A WEIRD RAILWAY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8824, 28 May 1907, Page 4

A WEIRD RAILWAY.

BTI e mono-rail railway, invented by Mr Louis Brennan, of Australia, which has so greatly impressed the Indian Government and the War Office, differs from other mono-: ail systems in that the rail is on the ground and not overhead. It is rather alarming to contemplate » journey in a carriage on a single rail underneath at an enormous speed, for one cannot help asking what would happen if tho gyroscope, which maintains the carriage upright and rigid, wore to stop relating at its extraordinary speed of 1000 revolutions a minute. However, there are safeguards, no doubt, and Mr JBrenuan claims that the (rain is always under perfect control. A visitor who saw a model working at his place in Bromptou, says it worked splendidly. Tho model was oft. long, engine and truck combined, and the rail was half an inch thick, giving place to a wire cable between two mounds specially constructed to represent the two sides of a ravine. Tho model tcok a grade of cue in live with ease, and crossed tho ravine with perfect steiulir.es>. A boy was placed in tho (ruck —hi-, weight being equal to a 1 >ad of 14 ions—and the, model cor tinned to behave itself admirably. When tho boy moved to one side, the truck moved in tho opposite direction. Finally it was scut round the elaborate curves ot a wire track, and took the turnings splendidly. There is to bo a gyrosepe in each carriage, and Mr Brennan talks of a speed of 200 miles an hour. Ho claims that the great advantage of the. invention is that it* can bo used for rough country. Twenty miles ot it can bo laid in a day, and tho cost of construction is about one-third that of tho ordinary rail track.