A Brief History of: The Bennie Railplane
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Hello and welcome back to this week's episode of A Brief history of and today we will be talking about the Bennie Railplane.
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Hello everyone, I hope you enjoy this weeks episode! Let me know your favourite types of weird transport in the comments below!
Plainly Difficult
Surrey pickle wagon.
I'm not sure if this is correct., but my dad had this old pedal cart in the garage that he called a Surrey pickle wagon.
*edit* ahhhh. I was right. just checked Google.
Plainly Difficult
actually...if I were to speak literally, the weirdest thing I ever sat on that moves would be a huge inflatable hotdog that is pulled by a boat.
Air boat, I suppose.
Air ballon.
Plainly Difficult The Hyperloop! Not because of its cool factor, but because of how people are latching in to what is currently a bad idea as proved by thunderf00t. Thanks for the amazing video!
The Railplane is one of those impractical ideas you still kinda wished worked, like having a train do a vertical loop
okay why the hell did he fail
that would be so much cooler than normal railways today
i mean just name sounds so dope
Railplane
It would have been a fun way to travel just such a shame it failed! thanks for the comment!!
Because it is an incredibly stupid idea. One of those ideas for which it isn't immediately obvious, but the suspension railway at the end of the video illustrates the reason why it is so stupid. You COULD try running it with a hugely wasteful stream of air, pushing and pulling the train with a propeller, . . . oooor you could just use the same electric motors to directly power the train with motorized wheels, giving it more than double the power and efficiency of a propeller driven version. Better still, why not do away with the thousands of tons of girders needed to run this new device, and run it on the existing tracks and infrastructure, with only slight modifications! It's called an electric train and it is largely what we did.
The 'big selling point' of a suspended light rail system is in the construction. You can fit them in places that wouldn't work for a traditional rail bed, and you can engineer your alignments and gradients with less earth work. Have highly uneven ground? You could move massive volumes of earth and fill and blast through rock, or you could size your towers such that you just average things out.
Air drives also have some interesting advantages, such as lack of drive/braking wear on the running rails, and not having to sacrifice rolling efficiency to gain effective traction. They can also be 'driven up' grades that a traditional rail setup would slip on. (Monorails and some suspended train systems get the same grade advantage by using a traction system that actively grips a drive rail, but then you're dealing with a more complex drive system that is potentially harder to maintain.)
I agree light rail has its place, and has mostly been used in flat urban settings where the gradient isn't as much of an issue. It's the propellers that are the real sticking points for me, knowing what we do now about the efficiency of electric motors on traditional rail cars, it's just so unnecessary. There are plenty of easier solutions to the traction issues, and mag lev trains look like they might have solved the friction issue.
Well at least there are improvements to be made, and I look forward to seeing what we're using when I'm an old man.
According to someone who was on antique roadshow, who has his original design book, it failed because the depression happened and investors pulled out. Had it not been for that, it was implied it would have succeeded.
I rode around on an office chair pulled behind my brother's car a couple of times. Turns out those things aren't very stable when you get them over 25 miles an hour and for some reason the little plastic wheels don't seem to be designed to take the stress of moving at that speed for very long. It was really fun and incredibly dangerous.
Question time: is it a monorail or a rollercoaster?
Id say it probably has more in common with a roller coaster, As i recently went Chessington world of adventures and the vampire ride is very similar as the rail plane, minus a propellor! Thanks for the comment, I hope you enjoyed the video!
I know I’m two years late, but it’s powered by itself and not gravity so it’s not a rollercoaster.
It might count as a powered coaster though
Benny would be pleased to hear the comparison no doubt?
@@PlainlyDifficult rollercoaster of love
@@PlainlyDifficult No! Thank you!
Very nice video! I was born in Wuppertal and I still live there, our "Schwebebahn" is pretty much the same concept, with the exception of its wheels directly driven by electric motors. It is absolutely amazing and by far the best and the fastestfastest way to get around the City. And you get everywhere, since its track is almost 14 km in length. It was also opened for public service in 1901! So it has been in service for almost 118 years! It recently got new, modern trains and its complete structure was renewed for its 100th birthday. Keep up the good videos! I watched all the nuclear stuff and all the strange places, very interesting!
If the rail plane was mainstream, imagine the Eurostar today.
It would make the trip more interesting! thanks for the comment!
Love the puns, keep them coming!
I do love a good pun!! Thanks for the comment and thanks for there support!!
There is still a horse-drawn tram operating in South Australia, between Victor Harbor and Granite Island. I believe there was one in Douglas, Isle of Man, and while it is not a unique form of transport, as it was quite common over a century ago, it is a unique experience to travel on one in the 21st century !
Weirdest mode of transport? Antonov AN-2 biplane! Lots of fun, and a great sound! :D
Sounds fun! Where did you fly that?
At an airshow here in Norway! Flown by a group called "Russian warbirds of Norway" who operates cold war Soviet aircraft.
Sadly their hangar suffered a fire last year, and most of their planes burned up, but they managed to save the Antonov. They are rebuilding their collection now though! :)
kristenburnout1
do you even recognize the opportunity you have here?!?!? I sincerely hope you know what I'm talking about...
Eric Tomlinson Sorry, i don't understand what you mean. Pardon my English! :(
Note, the AN-2 is the largest single-engined biplan.
Excellent video as always, Never heard of such a thing!
As a quick suggestion for a future video, may I suggest the X-planes of the early to mid cold war period such as the Stiletto? I realize its rather specific, but the designs are really awesome and i wonder what the back-round history of it all was.
Ive been considering doing a video on parasite fighters and i think the x planes fall under that possibly? Thanks for the comment!
Correct! a good few of them where parasite designs.
I'm cool with the puns, I punderstand your humor.
XD!
PLANE TRAIN
Trane
There is actually a small exhibit dedicated to the Bernie railplane at the Didcot Railway Centre in Didcot, England as a testament to early 20th century engineering and… The problems that come with it, logistical or political
Spelt Milngavie, pronounced Mill guy. Just along the road from me!
In the US we say both railway and railroad. I've heard both at least.
Ah fair play, I always assumed railway was mainly a UK thing just like how we call switches points. thanks for the comment!
Plainly Difficult of course, as a kid I watched a LOT of Thomas the Tank Engine, which is a British show. So maybe I'm just weird :P
Weirdest type of transport I have ever used?
rode on the back of a pre-1914 steam tractor.
you know, huge steel wheels driven by leather belts. steered by a chain pinned to a "rod" as a rudimentary steering wheel. and practically a steam train on wheels that can run farm equipment.
second weirdest was a v8 powered trike putting out about 450hp. that thing was scary. just think a large leather couch strapped to a cars rear end diff with it all connected to an engine and a front bycicle wheel.......with no seatbelts
Ah man you've travelled on some pretty interesting rides!! Thanks for the comment!
aww man. your'e to much haha. pretty modest compared to the other comments tbh
Never heard of it so I watched the film with great interest. Thank you!
:) My name is Sally and George Bennie is my great, great grandpa (In other words my poppa's poppa.) Just recently MY poppa passed away.:( So they passed down his tablet and gave it to me and I'm using it right now!
Sally Bennie, that's amazing. Thanks for commenting and sharing.
@@billdixon9320 The Bennies of Glasgow are descendants of James Watt, and were quite inventive. When in London (1960) at age 10, I saw a building sign-painted "The Bennie Lift Company" -- electrical lifts (elevators) came into popularity post 1880. I know this bc my grandfather was Thomas Fisher Bennie, born in Glasgow, and moved to Australia at age 16, and there became a homebuilder. You can look up T.F. Bennie on the Family Search genealogy site (no fee).
@@billdixon9320 I'm in the States, but whenever I can get to Edinburgh UK, I plan to do research at the Scottish Records. The online search has not been useful.
Be proud of him. It was an amazing concept. Everyday I pass that field and imagine what it would have looked like. The flying Cigar tube.
@@pbierre Am I understanding you correctly? George Bennie is related to James Watt? That would be so awesome
That's a cool thing I hadn't seen yet...
AND I don't know exactly what would constitute the "weirdest" thing I've ridden (or driven if we're honest)...
The Navy had the LCAC (Landing Craft Air Cushion) so giant friggin' hovercraft...
I was assigned duty on an LPD (Landing Platform and Docking) so "Amphibious" ship, which meant a flat bottom on a sea-going vessel... bounced around in rough water like a turd in a fish-bowl.
Part of the culture in this area is "mod'ing cars" so there have been plenty of weird-o's... From a V8 powered Ford Lawn Tractor (would do 0-100 in about 4 seconds)... to a variety of "Tricycles" powered by everything from a VW or Porsche boxter to a V12 (Jag' I believe)... shoe-horned into the thing.
Had a hand in building a couple "personal" Hovercraft, which were oddly easier than I'd expected them to be in construction... Including (okay, weird?) one that was essentially based on a down-hill tobogan, to pick up speed easier, so part of the wind-over this thing was scooped into the air-cushion below. It wasn't very durable or lasting... since roughly dragging the skirts down through ice and snow didn't help them last very long... BUT we did manage to get it to work.
The military used to have a vehicle (ish?) called a "Mule"... which was basically a platform of wood on a vehicular frame with a driver's seat at one corner.
I've worked on and driven a few tractors with diesel engines that were CARBURATED... no turbo's (Pre-Cummings)... AND they were... interestingly infuriating until you get used to them... and slow.
AND there was a variety of steam-powered monstrosities from back in the day, along with a couple replicas I helped with... Tractors to a predecessor of the modern 18Wheeler (you call them "Lories" in the UK, I think)... and one (I'm sure it was a replica, honestly) Mercedes supposedly built in the 1890's.
AND one "Ice boat"... Which is a propeller driven sled with sort of the fuselage of an airplane... That thing was a relic, but it would do around 80 with a bit of tail-wind... provided you actually had the "balls" to push the throttle for it.
FINALLY, just to be clear... I actually ACTIVELY go out and find weird sh*t to get involved in. This isn't something that just "randomly shows up". You kind of have to go looking and poking around (or just build one of your own) if you're going to get into such ridiculous things. They did (and some still do) exist, but it's a bit of work to find them.
SO you be the judge... what IS the weirdest (or most damned foolish) thing I've ridden on??? ;o)
The air cushion toboggan is a really interesting idea. Pity the skirts are consumable items!
@@paulbennell3313 Yeah... it was kinda cool except for that part.
Our mistake (so you don't get quite a foolish as we were) was over-estimating the durability of the rubber... and we used silicone (Caulk, basically) for sealant, and pop-rivets to hold the thing on, a tad TOO permanent a fastener system.
Had it to do over, I'd recommend sturdy, self-tapping machine screws, and if you have to hire out, get someone who can weld patches into your framing so you can just "re-drill" as necessary.
That alone would have saved us tremendously, and kept that goofy thing around a LOT longer.
The rubber... Just about any reasonable rubber will do, at least for a while. We were scavenging old inflatable boats to cut up for material. They were supposedly qualified for rafting and river-running, and thus we thought a bit too highly of them.
Remember, ice is HELL on surfaces. ;o)
This is the only video I've seen with zero dislikes and it's on the channel that deserves it!!!
The wierdest thing I've ever ridden is the rotating elevator train inside the st.louis arch.
Great video man! Interesting as always. I rode a WW2 truck once so not really the most interesting thing ever but I thought it was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to your next video already
Thanks tom! Still pretty interesting way to travel! Thanks for the comment and thanks for the support!!
Well done for this clip. My Father always talked about Bennies rail and had seen it working. I thought he was kidding me but i checked out and found out it was a real thing. The Railway was where the Glasgow Rangers Training Pitches are now in Milngavie. to the north of Glasgow.......Again thank you for this recognition and highlighting that when it comes to innovation. twentieth century capitalists never had the balls to invest like their nineth century counter parts had.'
Love the Flash Gordon style rocket ship design.
🎶"mono raaaaiiill, mono raaaaiiiiilll, mono raaaaiiiilll!"🎶 "mono rai- DOH!!!!"
Simpson's, anyone? anyone?
Classic episode! Who needs a monorail!
I wonder how many subs it'll take before you can't keep up with ❤ing all the comments. It's already got to be a daunting task... but the kids love that stuff. as do I. I'm addicted to networking in all its forms.
Oddest form of transportation I've ever used? Probably the mobile, foot-powerd bar here in Orlando. Yes I'm not joking.
So it's a two-sided bartop with the bartenders in the middle, on wheels. When it's time to move, all of the stools have pedals under them, and the drinkers pedal it to the next stop.
i.ytimg.com/vi/KJCWyRBiQEA/maxresdefault.jpg
Like this, the "Beer Bike" from Germany. (spelling and .de on the URL tells us that)
Ah yes I once encountered one of them In central London head on at a one way street! I couldn't select reverse quick enough!
Quality as always, surprised your channel isn't bigger.
Thanks Mr Power, Thanks for the comment and the support!!
I expect the reason for the bottom rail is that the propeller induces rotational torque on the cars. If the prop spins clockwise, the entire vehicle would try to move counterclockwise, causing it to try to lean sideways off-center, rather than hanging straight down. Changing prop speed affects how much it leans. Counter-rotating propellers would have canceled out this torque.
I grew up in Rottingdean, the terminus for The "Daddylonglegs" railway from Brighton. I also knew Mr. Volk.
weirdest transport for me is probably the big vehicles that go from one section to another at dulles airport
Is it like a people mover type thing? Thanks for the comment!
@@PlainlyDifficult they're seriously like something out of star wars. They're huge trapezoid-carred truck things with no externally visible driver cab. They're on huge tires and look and feel top-heavy. Can confirm they're very strange.
Amish buggy, I think. The turn signals consist of small hooded lanterns, with heavy metal blinds on pulley assemblies. The driver tugs on say, the left string to swing the left blind up and down in front of the lantern. They were implemented because so many automobile drivers crash into Amish buggies after dark.
Ok, 0:20 made me smile, good on you. Kid.
Nice, you were on the right track with this one!!
XD!
Strangest thing I have ridden in: Coal Train inside a mine. Also, there is the air boat in Florida.
John, at least he didn't think that sticking it in a vacuum, was the best idea!
There was a simmilar concept called "Schienenzeppelin" or rail zeppelin.
But that never took off as well.
Weirdest transport I've taken... alright I'll Bite. I've ridden in a DUKW when I was a wee lad. It was fun!
Ah did it go in the water? We used to have the dick tours here in London, once went on it! I'm surprised Amy survived the war with how low in the water they sit!! Thanks for the comment!
Plainly Difficult of course it got its feet wet. There's still one or two more floating around the northern states in the us. And of course, I really like your videos and keep up the great work!
Plainly Difficult Ah yes, the great London 'dick' tours of yesteryear.....
The whole scheme was a bit impractical but it would be awesome to see the short test track in Milngavie rebuilt as a tourist attraction! People would come from far and wide to ride on it.
Great video! I really enjoyed this one!
Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed it thanks for the comment and there support!
Weirdest method of transportation I've been riding? Probably a Ryanair plane..
Jk, I've been riding an Armored Trolley Truck for soldiers at a fort a former teacher of mine once was on. We went out there for fun and to be shown the place and was allowed to go on a ride in one of these, together with one of the soldiers. The soldiers all bragged a whole lot on how it could never ever get stuck. That it would be able to handle all terrains. However, halfway into the ride, the soldier steering it, accidentally drives into a mudhole and is unable to move the trolley truck for about half an hour and has to call for assistance, just to finally be able to pull it free, once the assistance arrived. Of course we bullied the soldier like hell for bragging that much. I've never seen a soldier so embarrassed before and I love how his colleages just laughed their asses off once we returned home to the fort again xD
I've also personally had some fun with a tractor (I accidentally got it to stall almost 90 degrees) and I've been using a small excavator when I was around 11-12 years old (I'm turning 23 this year). Then there's the usual small train that goes around in some fun parks, as well as different ferries (from big enough to have a shop on board, to so small than only about 12 cars could be on its deck and only about 20 seats on one side were on the ferry). I've also been sailing around in different sail boats. When my granddad on my fathers side were to get burried, he wanted his ashes spread out over the sea. That happened from an old frigate from the Danish Navy. There are probably more which I can't remember off the top of my head.
I'm not sure about it, the propellor seems like it could cause a lot of accidental deaths at platforms
And as always,
thanks for watching.
XD
Not nearly enough puns!
We need more!
This may not be the comment section i want for this, but the Sankebetsu brown bear incident from Japan is a very intriguing story. It was inspiration for the movie "Night of the Grizzly", but the real story is way more gruesome than the movie. Even the Japanese army got involved.
Ohh that Pun was really Fun...........
The Video was good too.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video but more importantly the Puns!!
As Joe Friday would say "Just the facts sir." Very cool channel.
Cheers mate, great as always!
Thanks for the comment and the support!
why in is the english language "a head of its time" used in situation, where the solution even a century later does not work out, due to fundamental constrains, like I do not know, the support structures of an over head rail way?
its 'a heed of its time'. you were hearing it wrong. ok not really. but it sounds believable right.
Looks a lot more sensible than a hyperloop!
I am so sleepy, I missed every pun except for traction. Lmao!!
Huh, silly me...thought this was a formal/psychoactive "Bennie" from beat-lit era writings like "On the Road," "Naked Lunch" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest!!"
I suppose the most interesting transport I've ridden is the Seattle monorail that was built for the 1962 fair. Oh, I've been on a San Francisco cable car, as well. The most interesting transport I've been on that didn't actually go anywhere was Hughes' vast flying boat, the HK-1.
water buffalo.
and I mean on an actual water buffalo, no cart.
Hahaha wow how did you manage that?
Plainly Difficult I had an aunt who lived in the country had she had a few on her land
my strangest for of transportation was being lobbed over a barrier by an extremely large man. I was at EDC in LA and a riot/bum rush started. I stumbled and thought I was about to be trampled to death. Then it felt like the hand of god lifted me up, but it turned out to be an extremely large man had saw me go down and grabbed me by the backpack an was holding me a couple of feet off the ground. He said “you ok bro?” I nodded, and he went “1,2,3,” and with surprising tenderness tossed me over a a barrier to relative safety.
This gives me a funny feeling in my tummy.
ROLLER COASTER
OF LOOOVE
say whaaaaaat
Weirdest form of transport I've been on was a GMC DUKW amphibious vehicle from WWII on a tour of Chattanooga
How did this not catch on? Much better than default railways.
Its so sad that all trains are not roller coasters it would make travel so much more fun.imagine going from London to Edinburgh on a overnight sleeper on the big dipper .Ace.
Hmmm... weirdest form of transportation....
Maybe it would be the time I was skateboarding about a mile from my house and broke my ankle really badly. This was in the 90s and before most people had cell phones. There were sometimes pay phones but none where I was skating and I didn't have the 20 cents needed anyway. I couldn't walk at all and no one else had been skating with me so this is where my skateboard became a weird form of transportation because I sat my ass on it and used my hands to slowly push myself home. It took a really long time and then I found that I was stuck in my garage because I couldn't get up the little step so I had to yell for my mom.
You should do a video on the DLR!
came for the rail, stayed for the puns.
Riding a Japanese Type 95 Hai-Go Light Tank. Its pretty much the standard Japanese tank during ww2. At the same time it is one of the smallest tanks during ww2 barely fitting 3.. I banged my head several times because of its size.
That sounds too cool! How did you manage that one? I know at Bovvington tank museum you can take a ride in a tank!
In Japan their some places where you can drive remakes on the street.
Wow! Book me a flight to Japan!!
Rail plane sounds like it would go down well with the mile high crowd :P
Hyperloop is the Bennie Railplane of our era.
I had no idea this was thing, very interesting. But Milngavie is actually pronounced more like "mil-guy"
Whoops my bad, Thanks for the comment, kinda shame that we aren't all traveling on rail planes now!!
Milngavie - mull-guy. Or close enough.
I had a friend who lived there many years ago.
this needs to be said, FLYING THOMAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED
Why does it need to have overhead rails? And then again: Driving the wheels will always be more energy efficient than using a propeller. What a high-speed train actually needs is smooth and straight rails, but this can also be done on the ground with a lot less effort...
Those puns are pretty fly
First photo when you click the video is old but the train looks modern. If you saw a electric train it would rather look the same but the front is not flat and the middle looks same I think
My youngest says the frontrunner which in Utah is a commuter train and myself is a horse on cobblestone streets in Ecuador. Otherwise it would be a mini train at a zoo I mean we’ve ridden a camel and an elephant from one place to another so I guess it depends on what you consider weird???
As lads we hitched a lift to town on the back of the street sweepers heading back to the depot for lunch.
But why though, It insanely more efficient to have those engines turning the propeller to turn the wheels that are connected to the rail. It's like orders of magnitude more efficient. Just compare like a hovercraft which max at like 15 mpg vs any car or motorcycle.
I can't think of any reason why this has a benefit over another overhead rail or monorail solution.
First and only question: why wouldn’t you just drive the rollers rather than wasting energy with a propellor?
Cool vid!
Thanks for the comment!
Thank you so much ! You're the first big TH-cam to comment on my comment I made a shoutout to you on my channel as thanks!
great video
Thanks stefan! Thanks as always for the comment and the support!
This feels a bit like Elon Musk and the Hyperloop. It's probably not going to work, but kudos for trying anyways.
Weirdest form of transport? Probably a unicycle. It's amazing that it's even rideable at all.
I've traveled quite a bit on U.S.N. LCACs
Fun fact: Milngavie is a place name often used by Scots to identify if someone is familiar with Glasgow etc. It's pronounced Mill - Guy. It's jokingly pronounced Mill-un-gavie to make fun of people not from the area - much as you did here. An easy mistake to make :)
Oh great video btw!
Why wasn't it taken up? Surely there was something wrong with it or people would've backed it
I think it was the practicalities of using a different rail standard for passenger transport. Thanks for the comment!
1960 ? VW microbus. It had flip out turn signals.
Basically a blender on wheels, hanging in the air
BTW - Milngaive is actually pronounced Mullguy.
Great film. Milngavie is pronounced. Mill-guy. You had no way of knowing that.
Success is often up to public demand, and public demand is fickle and not very rational. For years people carried around a cellphone and a "personal digital assistant". Basically what a cellphone is today except split up into the phone part and the "everything else" part. Both the public and the manufacturers insisted no one wanted a unified device and there was no market for one. Until Apple introduced the iPhone. Then we all wet our pants. After that Palm which sold the Pilot PDA that everyone had as a phone companion went bankrupt.
The keys to success are definitely Skill, Opportunity, and Luck, there's no doubt about it.
Bennie Went Bankrupt sounds like a skater punk band
Does being pulled by a horse on roller skates in a suburban neighborhood count as transport?
MORE PUNS,
PUNS FOR THE PUN GOD
Hahaha gotta have a cheeky pun! Thanks for the comment!
Edd China and his drivable couch sofa has entered the chat.
The railplane
Maybe it wouldn’t have failed if it was called the Trane
oh MAN why didnt i see this. thats perfect
Railbikes are weird. Not sure what kind of video you'd make about them though
Weirdest form of transportation I've been on.... Has to be a shopping cart
There's a cow pusher, and then there is a cow *blender*
A propeller driven vehicle is surely far less efficient than one driven directly
Hope you get to feeling better.... :D
monorail
monorail
*monorail*
MONORAIL
A cog railway in Switzerland.
Sea Turtle
This is one of those examples of tech that deserved a bit more testing. Could mag train tech benefit from a hanging position in certain applications?
Not well read on any of the relevant subjects so it may be blatantly obvious. And that I'm just an idiot, nothing new.