I came across this when looking into early railways. ...
Ivan Kirillovich Elmanov (Russian: Иван Кириллович Эльманов) was a Russian inventor. During 1820, in Myachkovo, near Moscow, he built a type of monorail described as a road on pillars. [3] The single rail was made of timber baulks resting above the pillars. The wheels were set on this wooden rail, while the horse-drawn carriage had a sled on its top. [3] This construction is considered to be the first known monorail in the world. [5][6] The horse-drawn carriages travelled on an elevated track. One project envisaged using them to transport salt on Crimea. [9]
Russia was a pioneer in the design and construction of monorails, from early horse-drawn models to later electrical and magnetic levitation systems. [2] Sadly, Elmanov could not find investors to fund for his project and stopped working on the monorail. In 1821, Henry Palmer patented his own (similar) monorail design in the UK. [2][3]
http://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/02/19/ea ... in-russia/
Early Monorail Proposals in Russia
Re: Early Monorail Proposals in Russia
Interesting the different ideas people had. It wood have worked if they had built it.
Modelling On A Budget ---》 https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/F ... 22&t=52212
Re: Early Monorail Proposals in Russia
I have seen demonstrated both the late Prof. Eric Laithwaite's transverse flux linear motor, and the earlier linear motor propelled 'tracked hovercraft' full size vehicle demonstrated. (This vehicle stands on view at the North East end of Peterborough station, easily seen from a down train departing P'boro.)
Both monorail in concept, although Laithwaite's device was like nothing previous. The propulsion power locks the motor relative to the rail such that the vehicle can transition from hovering above level track into transition to a vertical climb and continuing to being suspended below the rail. The gasps from the audience at the demonstration said it all. As ever when confronted with genius the UK government of the day took fright - after all none of the authors of the greco-roman literature had written of such a thing, not even that grubby oik Vitruvius; and on this occasion cut off the project funding.
(The tracked hovercraft was impressive enough on its mile long track on the Cambridgeshire fens. It zipped away to the end of line and then returned to the undercover storage bay where we were stood to observe, and arrived at pretty scary speed and stopped within its own length. Some of the observers were nearly knocked over by the piston into a cylinder effect as the vehicle entered the storage bay...)
Both monorail in concept, although Laithwaite's device was like nothing previous. The propulsion power locks the motor relative to the rail such that the vehicle can transition from hovering above level track into transition to a vertical climb and continuing to being suspended below the rail. The gasps from the audience at the demonstration said it all. As ever when confronted with genius the UK government of the day took fright - after all none of the authors of the greco-roman literature had written of such a thing, not even that grubby oik Vitruvius; and on this occasion cut off the project funding.
(The tracked hovercraft was impressive enough on its mile long track on the Cambridgeshire fens. It zipped away to the end of line and then returned to the undercover storage bay where we were stood to observe, and arrived at pretty scary speed and stopped within its own length. Some of the observers were nearly knocked over by the piston into a cylinder effect as the vehicle entered the storage bay...)