The "Alweg" system of monorail transportation, the initial demonstration of which was announced in the Week at a Glance page of the October 13 Railway Age, comprises a track made up of a reinforced concrete supporting beam, carried on a single row of concrete columns, and vehicles which ride on roller-bearing wheels on a single rail on the top of the beam. These vehicles are stabilized by wheels in the sides of the car, which extend down over the track supporting beam; these wheels bear against rails along the top and bottom of the sides of the beam. Power is collected from insulated rails supported from the sides of the beam below the lower stabilizing rails.
The idea embodied in the Alweg system came from the Swedish industrialist. Dr. Axel L. Wenner-Gren. It was developed in Germany by a group of engineers organized as the Verkehrsbahn Studiengesellschaft (Transportation Research Company) the staff of which includes engineers formerly connected with the aircraft, automotive and railroad industries. The installation now being demonstrated is a two-fifths scale model and is set up at Fuehlinger Heide, near Cologne. The track, which is a reinforced beam about 10 in, wide, is in a mile-long oval banked to 45 deg, in the curves. On this line the model, consisting of three units, has attained an average speed of 90 m,p,h.
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