Day 2. The Schwebebahn at Wuppertal

We made a special visit to Wuppertal to ride the Schwebebahn which is a unique hanging monorail. The cars hang under the rail.

The journey to Wuppertal from Koln only took about half an hour but was compounded by the fact that the train we intended to take was cancelled and we were forced to use an extremely crowded local train instead.

The monorail was built because of the very limited land available in the river valley through the town. To compensate most of the line is built using A frame girders so that the "trains" were suspended over the river. At the western end the line veers away from the river and inverted "U" shaped girders are used over the local roads. I believe this is the only line of this type in the world.

Rather than talk about it, I  think it will be better to illustrate what we saw riding first to the western terminus, Vohwinkel from the Hauptbahn stop, then going to the eastern terminus (Oberbarmen Bahnhof) and back to the Hauptbahn.

The girders are a distinctive feature of the town even though they are painted a green to fit in.

The stations are reached by stairs or an elevator. There is a large heavy beam running through the station which has a large hole at each end. There are two platforms, one for each direction, and just long enough to accommodate the two car trains. It is strange to see a railway station with no rails in the floor

Our train is approaching

The train stops and the doors open automatically. Getting on and off can be a little off putting as the cars sway a little from side to side. There is a great deal of wood construction in the platforms.

The interior of these cars, built 2015-19 are pleasant. There are doors on one side only as the trains are run around at each end. The trains contain two main sections with a short interconnecting one.

There are four of these massive motor assemblies on each train

With a driving cab at one end only there is a beautiful picture window at the back. It is great as long as you are not afraid of heights.

At Vohwinkel the train is turned on a very tight loop. There is a switch her to take trains into the maintenance facility,

The switch is a massive construction. At present it is set for the loop. To change the switch to allow a train to come out of maintenance the two sections move horizontally from left to right.

A train is approaching the terminus

It passes a train leaving

This illustrates the girder sections used away from the river.

The town is proud of its monorail

The transfer from the inverted "U" to "A" frame over the river. The trains go round some quite sharp curves and the centrifugal forces swing the cars outwards.

The river section is quite attractive, in spite of the heavy industry which surrpounds it

We saw many herons fishing along the river. There were a number of ducks as well. They obviously didn't mind the overhead trains.

At Oberbarmen the train goes into a large storage facility to turn

Both front and back can be seen here

A great observation post

There is a good view of the trains from the open ends of the stations.

We had a quick look around Wuppertal and found this strange clock, hours to the left, minutes to the right.

Back at Koln we took a ride out to the end of line 18 at Thielenbruch, the terminus is in the former eight road engine house. There is a tram museum here but it is only open one day a month.