monorail (redirected from Monorails)

monorail, railway system that uses cars that run on a single rail. Typically the rail is run overhead and the cars are either suspended from it or run above it. Driving power is transmitted from the cars to the track by means of wheels that rotate horizontally, making contact with the rail between its upper and lower flanges. In the maglev monorails currently under development, powerful magnets hold the car just off its track and propel it at high speed. One of the principal advantages of a monorail is the relative simplicity of its trackage in comparison with that of a standard railway. Monorails originated and still function as materials-handling systems, similar to traveling cranes, for use in large factories. Short urban transportation monorails have been built in Houston, Seattle, and Germany. A maglev line linking Shanghai's financial district with its new airport began commercial operation in 2004.

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monorail

Electric railway that runs on a single rail either above or under the railway cars. The first systems were introduced in the early 20th century; the earliest probably opened in 1901 in Wuppertal, Germany. Short-run monorails have since been built in such cities as Tokyo and Seattle. Because of higher costs and slower speeds than conventional rail systems, the monorail has not gained wide support. High-speed monorail vehicles that use magnetic levitation have been undergoing research for many years.

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monorail

a single-rail railway, often elevated and with suspended cars
http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/itrans2.htm

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monorail [′män·ə‚rāl]

(civil engineering)

A single rail used as a track; usually elevated, with cars straddling or hanging from it.

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Monorail

A distinctive type of materials-handling machine that provides an overhead, normally horizontal, fixed path of travel in the form of a trackage system and individually propelled hand or powered trolleys which carry their loads suspended freely with an intermittent motion. Because monorails operate over fixed paths rather than over limited areas, they differ from overhead-traveling cranes, and they should not be confused with such overhead conveyors as cableways. See Bulk-handling machines, Materials-handling equipment