Monorail Modeling -
Lizard Valley's Iguana
photos courtesy of Marc Horovitz, April 2008

TMS member Marc Horovitz has had a fascination for odd and unusual railways. The 1800s Lartigue Monorail system certainly fits this bill. Marc wanted to build a similar monorail, yet not the 0-3-0 tender engines with steam boosters in the tender as the originals had. As Marc says, "I preferred the freelance approach, hence Iguana."

While his Iguana was an enormous amount of work, he says his Iguana design is relatively easy to build. Here is the engine during construction. If you look closely, you can see the tops of the wheels between two metal plates under the engine.

The project was mostly built in 2003, yet the train was painted in 2007. Here's a nice view down on the completed boilers and oscillating steam motor.

A side view of Marc's beautiful work.

The track is made of A-frame, mimicking the Lartigue system. Larry Herget cast several hundred of them from a pattern Marc supplied to him. Marc built the track using the A-frames and code-196 brass rail.

The line is approximately 60 feet long and includes this elegant tunnel. Marc installed an R/C servo to operate the monorail for an Iguana Video he posted on YouTube.

Sadly, about a third of the track was damaged during the winter of 2006-07 due to the crush of snow and ice. Marc has no plans to resurrect the entire line at this time, but we are very thankful he captured these wonderful pictures for us. Excellent work Marc!

Be sure to visit Marc's Lizard Valley's Iguana webpage where he tells the story about his wonderful project in more detail.

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