Seventies Monorail Project

[AndrewC]

trouble with monrails are they cast shadows on the streets below. I know they're only thin, but they aren't too attractive, i'd rather see trams.

 

 

lol @ underground tram.

[muddycoffee]

Originally posted by ptigga

Sorry, point taken about the spelling.

 

The powers that be can't risk doing to Ecclesall what they did to Hillsbrough and Langsett

 

Hi ptigga.

well done for learning how to spell Ecclesall,

Guess what it's

 

Hillsborough

 

Sorry for being picky.

[ptigga]

Originally posted by muddycoffee

Hi ptigga.

well done for learning how to spell Ecclesall,

Guess what it's

 

Hillsborough

 

Sorry for being picky.

 

Thanks Muddycoffee. I'll double check my spellings of obscure place names in the future. Whilst we're on the topic I've noticed that your grammar could use some work. You need a capital "W" for "well", and a small "g" for "Guess"; unless you change the comma after Ecclesall to a full stop in which case you can keep the capital G. You also need a full stop after Hillsborough.

 

I'm not intending to derail this facinating discussion about monorails by starting a grammar discussion. I think that the idea of a monorail in Sheffield is something that needs much more exploration.

[hj dary]

Not wishing to sound like a spod or any thing, but I read this in a book the other week.

 

"The Abortive Minitram Proposal,

 

One proposal considered by the Land Use Transportation study was know as the 'Minitram'.

This name was a misnomer,as the vehicles were not trams at all, as they could not run on the street. They were small driverless electric vehicles that ran on a special guide way, generally overhead.

 

Stations would have been complicated affairs with lifts and escalators as well as stairs.

 

An article in the New Scientist described the plan as "an ugly white elephant" and "a costly fraud", as a similar scheme in the USA was at that time suffering a cost over-run of 800%

 

The whole idea was abandoned after being thrown out by the Sheffield public as enviromently obtrusive and the study team didn't think it offered value for money"

 

There's a picture here next to the article taken from inside the 'hole in the road' with a artists impression of the monarail above it. The one thing the artist forgot was the shadow that it would have cast would block out all the light in the hole.

 

Hope this is of some help.

[ptigga]

Originally posted by alchresearch

Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook. And, by golly, it put them on the map!

 

How about Kuala Lumpa, Tokyo, Seatle, Las Vegas, Singapore, Sydney and Vancouver.

[WallBuilder]

I remember seeing some coloured pics of an artists impression of the monorail in Sheffield. Wide. tree lined plaza like streets with the monorail running down one side of it with loads of happy smiling pedestrians and contented looking people on the monorail train. Boy they had some funny idea's about the future in the 70's.

A mono track fastened to the buildings in the city would probably of meant rebuilding every building that it was fastened to.

If such a thing was ever to happen I would expect to dsee the stations located on top of buildings with steps and elevators going up between the retail units. The shops may lose out on a bit of their shop floor space but they'd have to consider this with all the free publicity of their wares as people went up to the station gazing into the shops as they went.

[Lickszz]

I like the sound of it. It would have been totally different and might have even been a success.

[jgharston]

Can people stop confusing 'monorail' with 'elevated railway'. A monorail system can be elevated, ground level or underground, and a birail system can be elevated, ground level or underground.

[Marky Baby]

From what I recall, the whole project was based entirely in the city centre. As I said in my opening post, the pictures in the book showed the monorail running alongside buildings up and down Fargate, thus negating the need for pillars. The rail itself was attached at a second floor level to the buildings. I presume it was envisaged that the monorail would travel down the Moor in similar fashion, 'clipped' to the second floor of the buildings.

 

I suppose a trip to the Library archives is the only chance I'll have of looking at those pictures again.

 

I remember an exhibition on the third floor in Cole Brothers detailing the monorail and they even had a large model of one of the carriages in a glass case.

They also had A4 size leaflets explaining the proposal and doctored black & white photos of the city centre with the "monorail in place"

To the best of my knowledge I've still got one in the loft, so give me a day or so to retrieve it, get it scanned and if you PM me with your email 'ousetunes' I'll gladly send you a copy

[RazorSHarp]

How about Kuala Lumpa, Tokyo, Seatle, Las Vegas, Singapore, Sydney and Vancouver.

 

I think that alchresearch was using a line from 'The Simpsons' the 3 cities he used are probably very fictitous, in the episode in question a Monorail salesman cons Sprigfield out of a massive windfall and gives them a second hand system that fails.. MMMmmm sounds familiar:huh: