Train Picks Up and Drops Passengers Without Stopping (May, 1932)
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1932
| Buy on Ebay
Train Picks Up and Drops Passengers Without Stopping
IF RAILROADS generally adopt a plan suggested by Rupert Wales, a Buffalo, N. Y. inventor, passengers on non-stop express trains will be able to get off and on at small wayside stations while the train rushes past at top speed. This feat will be accomplished by the use of a mono-rail transfer car, according to Mr. Wales.
This car is an electrically driven coach running on a mono-rail alongside the track on which the express train runs. The passengers board the transfer car, which accelerates rapidly as the train approaches until the speeds of the two are equal. The monorail car is then automatically clasped to the side of the Pullman, passengers get on and disembark from the train, and when all is in readiness the transfer car disengages itself from the train and slows down, returning to the station under its own power.
Yeah. This was a good idea lol.
Have you seen how pokey people are leaving an airplane? What happens if someone is only halfway through the door when the monorail needs to start braking? Yikes.
Comment by Kenneth — December 18, 2008 @ 8:24 am
Sweet Jumpin’ Jeebus. Do inventors actually try to find ways to mangle people?
Comment by Craig G Noble — December 18, 2008 @ 3:59 pm
This was actually proposed again recently, but with the “mono-rail” on top of the train instead of alongside:
http://technabob.com/blog/2008.....-stopping/
The same comments about mangling passengers still apply.
Comment by Chris Radcliff — December 18, 2008 @ 4:08 pm
What could possibly go wrong?
Comment by Mike — December 18, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
I love this idea. Would speed up travel time as most time is spent waiting for people to get on and off. You would have 2 of them one ready to go and one just arriving letting people off.
To stop people from being trapped in doors you only have the doors open once it connected to the train or platform and closed & locked prior to arrival or departure.
Comment by Stuart — December 18, 2008 @ 8:37 pm
This was used in the UK between 1858 and 1960, for dropping passengers off at a station. Instead of a separate car, the last coach in a train was uncoupled before a wayside station. It used it’s own brake, and some clever point switching by the signalman…!
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip_coach
Comment by davee — December 19, 2008 @ 7:32 am
This is essentially how many of the rides at Disney World work, although they use a continuous moving walkway running at the same speed as the passenger cars rather than an enclosed car. I don’t think it would work very well at higher speeds, though.
Comment by Milligan — October 30, 2009 @ 8:03 am
In order for this to work, the side cars would have to function like the aforementioned slip coach. If the cars stayed with the train until the next stop, it would give people plenty of time to embark and disembark the train. The trick is designing a safe way to pick up and drop off the cars.
Comment by Don — October 31, 2009 @ 10:24 am
It would work as long as getting on and off the train was automated.
Have the passengers stand in elevator-like boxes.
As soon as the transfer car matches speed with the train and docks,
the passenger boxes are exchanged and the car decouples and brakes.
On the train, as soon as the newly boarded passengers leave the transfer
box it is moved to the disembarking position for the next terminal.
PS: Were the car fail to decouple, the entire train would have to stop.
….or be destroyed. Whatever.
Comment by jayessell — October 31, 2009 @ 5:58 pm
Great idea. And you couldn’t mangle passengers if the doors to the transfer car shut well before it started slowing down.
Comment by happysmoker — October 31, 2009 @ 8:12 pm
No mangling? Where’s the fun in that?
Happy Halloween!
Comment by Torontoooooooo — October 31, 2009 @ 11:07 pm