Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1915 — NEW MONORAIL IDEA [ARTICLE]

NEW MONORAIL IDEA

AMERICAN INVENTOR PUTS FORWARD GREAT THOUGHT. Has Plans for Railroad That Can Bo Constructed Cheaply and Has Many Advantages Over Lines at Present In Use.

A triangular monorailroad that can be built for $5,000 a mile, that can be moved with ease and that will permit of*a speed of 100 to 120 miles an hour with perfect safety and comfort to passengers, are some of the claims of its inventor, Thomas C. Spelling, a New York attorney. The monorail is at the bottom, instead, as usual in monorails, at the top, and the triangular shape of the track or inclosure permits a groove at each side to steady and balance the cars.

The principle of the track or, as it should more properly be called, the passage way, is briefly as follows: The rail is laid on a continuous sill. Two parallel sills support the ribs placed at a distance of every ten feet. The ribs are joined at the top, forming a pyramid. A second pyramid is formed with the peaks of the larger one as the side and as its base the two grooves by which the top of the car is held. Among the advantages claimed for the triangular monorail is the absolute absence of lurching and oscillation on the part of the cars. The framework is rigid and the cars are prevented from swaying, a very disagreeable part of the high speed, two wheel railroad. Friction is reduced by the use of one wheel and greater speed is therefore possible. As the track is an inclosed framework, accidents are a negligible quantity. Such causes of disaster as spreading rails, washed out ties and loose spikes are eliminated.

Mr. Spelling claims that the monorailroad can be laid down at a cost of $5,000 a mile. All parts are made in a factory and simply put together on the ground. Grading and excavation costs are much less than in the two rail system. The monorail can achieve much steeper grades. Grades impossible to present day trains are climbed by the monorail through an ingenious cogwheel attachment to the wheels, the cogs catching similar cogs in the rails at grades. These cogs are not apparent when the train is running on level ground. The inventor of the triangular monorail has obtained a number of patents and has more pending. He is expecting to see his system in operation within a short time. Either steam or electricity can be used for a motive power.