Straddle - Steel Box Beam

The steel box beam monorail has its beginnings in the early 1960's in Thun, Switzerland. There the Maschinenfabrik Habegger company developed small "minirails" for fairs and expositions. In conjunction with Von Roll, the first installations were in Lausanne in 1964 and Munich in 1965. The "Habegger-type" monorail, as it is sometimes still referred to, got the most attention at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada. Habegger supplied the running gear and the automatic control equipment. Technically speaking, the Expo 67 monorails ran on dual vertical steel I-beams, spaced on a 21.75" (552 mm) gauge. These I-beams were 21" (553mm) tall and 8.25" (210 mm) wide at the top and bottom. Bogies between the passenger cars rode on two 27" (559mm) pneumatic-tired traction wheels and were guided by four horizontal stabilizing wheels. Maximum speed of these trains was about 10 mph. Von Roll later modified the technology into using a steel box beam. Several other companies now offer this type of monorail for people-mover class systems.

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