I live in Wuppertal and the Schwebebahn operates on Sundays also. Maybe they were working on it for not to be operating on a sunday. The reason the people alongside the tracks have no problem sleeping at night is because the Schwebebahn doesn't operate between midnight and 5:00AM during the week. It is different on weekends and holidays.
Yes ! I went to Wuppertal in July - with the 9€ ticket - just to ride the fantastic "Schwebebahn"! You can jump off an RE from Cologna (Köln) att the station Vohwinkel , continue by the "Schwebebahn" , jump off at Oberbarmen Bhf and from there continue with an RE to Dortmund !
Despite its age, with sleek modern cars it still looks quite futuristic, like the old German film 'Metropolis' or the modern Star Wars series 'Andor' 🚀🙂
Yes I had pen friends and am happy to say that I'm still in regular contact with three of them (Germany, Spain and Iceland). We've been through many things together over the decades in our respective countries!
Glad you enjoyed it. Great video. Saw this when I was a kid on the front of a Meccanno Magazine in 1958. In 1972 I like you saw it. The old cars like the preserved keiserwagen were in service, with a couple of the then new cars. The old ones were musical with sound of the motors. You could hear them everywhere. Thanks for posting.
Greetings from Wuppertal, I live right near where you filmed. Minor correction: The Monorail does service on a Sunday - that wasn`t the reason why you couldn*t ride. If you came last year there were some issues with the wheels which caused the monorail to be out of commission for a whole year.
Interesting video, during our stay in Solingen Gräfrath in the summer of 1965 we took the bus to the western start of the Schwebebahn at Vohwinkel and rode it to the Zoo Station, only 4 stops but an impressive ride, the Zoo was a great afternoon out as well.
I worked for a company based in Wuppertal for over 20 years. I know the town and the railway well. Herberts was the company's name then - it's been through some iterations since then. Good memories.
Btw. At Vohwinkel you could have changed to neighbouring town Solingen's Trolley bus system (electric busses using a catenary), which are some of the few such systems still existing in Germany.
Excellent! It brought back many memories as my Mum was from Wuppertal and I spent holidays there visiting grandparents in Sonnborn in the 50s and 60s. In those days there was a lot more industry including chemical factories and I can still remember the smell of the river on hot days!
I wonder why there are not more suspended monorails. They can be built above streets and rivers, they don't need much space on the ground. Pedestrians, bikes and cars can easily pass beneath them
Simple, they're only the most feasible option in very rare and specific circumstances. Wuppertal happens to meet those criteria, but it's pretty unique in that regard. There was no room to put rails on the ground, no room for trams because the streets were already congested, the ground wasn't suitable for an underground, and buses were slow because of the already mentioned congested streets. The only place to realistically put any additional part of infrastructure was above the river and - in some parts - above the main road. In many other cities, regular elevated rail is enough for that. However, Wuppertal is an unusually long-stretched city that lies in a narrow and winding river valley, so the tracks need to take many curves along the route. Therefore, the concept of the suspended monorail was chosen because it can travel through the many bends and curves of the tracks a lot faster than traditional elevated rail, since the carriages swing outward while passing through curves. That's one of the key factors that made the concept feasible here, but makes it not worth it in other places where tracks have less curves or where there's room for transportation on the ground.
I'm from Wuppertal and in my childhood we lived in an apartment where my room directly faced to the Schwebebahn with 20 meter distance. If you live there you don't even recognise it.
I had a pen pal in Brisbane, Australia, and another one in Vienna, Austria! I lost touch with my Australian pen friend, but I still exchange birthday and Christmas cards with my friend in Austria and I even went to visit her once in Vienna when I was in college - got off the train in Cologne to go to the top of the cathedral (like your last video!) on my way there.
The trains don't reverse, each end of the line is a loop. This is why they are single ended and there are doors on only one side. There is a depot at one end with the only points on the system.
Nice video. I lived at „Sonnborner Strasse“ a couple of years and sometimes i waved the passengers through my kitchenwindow. Especially when the „Kaiserwagen“ passed by.
If you are a bit nerdy about these things, The Tim Traveller video about this is quite interesting but I’m equally as happy with this insightful look at it as I am with the rest.
Scott, you do have an amazing knack of being able to find the quirkiest things to see and do. This may be added to my bucket list if I am ever in that part of Germany. By the way, is there any sort of barrier to stop people accidentally walking off the edge of the "suspended" platform? I couldn't quite make it out....
Nice video Scott. I've seen that many places are build up against or have had a mass transit system built up against them. Last place I would want to live, okay for a visit though🙂
Some great videography here Scott, thanks. I've watched lots of vids about this fascinating line and you've given us some footage we don't normally see. I really enjoyed this!
Many thanks Scott. I rode that monorail some years back. I can recall the cars swaying as they loaded and unloaded passengers at the platforms, and going around the curves. Another interesting feature, apart from the elephant story, is the replica "Kaiserwagen" which they run on special occasions. You can see it here: th-cam.com/video/h5ZVo5J8fGw/w-d-xo.html
Shame you didn't show the tight loop at the end of the line!. I travelled on this in the 1980's, great fun and a little unusual, unfortunately there has been one accident when a train came off and fell below causing 3 fatalities.
I'd love to visit the Shonan monorail to the west of Tokyo - same idea as this but madder - higher off the ground, goes through hiller terrain, and even goes through tunnels!
The monorail is used to operate every day at a week as standard public transport from early morning till after 11 pm. Unfortunately you came here first while they still got trouble with the new waggons and its technology so they had to solve problems every two days and finally they stopped operating on sundays for a while. Its a real shame, we still have problems with this new waggons while the old ones operated fine without any technical issues interrupting the usual timetable for decades. They don't knew what they was doing and instead of giving the order simply to MAN like before, they had to choose some random companies all over Europe which never done this before due to the fact its the only monorail of this type. But they already had trashed or sold the most old trains, so we all get angry every third morning.
You have already been on it as you left Dusseldorf Airport and you slipped up as you should have went to the front carrage you where traveling as you would have seen the full swing of the train as it swings. And also the locals call it the caterpillar as you will able to tell why.
It's not only a tourist attraction. Most of Wuppertals locals use it as a normal public transportation. When the Schwebebahn is out of service the traffic is horrible.
wow, so that is what they look like, our town council has been guffing on about one of them for 40 yrs now, never been built though. wonder how many other town has the same.
The only similar monorail is the Shonan Monorail in Japan. These are completely integrated to the infrastructures of the cities. The other ones I know are much more shorter just for use as a lift or connect only two stations.
I Wonder that they can live there. The streets looking sad, no trees, no green, the houses looking like Kazernes and than that Train and al that Steel and the noise. its so no Human. Buth thanks of showing us how it looks like.
It's one of the greenest cities in Germany. 1/3 of Wuppertal is a forest, park or playground. It doesn't matter where in wuppertal you are, with 15 minutes of walking you can get to those places.
Go to the main street of any city with a population of 350,000 people, and you're most likely not gonna find a green paradise. Wuppertal is a former industrial city, of course it's not gonna be an oasis. It was also heavily bombed during WW2, hence the many post-war buildings
Lol, anyone else thinking of that Simpsons episode? Monorail, monorail, monorail! 😁 Despite the fact they are an old idea, it somehow manages to still seem futuristic. Frankly I'm annoyed that I'm STILL not going to work on a hoverboard. Buck your ideas up engineers!
They actually wouldn't be more practical here, there's a reason the Schwebebahn was built. There was no room left on the streets, they were (and still are) absolutely crammed and heavily congested, since Wuppertal is a very long-stretched city in a river valley, meaning there's basically only one long main road going from one end to the other, that absolutely everyone has to use. Trams and buses would've just been stuck in traffic as well, the only place to put additional transportation was above the river and main road, since the ground is unsuitable for a subway.
3 Euros one tour. That's the normal single ticket for Schwebebahn and Bus. No difference. There are also tickets for the whole Day. This is 7.30 Euros.
I live in Wuppertal and the Schwebebahn operates on Sundays also. Maybe they were working on it for not to be operating on a sunday. The reason the people alongside the tracks have no problem sleeping at night is because the Schwebebahn doesn't operate between midnight and 5:00AM during the week. It is different on weekends and holidays.
I live also in Wuppertal, Elberfeld region 😊
@@stevenmcstone1008 Barmen 👍
I never knew Germans only need five hours of sleep per night
@@DdW85 Now you know
Coolest public transport I've ever seen :O The railway and the structure itself! Cheers Scott!
We're driving our VW camper from home in Howwood (near Johnstone) to Dusseldorf in a couple of weeks. I'm well going on this mad wee train 🤣
Yes ! I went to Wuppertal in July - with the 9€ ticket - just to ride the fantastic "Schwebebahn"! You can jump off an RE from Cologna (Köln) att the station Vohwinkel , continue by the "Schwebebahn" , jump off at Oberbarmen Bhf and from there continue with an RE to Dortmund !
120 years later, this beautiful transport is still here 😯 seems unreal
Despite its age, with sleek modern cars it still looks quite futuristic, like the old German film 'Metropolis' or the modern Star Wars series 'Andor' 🚀🙂
If you liked Metropolis you can see the original 'robot' at the toy museum in Figures, Spain.
Yes I had pen friends and am happy to say that I'm still in regular contact with three of them (Germany, Spain and Iceland). We've been through many things together over the decades in our respective countries!
What fun. I would have to ride it a couple times. The views are amazing.
Glad you enjoyed it. Great video. Saw this when I was a kid on the front of a Meccanno Magazine in 1958. In 1972 I like you saw it. The old cars like the preserved keiserwagen were in service, with a couple of the then new cars. The old ones were musical with sound of the motors. You could hear them everywhere. Thanks for posting.
Greetings from Wuppertal, I live right near where you filmed.
Minor correction: The Monorail does service on a Sunday - that wasn`t the reason why you couldn*t ride. If you came last year there were some issues with the wheels which caused the monorail to be out of commission for a whole year.
Interesting video, during our stay in Solingen Gräfrath in the summer of 1965 we took the bus to the western start of the Schwebebahn at Vohwinkel and rode it to the Zoo Station, only 4 stops but an impressive ride, the Zoo was a great afternoon out as well.
I worked for a company based in Wuppertal for over 20 years. I know the town and the railway well. Herberts was the company's name then - it's been through some iterations since then. Good memories.
Brilliant Scott thanks
Btw. At Vohwinkel you could have changed to neighbouring town Solingen's Trolley bus system (electric busses using a catenary), which are some of the few such systems still existing in Germany.
Excellent! It brought back many memories as my Mum was from Wuppertal and I spent holidays there visiting grandparents in Sonnborn in the 50s and 60s. In those days there was a lot more industry including chemical factories and I can still remember the smell of the river on hot days!
Lucky the elephant didn't get poisoned! Don't think it would have survived in this drought year by the look of it.
Wow Bonkers! On the cool-o-meter it's off the chart!🙃
Very interesting video. Thanks 👍
I wonder why there are not more suspended monorails. They can be built above streets and rivers, they don't need much space on the ground. Pedestrians, bikes and cars can easily pass beneath them
Simple, they're only the most feasible option in very rare and specific circumstances. Wuppertal happens to meet those criteria, but it's pretty unique in that regard. There was no room to put rails on the ground, no room for trams because the streets were already congested, the ground wasn't suitable for an underground, and buses were slow because of the already mentioned congested streets. The only place to realistically put any additional part of infrastructure was above the river and - in some parts - above the main road.
In many other cities, regular elevated rail is enough for that. However, Wuppertal is an unusually long-stretched city that lies in a narrow and winding river valley, so the tracks need to take many curves along the route.
Therefore, the concept of the suspended monorail was chosen because it can travel through the many bends and curves of the tracks a lot faster than traditional elevated rail, since the carriages swing outward while passing through curves. That's one of the key factors that made the concept feasible here, but makes it not worth it in other places where tracks have less curves or where there's room for transportation on the ground.
I'm from Wuppertal and in my childhood we lived in an apartment where my room directly faced to the Schwebebahn with 20 meter distance. If you live there you don't even recognise it.
I had a pen pal in Brisbane, Australia, and another one in Vienna, Austria! I lost touch with my Australian pen friend, but I still exchange birthday and Christmas cards with my friend in Austria and I even went to visit her once in Vienna when I was in college - got off the train in Cologne to go to the top of the cathedral (like your last video!) on my way there.
What a fascinating example of a mass transit system. Thanks for sharing this.
This is so cool. It's now on my bucket list
I've only seen a few clips of this train. Thanks for the history and video.
Thanks for the video. This has been on my bucket list for many years now!
At Wuppertal Main Train Station, they hunt pigeons with falcons. Thats so amazing to look at this spectalous event
Good video 😊
The trains don't reverse, each end of the line is a loop. This is why they are single ended and there are doors on only one side.
There is a depot at one end with the only points on the system.
Wuppertal is so underrated , it was beautiful and I cant wait to go back
A real pleasure! Thank you.
Brilliant Scott thank you for sharing your videos are a good learning curb for me
Good on you, Scott. As ever, very enjoyable.
Only in Germany, brilliant!.... still operating after all these years.
They look like fairground rides to me
Nice video. I lived at „Sonnborner Strasse“ a couple of years and sometimes i waved the passengers through my kitchenwindow. Especially when the „Kaiserwagen“ passed by.
This was Awesome thanks for taking us along 😁😁💟
Over 45 years ago i had a letter friendship with a girl from New Zeeland. Susan Clark. Funny, you remembered me😘🤭👍
If you are a bit nerdy about these things, The Tim Traveller video about this is quite interesting but I’m equally as happy with this insightful look at it as I am with the rest.
This is on my bucket list.
The elephant's name was "Tuffi", which coincidentally is "high diving" in Italian.
Nice video scott
I am hard of hearing, but I still would not want to live anywhere near the noise that monorail makes.
Scott, you do have an amazing knack of being able to find the quirkiest things to see and do. This may be added to my bucket list if I am ever in that part of Germany. By the way, is there any sort of barrier to stop people accidentally walking off the edge of the "suspended" platform? I couldn't quite make it out....
Super video Scott. Boy you sure do get around. No sitting in front of the TV for you. Great videos as always. Thank you.
Nice video Scott. I've seen that many places are build up against or have had a mass transit system built up against them. Last place I would want to live, okay for a visit though🙂
I knew of this but had never seen footage from inside (or below it!) Thanks for another great travel video!
Great video Scott
Some great videography here Scott, thanks. I've watched lots of vids about this fascinating line and you've given us some footage we don't normally see.
I really enjoyed this!
Managed to travel on it a few years back…a weird experience. Looks like the cars may be relatively new. Good video.
Thanks for another great vid. 👍👍
Yes, really cool. I thought you were going to show us an elehpant posing from a balcony. Surreal.
It would be amazing if your pen friend found this and got back in touch!
Class... Thank you 😊
Man. I lost your site. And lo and behold - “Here you are.”
Many thanks Scott. I rode that monorail some years back. I can recall the cars swaying as they loaded and unloaded passengers at the platforms, and going around the curves. Another interesting feature, apart from the elephant story, is the replica "Kaiserwagen" which they run on special occasions. You can see it here: th-cam.com/video/h5ZVo5J8fGw/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for this. What a great vehicle. Reminds me of the old Pullman carriages in the UK.
The Kaiserwagen will not be running again until spring 2024.
@@Michael_from_EU_Germany thank you for the information.
very retro scott reminds me of air in alton towers 😂
Did you visit the brewpub in the old swimming pool?
That's exactly what I was thinking
Did that in 1991, it was a great day out.
Shame you didn't show the tight loop at the end of the line!. I travelled on this in the 1980's, great fun and a little unusual, unfortunately there has been one accident when a train came off and fell below causing 3 fatalities.
That's like something out of Thunderbirds!!!!
The future is here today
The future was built over 120 years ago.
Scott I had a penfriend too. What a great video.
If you want to ride a monorail on a Sunday, the nearby Dusseldorf Airport has a good one albeit much shorter duration.
I'd love to visit the Shonan monorail to the west of Tokyo - same idea as this but madder - higher off the ground, goes through hiller terrain, and even goes through tunnels!
The Schwebebahn is from 1901, the Shonan Monorail from 1970. For 1901 it was way before its time.
@@phager Yes, you are right there. Actually I thought the Shonan monorail was much more recent than 1970??
This reminds me of the Nemesis ride at Alton Towers!
First time I heard of this was in Fahrenheit 451
Enjoyed this video god help living in a flat or apartment
Great video but what an absolute eyesore. Sorry Wuppertal.
It usually also operates on sundays, but it is broken often st it cannot be used regularly
Love it it's a feet of engineering
Hi, I wanted to do this a few years ago, but couldn't due to ill health. Am I right in thinking Dusseldorf is the nearest airport?
I have got to have a go on the dangle train.
It reminds me of Thunderbirds
My grandmother remembers the elephant incident very well as she was there for a competition
So which is the oldest still operating monorail? I´m curious.
The monorail is used to operate every day at a week as standard public transport from early morning till after 11 pm. Unfortunately you came here first while they still got trouble with the new waggons and its technology so they had to solve problems every two days and finally they stopped operating on sundays for a while. Its a real shame, we still have problems with this new waggons while the old ones operated fine without any technical issues interrupting the usual timetable for decades. They don't knew what they was doing and instead of giving the order simply to MAN like before, they had to choose some random companies all over Europe which never done this before due to the fact its the only monorail of this type. But they already had trashed or sold the most old trains, so we all get angry every third morning.
Does now operate on Sundays
You have already been on it as you left Dusseldorf Airport and you slipped up as you should have went to the front carrage you where traveling as you would have seen the full swing of the train as it swings. And also the locals call it the caterpillar as you will able to tell why.
Superbly edited - your content moves to a new level. Wonder what happened to the pen friend? Mine I guess she is now a pensioner in Sweden. 😗
I have the same pen-friend since 1985. Did you get thel Schwebebahn scale model?
Will you be visiting Gdansk?
So weird, I only found this thing existed after I had a weird dream and I searched for upside-down monorail!
It's a bit like being on the elevated section of the Paris Metro
nice vid, but it would drive me nuts if i lived around there having that monstrosity there in front of my building.
2:00 That was Tuffi...
That’s a defo no thanks for me 😂😂
Excellent video. I now have a new item for my bucket list. Do you know if this is mostly a tourist thing or do people use this to commute?
It's not only a tourist attraction. Most of Wuppertals locals use it as a normal public transportation. When the Schwebebahn is out of service the traffic is horrible.
wow, so that is what they look like, our town council has been guffing on about one of them for 40 yrs now, never been built though. wonder how many other town has the same.
The only similar monorail is the Shonan Monorail in Japan. These are completely integrated to the infrastructures of the cities. The other ones I know are much more shorter just for use as a lift or connect only two stations.
@@guemit82 i know of the Japanese one, they built it through sky scrapers. through them.
I Wonder that they can live there. The streets looking sad, no trees, no green, the houses looking like Kazernes and than that Train and al that Steel and the noise. its so no Human. Buth thanks of showing us how it looks like.
I was born there 76 years ago and it was then a place with much greenery and friendly people and a good place to live. Much has changed.
It's one of the greenest cities in Germany. 1/3 of Wuppertal is a forest, park or playground.
It doesn't matter where in wuppertal you are, with 15 minutes of walking you can get to those places.
Go to the main street of any city with a population of 350,000 people, and you're most likely not gonna find a green paradise. Wuppertal is a former industrial city, of course it's not gonna be an oasis. It was also heavily bombed during WW2, hence the many post-war buildings
So Ur the second elephant too travel on the monorail tuck that trunk in lol
Please explain
Lol, anyone else thinking of that Simpsons episode? Monorail, monorail, monorail! 😁 Despite the fact they are an old idea, it somehow manages to still seem futuristic. Frankly I'm annoyed that I'm STILL not going to work on a hoverboard. Buck your ideas up engineers!
I thought you'd be doing that, while in Deutschland. 🙂
Trams or trolleybuses would be much more practical, but The Scwebebahn is certainly amazing and unique.
Actually trams and buses are a huge pain in teh ass in Wuppertal. Roads are narrow and road slopes are steep.
They actually wouldn't be more practical here, there's a reason the Schwebebahn was built. There was no room left on the streets, they were (and still are) absolutely crammed and heavily congested, since Wuppertal is a very long-stretched city in a river valley, meaning there's basically only one long main road going from one end to the other, that absolutely everyone has to use. Trams and buses would've just been stuck in traffic as well, the only place to put additional transportation was above the river and main road, since the ground is unsuitable for a subway.
Is there a driver on board or is it computerised?
There is a driver on board
Looks like it's something out of Gotham city
Black painted trains with yellow headlights and a lot of fog should do it 😁
And of course the track ends at the Wayne Tower
How much did the trip cost Scott ?
3 Euros one tour. That's the normal single ticket for Schwebebahn and Bus. No difference. There are also tickets for the whole Day. This is 7.30 Euros.
@@chico11mbit Thanks
Could you use your €9 ticket to ride?
Yes, it's normal, fare integrated public transport, so the 9-Euro ticket was valid on it.
C'mon tell us, was the zoo open on a Sunday?
Yes, from 9am to 6pm every day
After world war 2, Germany and Japan 🗾 salute these nation..
It was pen pal, not pen friend
Allen David Rodriguez Nancy Rodriguez Matthew