Monorails In Russia
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Russian monorails date back to the 19th century.
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
was a pioneer in the design and construction of
monorail A monorail is a Rail transport, railway in which the track consists of a single rail or beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, the term refers to the style ...
s, from early horse-drawn models to later electrical and
magnetic levitation Magnetic levitation (maglev) or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is levitation (physics), suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Lorentz force, Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitation ...
systems.


Early designs

The first Russian
monorail A monorail is a Rail transport, railway in which the track consists of a single rail or beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, the term refers to the style ...
was built by
Ivan Elmanov Ivan Kirillovich Elmanov () was a Russian inventor. During 1820, in Myachkovo, near Moscow, he built a type of monorail described as a road on pillars. The single rail was made of timber balks resting above the pillars. The wheels were set on this ...
in Myachkovo village, near
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
in 1820. In this "road on pillars", horses pulled railroad carriages placed on a horizontal beam. The wheels were mounted on the beam, not on the carriages. Elmanov could not find investors to fund for his project, and stopped working on the monorail. In 1821, Henry Palmer patented his monorail design in the UK. In 1836, Prince Beloselsky-Belozersky proposed another monorail design which contained two rows of wheels on mounted on a pillar structure. In 1872, a monorail designed by Lyarsky was shown at a polytechnic exhibition in Moscow. In 1874, Alexei Khludov constructed a monorail for transporting wood.


Electric monorails

In March 1895, Russian engineer Ippolit Romanov built a prototype of an electric monorail in
Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
, modern-day
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
. In 1897, he presented a functional model of his monorail at the meeting of Russian technological society. This idea was approved by the society, and an experimental electric monorail was built in 1899. In 1900, Empress Maria Fedorovna approved the building of an long electric monorail in Gatchina. The monorail was tested on 25 June 1900. The monorail carriage could be loaded with up to and moved at a speed of . In 1904 Russian engineer Koshkin in collaboration with Romanov designed a monorail that would connect
St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
and Moscow. The proposed train speed was up to . This ambitious project was approved by the Ministry of Roads, but was not financed. A similar proposal of a monorail from Moscow to
Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...
was not funded, as well. In 1911, professor of
Tomsk Tomsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, on the Tom (river), Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It has six univers ...
Technological Institute B.P. Vainberg invented a train on an electromagnetic support that was driven by linear synchronous electrical motor. This design was similar to the magnetic monorail built by Emile Bachelet in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
in 1910. Vainberg's experimental model permitted to transfer 10 kg carriages. In 1911-1913 Vainberg experimented with his model, and then proposed building an experimental track in which trains would move at a speed of 800–1000 km/h. This project was not realized.


Soviet era

In 1921, a construction of a monorail connecting
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
and
Tsarskoye Selo Tsarskoye Selo (, , ) was the town containing a former residence of the Russian House of Romanov, imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of Saint Petersburg. The residence now forms part of the Pushkin, Saint Peter ...
was commenced. Petr Petrovich Shklovskiy was the author of that project. The monorail was planned to have gyroscopic stabilization (first patented by Brennan in 1903). The proposed monorail train consisted of a motor car and a 50-seat passenger car. The travel speed was supposed to reach 150 km/h. A 12 km monorail track was constructed in 4 months, and a Saint Petersburg factory was contracted to build a train. In May 1922, the project funding ceased. Shilovskiy went to the Great Britain where he worked for Sperry Gyroscope Company. In the 1920-1930s theoretical and practical works on monorails were conducted by Vyacheslav Petrovich Tikhostsky and his colleagues. Several experimental monorails were built: Sipyaginskaya, Solotchinskaya, Lyskovskaya and Redkinskaya. In the 1950s a monorail construction project was launched in Kamchatka, but only an experimental line was built. From mid 1950s to 1960s passenger monorails were planned for
Karaganda Karaganda (, ; ), also known as Karagandy (, ; ; ) (also sometimes romanized as Qaraghandy), is a major city in central Kazakhstan and the capital of the Karaganda Region. It is the fifth most populous city in the country, with a population o ...
,
Magnitogorsk Magnitogorsk ( rus, Магнитого́рск, p=məɡnʲɪtɐˈɡorsk, ) is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Its population is curre ...
and
Miass Miass (, ) is a city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located west of Chelyabinsk, on the eastern slope of the Southern Ural Mountains, on the bank of the river Miass. Population: Name The name Miass is taken from the Bashkirs (), the indige ...
, but their construction did not begin. In the 1950s a railway that combined features of a monorail and a cable car was proposed for Volzhskaya hydro-electric power station. A similar design was proposed in 1961 by I. Ivanova for public transportation. In 1967 scientists of
Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
Polytechnic Institute jointly with engineers of Dzerzhinsky plant pioneered the monorail with linear asynchronous motor. The construction of a circular line at the exhibition of modern technologies in Kiev was funded by Ukrainian government. Similar monorails were built in Germany in 1969. Intensive research on magnetic monorails was conducted in the Soviet Union in the 1970-1980s. In 1977 the first in the world monorail with magnetic support was planned in
Alma Ata Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains in southern Kazakhstan, near the border wi ...
, Kazakhstan. This plan was not fulfilled.


1991-present

In 2004 the
Moscow Monorail The Moscow Monorail (, ) (Line 13) is a monorail line located in the North-Eastern Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia. It runs from the Timiryazevskaya via Fonvisinskaya and VDNHa metro stations to Sergeya Eisensteina street. The monorail ...
opened in Russia's capital.


References

{{Reflist Passenger rail transport in Russia
Suspended monorails Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Car suspension * Cell suspension or suspension culture, in biology * Guarded suspension, a software design pattern in concurrent programming suspending a method call and the calling ...