Suspended - I-Beam

The I-Beam suspended monorail is the most common monorail in the world. If you think that I-beam transit monorails are everywhere because of that statement, you are mistaken. We are referring to the I-Beam industrial monorail. The simplicity of the design, a guideway the shape of a common steel I-Beam with a traveling conveyance suspended below, is used for everything from butcher shops to commercial laundries to move various items efficiently.

Transit I-Beam monorails would seem to be a logical extension of the industrial monorail. However, the history of this type of monorail has been relegated to amusement centers and fairs. It's an I-Beam monorail that carries miniature guests in pirate ships "floating through the air" of Peter Pan's ride at the Disney parks. Busch Gardens once had Arrow Company-built I-Beam monorails at parks in Van Nuys, California and up until recently, Tampa, Florida. I-Beam monorails operated for years at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. Perhaps the most famous I-Beam monorail operated for only two years at the New York World's Fair of 1964-65. Arrow supplied the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas with a suspended I-Beam monorail for a short unsuccessful trouble-plagued run in the early 1990's.

Today we know of only one company still active in the promotion of the I-Beam monorail, Titan Global Systems. Their design for a LIM-powered I-Beam monorail has been around for many years, but unfortunately there are no transit I-Beam systems in existence currently.

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