Bennie's Rail Plane

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Postby radar » Sun Jul 10, 2005 1:00 am

Still going though, into it's second century and after WW2 when it suffered a bit of damage. Maybe it is because it's the German approach to public transport or maybe it's because it is unique!
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Postby HollowHorn » Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:47 am

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The Bennie Railplane c 1930.

George Bennie was born in Auldhouse and began work on the development of his railplane in 1921. In 1929-1930 he built a trial stretch of track with one railplane car at Milngavie near Glasgow to demonstrate the system to potential clients. The car ran along an overhead monorail, stabilised by guide rails below. It moved by propellers powered by on-board motors.

Bennie planned to build railplane tracks above existing railway lines. He believed his railplane cars had the capability of travelling up to 120 miles per hour and would offer a "fast passenger and mails and perishable goods service". Slow and heavy goods freight and local passenger services would continue on the traditional rail service below. Each car could carry a maximum of forty-eight people, although the prototype had seating for less.

In spite of interest from around the world, however, Bennie could not obtain the financial backing he required to develop his revolutionary transport system. The prototype railplane lay rusting in a field at Milngavie until it was sold for scrap in 1956.

http://www.theglasgowstory.com/sitemap.html
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george bennie monorail

Postby chas1937 » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:16 pm

Hi Folks,I,ve just joined HG and its amazing that this monorail was mentioned.I was out at milgavie on Tuesday with a friend and mentioned it but she hadnt even heard of it although staying in Glasgow all her life here.So I printed it out and will show her pics tomorrow.I just about remember it about 1953 although that was from main road and I was 15 at the time. Chas1937[/b]
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Postby Apollo » Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:39 am

For the benefit of anyone not aware of it, or who just hasn't noticed it because it's not prominently displayed, there is a model of the Bennie Railplane and its track on display in the Musuem of Transport.

It's in the corner of one of the glass display cabinets in one of the lanes between the full size trams, and is easy to miss. I had to go back and look again a few weeks ago after realising I hadn't noticed it while I was wandering around.
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Postby rdt2 » Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:40 am

Bennie may not himself have been an engineer but that last pic shows that he had engineers working with him. I suppose the thinking was that, to get the speed they desired, they'd use as much aircraft technology as possible. It was well worth a try.
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Postby HollowHorn » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:03 am

A nice wee film of the Railplane in action, with some internal footage too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/s ... type=video
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Postby My Kitten » Tue Dec 27, 2005 8:59 pm

radar wrote:Some of the previous posts suggested that this sort of system wouldn't have been viable, from both the propulsion system and the complicated gantry structure aspects. I have however seen a not dis-similar gantry structure used for a railway system in Germany, Wuppertal area IIRC and that was in the late 80s.


I've been on this one. Wouldve been 86/87 maybe on a school trip to Wuppertal.

Wish I'd kept some pictures :( I do remember some story about an elephant being taken on it to prove it would hold a load of weight and then the poor soul jumping off into the river (it was ok!)
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Postby Apollo » Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:04 am

Not wanting to mention the 'V' word :wink: but it looks as if the Russians managed to produce a Better Railplane:

Image

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Original Russian page:

http://semafor.narod.ru/3_2001/monor.html

Babelfish translation

The automated translation takes a bit of work, but I gather the arrival of reliable, conventional aircraft operation saw the dropping of this idea almost overnight, but I may be interpreting the translation less than accurately.

Still particularly interesting though, and it does look technically superior, and overcomes a number of disadvantages demonstrated by the original Bennie system.
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Re: Bennie's Rail Plane

Postby onyirtodd » Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:13 pm

From a leaflet I found.
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Sorry about the quality.
238 to 127. All in all a good afternoon's work
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Re: Bennie's Rail Plane

Postby Fireman » Tue Jan 29, 2008 5:07 pm

East Dunbartonshire Libraries sell a nice wee booklet researched and written by Bill Black (ISBN 0 904966 57 7) about "The Bennie Railplane", 32 pages, with some really nice black & white period shots of the railplane and Bennie himself.

I bought mine a while ago at the book launch (£3.30), but I don't imagine it'll be much more expensive nowadays.

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Re: Bennie's Rail Plane

Postby glasgowken » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:06 am

Would this straight stretch at Milngavie have anything to do with it ?

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=55.93227 ... =0&src=msa


I think some 1950's footage of it, and the area, can be seen on the Glasgow Trams DVD.
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Re: Bennie's Rail Plane

Postby allyharp » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:27 am

The amount of wasteground in that small area is shocking! I live just up the road but you don't quite realise just how much there is until you see it from above.

I hope it stays that way though. Much rather that than more luxury flats :roll:
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Re: Bennie's Rail Plane

Postby Strike Team » Fri Feb 01, 2008 2:40 pm

glasgowken wrote:Would this straight stretch at Milngavie have anything to do with it ?

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=55.93227 ... =0&src=msa


I think some 1950's footage of it, and the area, can be seen on the Glasgow Trams DVD.


That's the one. The building on the bottom left, beside the main road is now Kelvin Timber, which was previously the railway goods shed.

allyharp wrote:The amount of wasteground in that small area is shocking! I live just up the road but you don't quite realise just how much there is until you see it from above.

I hope it stays that way though. Much rather that than more luxury flats :roll:


It would make more sense to build a rail station with masses of parking on the bus garage site. It would go a long way to solving Bearsden/Milngavie's traffic problems.
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Re: Bennie's Rail Plane

Postby tobester » Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:43 pm

As a bit of a by the way sorta thing, today is the 78th Anniversary of the opening of the Test Track opening
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Re: Bennie's Rail Plane

Postby My Kitten » Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:24 pm

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