- The Wuppertal cable car has 20 stations.
- About 25 million passengers are transported on monorails a year, and the daily flow is about 80 thousand people.
- Trains move at a speed of about 60 km/h.
- Each train is 24 meters long. All train cars were designed by MAN, which in currently manufactures Ikarus buses. Each car is designed to receive 178 passengers (48 seats and 130 standing).
- For all the time of work on the cableway, only one accident was recorded, which occurred in 1997. It turns out that this is one of the safest cableways in the world.
Of course, there is something to see in Wuppertal. But, it is the Wuppertal cableway that is worth seeing at least once in a lifetime.
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Greetings, dear readers! What about the monorail? When was the first suspension railway opened? Who was the discoverer? What is the popularity of overpass transport in our time? The topic of the article is the suspension railway.
Suspended railway as a kind of rail transport
The railway sector is one of the largest types of land transport, which includes certain types of vehicles: subways, trams, freight and passenger trains, overpass and light rail transport.
Cableways can also be called monorails. A monorail is considered a railway, which refers to rail transport. Compared to a conventional railway, which has two or more carrier rails, a monorail uses one. This type of rail cars can be attributed to a flyover type of transport, that is, to a suspended one, where, again, the suspension is located with one rail.
Russia is considered the birthplace of the first suspension railway, it was built in 1820 by the inventor of the village of Myachkovo, Ivan Elmanov. Initially, the man built the "Road on Pillars", the essence of the design was that trolleys were rolling along the upper longitudinal beam, which were accompanied by horses.
Over time, overpass transport appeared in the UK thanks to the inventor Henry Robinson Palmer. 1824 became known as the year of construction of the first working road, which served in the naval sphere for the transport of certain types of cargo. As for the first passenger suspended railway, it was created a year later, according to the principle of Palmer's monorail.
Since the middle of the 19th century, the suspended rail car has settled in with good popularity and fairly good demand. In the 70s, in the French city of Lyon, they demonstrated a cable-drawn road, and at first in one of the US towns, they presented an overpass car with wagons, which was similar to a tram.
Whatever the rapid growth of suspension railways, the construction of a real operating monorail was still very difficult. The creation of new, more improved designs of overpass transport remained unfinished, and those that were nevertheless built did not live for a long time, and after a while they either broke down or went out of their working condition. But, this problem did not long disturb the engineers of the railway sector.
From the late 70s of the 19th century, steam-powered trestle rail cars went into use, it connected the path from Bradford to Gilmore (modern Pennsylvania). The length of this road was 6.4 kilometers, the monorail served mainly to transport not only technical products, but also passengers. Unfortunately, at the end of the 19th century, an accident occurred, subsequently correct operation monorail, the driver and three passengers of the train died, after which the work of the machine stopped for a while.
Subsequent monorails, which were created by experienced and educated people were not crowned with success and long working capacity, many did not last even a dozen years, some remained drawings on a piece of paper. The longest service in those days was the railway in Ireland, which was created in 1888, the system served 36 years, but the railway did not receive much fame.
No matter how engineers and inventors tried to surprise the world with their discoveries, the 19th century ended without much attention to itself, namely in the field of overpass transport, because there were practically no special discoveries, most of them could not survive, so to speak, all hopes were placed on the 20th century …
Russian monorails
The first electrified trestle car in Russia was the track in Gatchina, it was designed in 1899 according to the plan of the famous engineer Romanov.
In 1933, a road was created that had a speed of up to 120 kilometers per hour, it struck with its strength even on the most severe winter days, the monorail worked when the trams went off the rails. In 2004, a monorail road was opened in Moscow for public use, since 2008 it has become one of the main transports in Moscow.
Today, cableways are used as a public means of transportation and can be seen in many parks, recreation areas, zoos, as well as in most shopping centers and airports. They are used like the subway. Nowadays, the number of such rail vehicles is not large, in Europe there are 3 cableways, which are located in Moscow, in the city of Wuppertal in Germany, and in the city of Dortmund also in Germany, the total length of these roads is 21 kilometers.
The longest monorail is located in Disneyland, its length is about 23.6 kilometers. The largest number monorails in Japan, the total length reaches more than 100 kilometers, and the roads are located in eight cities in the country. In Asia, this type of rail cars is considered the most convenient and most promising in the future. Suspension railways are also located in Malaysia, are being built in Singapore, Jakarta, the United Arab Emirates, and in some Chinese towns.
Pros and cons of overpass transport
Suspended railways in our time have their positive sides and completely opposite - negative ones. What about positive aspects, then we can say that this type is more economical in construction and much more convenient than the subway, plus it does not need a lot of space on already crowded roads.
The monorail easily copes with sharp turns, has much less chance of dangerous collisions and creating emergencies. When traveling by rail car, it is not so noisy, sometimes the monorail is quieter than the tram. Suspended transport is not only cheaper to build, but also very fast, completely a short time(minimum period - 6 days), the machine can be built and put into operation.
Unfortunately, there are also disadvantages, the monorail car has a low speed, which is why the number of travelers should not be large, there is a certain norm, in case of overload, an emergency situation may occur.
In the 21st century, when outside the window, technology and innovation are not standing still, but are constantly in motion, suspended railways are still not standardized, only in Japan, suspended rail tracks are introduced into the daily norm.
The biggest and most dangerous disadvantage is the threat of a train falling from a great height, a drop of ignorance and slovenliness of the creators of transport is enough, as there is a high risk of an unpleasant situation that can end tragically.
The railway sector, starting from its very inception, has not stood still for a second, constant pushes in development, many new products and discoveries, improvements and additions. In the 19th century, people rejoiced at the first steam-powered train that transported people with a small number, and in the 21st century, people ride suspended trains in shopping centers. What will be next?!
I hope my article was worthy of your attention, I think that thanks to the publication you have learned a lot of new, interesting and entertaining things. Leave an article on your pages in in social networks, share with colleagues and acquaintances.
The Wuppertal cableway (German: Wuppertaler Schwebebahn) is one of the types of public transport in the city of Wuppertal (Germany), put into operation on March 1, 1901. The official name is the Eugen Langen Monorail Cableway (German: Einschienige Hängebahn System Eugen Langen).
It is a monorail double-track suspended system on overpasses with a total length of 13.3 km, of which 10 km of tracks pass over the Wupper River at a height of about 12 meters, the remaining 3.3 km - above the city streets at a height of about 8 meters. The maximum speed of the trains on the road is 60 km/h.
In 2013, the passenger traffic of the Wuppertal cable car was 19.308 million people
On July 21, 1950, the director of the Althoff circus, Franz Althof, decided to ride the elephant Tuffi (German Tuffi) on the monorail for advertising purposes. However, when he got into the car, he began to show concern, and soon after departure, having broken the side wall of the car, he fell out of it into the Wupper River from a height of 12 meters. As a result of the fall, Tuffy was not seriously injured. During the panic that followed after the fall of the elephant, several passengers were slightly injured.
