In today’s video, we take a look at an attempt made to revolutionise railways that almost worked
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Picture & Information References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigs_Elevated_Railway
https://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/odmeig.Html
http://www.celebrateboston.com/mbta/meigs-elevated-railway.htm
https://patents.google.com/patent/US313830
http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/meigs/meigs.htm
source
Before anyone tells me I pronounced "Meigs" wrong, Google gave me 3 different ways of saying it, and so me, the bold creative I am, ended up using none of them
Duck called me a galloping sausage!
Imagine if he wasn't so against electrifying it. We might have seen these used in some cities.
This was made in the 1800s BTW
Amazing! I've never seen this before. And yes, it looks like a sci-fi concept from decades later. I could see this on the cover of a 1930's issue of "Amazing Stories."
It's odd that such a brilliant inventor didn't see the value of electricity. Such a strange blind spot.
It's an oddly shaped fell railway
That thing looks too absurd to be real. It that sense, it's reminiscent of the Brighton & Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway.
This system has the same problem as a lot of monorail and maglev systems: Turnouts will be very complicated, so it's not easy to build a system with many lines branching out.
Also this engineer holding on to steam power reminds me of some people fighting to keep the combustion engine in vehicles nowadays ….
It was clear back then and it is still clear today: The future is electric, as it has been for well over a hundred years.
Gordon’s worthy opponent
Galloping sausages
🙂
I can't help but look at the 45 degree wheels and how well the flanges would hold out. The weight of the loco would still be straight down, so wouldn't this mean that the flanges would be taking the weight on their own?
That aside, it is an interesting design and story. Thanks for highlighting this 🙂
This sounded like it could’ve been a revolutionary concept! It is sad that that idea never got to be used to its full potential due to other forces
a brand new meaning to galloping sausage
This is just a straddle beam monorail, but older
That would have been cool, being a city commuter train where mains electricity already existed, perfect. I can see his point in the further loss in energy transformation, between steam locomotive being all 'in house' and steam power station to generator to power lines to the rail network, but id have gone with electric just to make it easy to sell it to the city. If his end goal was to make long distance trains with that system, i can see his adversion to electric, but i guess he was not forward thinking enough to sell electric sets and the rail network to the city, then once established when there becomes a need for self powered locomotives, sell them steam powered locos aswell.
Your sense of timing is impeccable. I am literally visiting Boston the day you posted this.
Quickly, somebody revive this patent!
That switch design doesn't look very smooth (all monorail and monorail-related designs are going to have problems with switching), and using cheaper materials for the guide rail sounds like an invitation to disaster once speeds get up. And that's before you get to his crazy objection to electricity . . . .
Meigs' representative: we are in an age of progress. What was good 25 years ago isn't good now
Meigs: none of this new-fangled electric! Steam power only
Ah so thats why the subway train in fallout 4 looks so familiar
this Meigs dude is such a silly
"oh yeh, the current way locomotives run is outdated, it needs to change to my design!"
"hey what if you made it electric? be alot better that way"
"ELETRIC!? WHAT A LOAD OF HOO HA! STEAM IS WAY BETTER, THESE ELETRICS WONT LAST!"
bro would be fuming if he saw the current state of railways
Is this the inspiration behind the Monorail episode in the Simpsons?
I can't be the only one who thinks that this looks like the satisfactory monorail
The title card "Sausage Express" reminded me of a thing from the old Soviet Union. It was common for people to travel to Moscow to do their grocery shopping, since as the capitol city, it was often where you could find more in-demand goods. The trains that would take people into the heart of Moscow and back were called "Sausage Trains" because it was the most common thing for people to buy on these trips.
One could say that this is not only one of the most outrageously looking steam designs but also an outrageous design for monorails in general. Looking back at your 2022 video about the faults of monorails, I think this is could have definitely been a successful monorail/elevated design that could have lasted until the end of steam or even longer if Meigs accepted the alteration to electrify his design. I'm all for it, and part of it is because of how tubular and futuristic the design is. Thunderbirds implied that the majority, if not all of the world's major rail systems, would be of a monorail/elevated design by the 2060s and Meigs' design fits the bill.
The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile could have been a train!
Toobad, it's pretty much a sadle train / mono rail, and a top heavy one, not the less, with all the troubles that even these days monorail have.
I doupth, much would have changed even if he gave in to the electrification.
This monorail is in my book
The Sausage Express dives into tunnels at speed
But when the work is done, and load ejected,
it limps out again, back to where it belongs
The Steam Engine Looks Awesome It is Amazing
So, I guess the concept of a "gadgetbahn" is older than most of us realize