Every Day Is Special: trains

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June 14 - Monorail Opens!

Posted on June 14, 2019

Today is the anniversary of the public opening of the first monorail system that works on a daily basis in the Western Hemisphere. It occurred on June 14, 1959.

You may be wondering which forward-thinking government decided to build a monorail way back in 1959 - but it wasn't a government. It was Walt Disney!

Walt Disney is famous for SO many things: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and bunches of other animated characters; full-length, full-color animated films; Disneyland and other Disney theme parks. Disney liked to create a kind of magic, using his imagination to tug at our own imaginative powers.

But Disney was also big-time into the future. The original theme park, Anaheim's Disneyland in California, featured Tomorrowland. There was a Rocket to the Moon (and this was waaaayyyy before astronauts really did go to the moon!), and the first 360-degree film, and a Space station to give visitors a "satellite view" of Earth (and this was even before Sputnik was launched into space!). By 1959, there were several modern ways to move around, like Autopia, the Submarine ride, and the monorail.

The monorail system at Disney World in Orlando, Florida,
is the largest in the world.

A monorail is a sort of train with just one rail (mono- means one, of course). Many monorail systems have elevated tracks, and the trains hang from the single rail; others feature trains that balance on the single rail below.

In the U.S., there aren't a lot of non-Disney places where there are monorails. Las Vegas, Nevada, has monorails, and Seattle, Washington, has a monorail that links the center of the city to the Seattle Center (home of the Space Needle and several museums and cultural experiences).

But that's about it!

However, some countries in the world are building monorails: Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Japan, India, Japan, Russia, Japan, and Europe. Oh, and did I mention Japan? Japan is king as far as monorail technology and use.

Japan

Australia

Malaysia

Here are some things that make monorail systems a good choice for some locations:

Because they can be elevated, monorail systems can be built in places where there might not be room for traditional two-rail tracks. (Monorails can also be used in subway tunnels.)

Basically, a monorail uses less speed than most railways.

With just one rail, train cars can use modern tilting technology to execute high-speed turns.

Taken from within a Japanese monorail train.

With their electric engines and ability to skip interactions with ground-based transports, monorails can be more eco-friendly, swifter, and quieter than many other forms of transportation.

Monorails need less power than most two-rail trains.

Monorails have a reputation for safety and reliability.

Some systems today use magnetic levitation, which will probably dominate the future; there are no contact-friction losses, which will increase speed capabilities.

Also on this date:

Malawi Freedom Day

Children's Day in the U.S.

Magic Circle Day

Family History Day

Liberation Day in the Falkland Islands

Flag Day in the United States

Birthday of John Bartlett of “Bartlett's Familiar Quotations”

Day of Mourning in the Baltic Nations

Pause for the Pledge Day

International Bath Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

June holidays

June birthdays

Historical anniversaries in June

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

November 7 – Railroader Day in Mexico

Posted on November 7, 2017

This is a very sad story, but it is the story of a hero. A man died to save many, so the least we can do is to keep his
name known and retell his story of heroism.

Once upon a time a Mexican teen named Jesús García Corona got a job in railroads with Moctezuma Copper Company. Since he was only 17, he worked at the lowest level, as a waterboy.

But García worked hard and got a promotion to switchman, and then eventually to brakeman.

When he was 25 years old, García was resting at one of the train tracks, at the town of Nacozari, Sonora, in Mexico. But then he saw that some hay on the roof of one of the railroad cars had caught fire - apparently the locomotive's firebox was failing, and some sparks were coming out of the locomotive's smokestack!

But the railroad car that was a bit on fire was filled with dynamite!! Once the dynamite caught fire, there was going to be a huge explosion!

The whole town was in danger!

García ran to the train and drove it full-speed, in reverse, down a hill and away from town. He was able to get the train six kilometers (a bit more than 3 and a half miles) away from town before the car exploded. Of course, García died in the explosion, but he died while saving the entire town.

In García's honor, a statue was raised to "the hero of Nacozari," and the name of the town was actually changed to Nacozari de García. García's sacrifice has been celebrated all through Mexico, with many streets, plazas, and schools - plus a sports stadium - named for him, a ballad written about him, and the day of his heroic death celebrated by railroad workers in his honor.

Also on this date:

October Revolution Day in Belarus

New Era Day in Tunisia

NOT a patriotic holiday in Bangladesh

Physicist Marie Curie's birthday

Physicist Lise Meitner's birthday

Anniversary of the collapse of a bridge

Singer Lorde's birthday

National Cat Week

Election Day in the United States

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

November holidays
November birthdays
Historical anniversaries in November

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

December holidays
December birthdays
Historical anniversaries in December

October 8 – Anniversary of a Winning Performance by Rocket

Posted on October 8, 2014

I was reading about an early (1829) railroad with tracks running between Liverpool and Manchester, in England. I was shocked to read that some people were skeptical that steam locomotives could work to power the train—and instead, they proposed sticking with the older technology of a rope hauling the train, and a steam engine that stayed in one place, pulling the ropes.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if all railroads worked by way of rope haulage and stationary engines? Can you imagine ropes criss-crossing the nation above railroad tracks? It sounds crazy!

A man named George Stephenson and his son Robert insisted that locomotive engines (engines that traveled on the tracks with the trains—what a concept!) were the future. And so the Liverpool-Manchester Railway directors decided to hold an open competition to see if anyone could build a locomotive that could stand up to their hopes and dreams.

The contest was called the Rainhill Trials; they were held along a mile length of level track at Rainhill.

Ten locomotives were entered, but on the day that the competition began, only five actually began the contest. Each entrant was put through a series of tests.

Here is what happened with each of the five:

Cycloped was not a steam-powered locomotive, but was instead a horse-powered mobile platform. It was demonstrated only briefly and was withdrawn early. One source said that the horse had an accident (if so, I hope it wasn't hurt!), but another source said that the this horse-plus-machine was just a “legacy technology” entry that wasn't expected to compete with the others.

Perseverance was damaged as it was on the way to the competition, so the builder was given several more days to repair it before it had to compete. Finally it joined the competition, but it only reached a speed of 6 miles per hour—and the contest rules had stated that the winning locomotive had to reach at least 10 mph. So this locomotive was withdrawn.

Sans Pareil was also a rule-breaker, because it was about 300 pounds overweight. But it was allowed to compete, and it made 8 of the 10 trips back and forth the piece of railroad track used for the trials—but then a cylinder cracked, and that locomotive was done, too.

Novelty was cutting-edge (for 1829), and a lot of people were very impressed by it at first sight. It was lighter and faster than the other locomotives—it reached 28 miles per hour! (Remember, one of them could only reach 6 mph.)

However, this crowd favorite suffered damage to its boiler pipe. Attempts to do a quick fix weren't entirely successful, and the day after, when it reached 15 mph, the pipe gave way, damaging the engine so badly that the locomotive had to drop out of the competition.

So, it is no surprise that Rocket won the trials—after all, it was the only train “left standing,” the only one that could do all 10 of its trips. It reached a top speed of 30 mph, and it averaged 12 mph, and it was able to do so while hauling 13 tons!

Rocket was built by the Stephensons (the father-son team I mentioned above), and they won a 500 pound prize and a contract to produce locomotives for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.