Ever since trains started running on two rails few imaginative engineers have claimed they would do better on one. These one-track-minded men believed a monorail train would be faster and cheaper to operate. But because twin-rail roads became widely established, only one operating monorail was ever built (p. 78).
Last month a new monorail, built at a cost of $2.4 million, was demonstrated near Cologne, Germany. Called the "Alweg" after its backer, the Swedish multimillionaire Axel L. Wenner-Gren, it is a passenger-carrying scale model which rides on a single row of wheels. Extra wheels grip the sides of the rail and keep the car from falling off. Because the rail is sharply banked, the train can easily take turns at top speed. The Alweg's designers say full-sized monorails will travel at more than 200 mph.
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