WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

1
00:00:00.089 --> 00:00:02.780
Monorails are almost always bad ideas.

2
00:00:02.780 --> 00:00:06.950
The last time I said that, I got angry emails
from monorail enthusiasts,

3
00:00:06.950 --> 00:00:08.120
but I stand by it.

4
00:00:08.120 --> 00:00:10.420
Yes, passenger monorails are quirky and interesting,

5
00:00:10.420 --> 00:00:12.760
they look like something from science fiction,

6
00:00:12.760 --> 00:00:14.190
that's why theme parks use them.

7
00:00:14.190 --> 00:00:15.840
But they're impractical and expensive,

8
00:00:15.840 --> 00:00:19.920
because every bit of track has to be either
elevated or dug into a trench,

9
00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:23.570
and switches at junctions require
physically moving the entire track.

10
00:00:23.570 --> 00:00:25.070
There are exceptions, of course there are,

11
00:00:25.070 --> 00:00:28.490
but for almost every case,
a monorail is a worse idea

12
00:00:28.490 --> 00:00:30.010
than light rail, or trams, or even a bus.

13
00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:32.910
And that's proven out by the fact that
almost everywhere in the world...

14
00:00:32.910 --> 00:00:36.060
...does not use monorails.

15
00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:37.060
Except.

16
00:00:37.060 --> 00:00:38.490
I think I've found a good monorail.

17
00:00:38.490 --> 00:00:39.940
And it was never public transit.

18
00:00:39.940 --> 00:00:42.829
It was a replacement for construction workers
with wheelbarrows.

19
00:00:42.829 --> 00:00:47.590
The Roadmachines Mono-Rail was invented in
a small town just outside London in the 1940s.

20
00:00:47.590 --> 00:00:49.320
It was intended for construction sites,

21
00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:51.570
and it was in competition with
tractors and dump trucks,

22
00:00:51.570 --> 00:00:52.899
and yes, workers hauling wheelbarrows.

23
00:00:52.899 --> 00:00:56.150
And it's a really clever solution:
the track is made of prefab parts,

24
00:00:56.150 --> 00:01:00.390
so it could be set up just by clamping bits
together like a giant toy train set.

25
00:01:00.390 --> 00:01:04.640
The company claimed that two workers could
set up 100 yards of track in about half an hour.

26
00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:05.640
And because the track is elevated,

27
00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:08.149
it could work over mud and rough ground
at construction sites where

28
00:01:08.149 --> 00:01:09.729
big equipment might get bogged down.

29
00:01:09.729 --> 00:01:11.479
The single rail means it can have huge tolerances:

30
00:01:11.479 --> 00:01:13.709
it didn't matter if things
weren't set up precisely,

31
00:01:13.709 --> 00:01:15.450
if someone needed to set
one piece of the track

32
00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:17.130
a few degrees off horizontally or vertically.

33
00:01:17.130 --> 00:01:19.340
The monorail just clatters through it all.

34
00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:21.950
And, sure, yes, the diesel engine
is quite noisy,

35
00:01:21.950 --> 00:01:23.889
but it's designed for construction sites.

36
00:01:23.889 --> 00:01:25.469
Oh, and yeah, it's automated.

37
00:01:25.469 --> 00:01:29.189
At the end of the track, there's an
automatic stop built in,

38
00:01:29.189 --> 00:01:31.729
where it stops, and waits
to be sent on its way again.

39
00:01:31.729 --> 00:01:33.240
It can even split and merge tracks easily,

40
00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:37.939
because, well, that's easier to do that when
the safety level is designed for bulk goods,

41
00:01:37.939 --> 00:01:38.939
not people.

42
00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:41.859
By 1966, there were 800 of these monorails
in the UK.

43
00:01:41.859 --> 00:01:43.759
Some were owned by
construction companies

44
00:01:43.759 --> 00:01:45.219
that'd set them up and take them down
at each job site,

45
00:01:45.219 --> 00:01:47.539
some were installed permanently
in factories and works.

46
00:01:47.539 --> 00:01:49.329
They'd been sold to 60 other countries,

47
00:01:49.329 --> 00:01:51.659
where they transported timber,
or clay, or sludge,

48
00:01:51.659 --> 00:01:54.310
or even, at one place in Finland, fish.

49
00:01:54.310 --> 00:01:58.669
Basically, they could be used to move any bulk
thing that could be loaded into a wagon.

50
00:01:58.669 --> 00:02:00.389
There were versions powered
by compressed gas,

51
00:02:00.389 --> 00:02:02.309
and a couple of experimental
battery-powered ones.

52
00:02:02.309 --> 00:02:03.799
And they showed up in a James Bond film:

53
00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:08.500
that futuristic space-age volcano-base monorail
was the same type

54
00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:11.189
that was being used in construction sites
around the world,

55
00:02:11.189 --> 00:02:13.610
just with a shiny passenger cabin
added on top.

56
00:02:13.610 --> 00:02:15.290
But now, they are almost forgotten.

57
00:02:15.290 --> 00:02:18.530
By the seventies, construction was changing.
Tower cranes had appeared,

58
00:02:18.530 --> 00:02:21.849
which meant that materials could be moved
faster, and in three dimensions,

59
00:02:21.849 --> 00:02:24.290
across building sites that were getting
taller and taller and taller.

60
00:02:24.290 --> 00:02:26.600
And specialised dump trucks
were improving, too.

61
00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:30.280
In 1977 the last of the Mono-Rails
came off the production line.

62
00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:33.150
But they were in use until at least the 1990s.

63
00:02:33.150 --> 00:02:35.860
Most were scrapped, but enthusiasts keep a
few of them running:

64
00:02:35.860 --> 00:02:38.060
this one is at the Amberley Museum
in southern England.

65
00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:41.019
It's not a regular attraction at this
enormous industrial museum,

66
00:02:41.019 --> 00:02:43.170
but they have run it specially for me today,
which is lovely of them.

67
00:02:43.170 --> 00:02:46.360
There are also dozens in a collection
at Nantmawr in north Wales,

68
00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:48.689
including one that's been modified
to allow passenger rides.

69
00:02:48.689 --> 00:02:51.810
It was one of their enthusiasts who told me
about this in the first place.

70
00:02:51.810 --> 00:02:53.129
Thank you very much to Derry.

71
00:02:53.129 --> 00:02:56.580
It's not that monorails are inherently
a bad thing.

72
00:02:56.580 --> 00:03:00.370
It's just that in most cases,
there are better solutions.

73
00:03:00.370 --> 00:03:04.819
Sometimes, like here, they're
the right tool for the job.

74
00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:07.030
Thanks so much to the Amberley Museum,
and to David Voice,

75
00:03:07.030 --> 00:03:10.280
who wrote the definitive book on these monorails
back in 2011.

76
00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:23.409
Most of my facts here are taken from his work,
so I've put links and references in the description.