European Railroad Discussion > For something different . . . The Wuppertal Schwebebahn

Here are a few videos from my visit to the Schwebebahn (suspension railway) in Wuppertal today near Cologne, Germany. It has been in operation since 1901! Amazing.

-JIm Fetchero

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One more video . . .

-Jim

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In genius using the river as the right of way.  Where is this location I'm from west in USA?  I didn't know this excited.
Blaine
American Fork

BlaineM Wrote:
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> In genius using the river as the right of way. 
> Where is this location I'm from west in USA?  I
> didn't know this excited.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn

Tidbit: the article mentions the incident with the elephant ('Tuffi') that fell out into the river.

There's a similar operation in Chiba, Japan.  My picture from July 2015.

Dave

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BlaineM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In genius using the river as the right of way. 
> Where is this location I'm from west in USA?  I
> didn't know this excited.
> Blaine
 American Fork
 
From the OP's first post.
"Here are a few videos from my visit to the Schwebebahn (suspension railway) in Wuppertal today near Cologne, Germany. It has been in operation since 1901! Amazing.
-JIm Fetchero"

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/25 21:58 by SP4360.

BlaineM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In genius using the river as the right of way. 
> Where is this location I'm from west in USA?  I
> didn't know this excited.
> Blaine
> American Fork

You're right - it's genius to use the River Wupper's passage through the city of Wuppertal, Germany as an elevated right-of-way in this fashion. Not only sound design in terms of a transitway, but environmentally, too. The river is able to be maintained in a naturalistic state, as can be seen, with minimal impacts from the overhead. The adjacent surface streets and their runoff probably have more impact on the river than does the overhead.

Jim's excellent videos (!!! - thanks - particularly the second video with the passing ICE high-speed train running on a slow order through a trackwork zone!) show portions over the river. But some of the line also runs over streets. Much brighter, more spacious, airier - and quieter - than a traditional standard-rail elevated structure over a street, such as in Chicago or New York City. Also easier for street traffic - no posts to dodge making turns at intersections or to move to parking lanes. The city is fairly densely built, being in a narrow valley or dale along the river - its name Wuppertal means Wupper-dale in English. Use of the river as aerial ROW means minimal intrusion on the rest of the urban fabric and limited, valuable land.

I have been fascinated with this operation for years. My understanding is that it went into a period of decline and relatively poor maintenance some years back, but its worth was recognized, particularly as an alternative to autos and buses on surface streets. Rehab and renewal followed, along with a new sense of civic pride. And not that it's a big reason to maintain and use it, but its uniqueness probably brings some tourist traffic to a smaller city (17th largest in Germany) on the southern edge of the once very heavily industrialized Ruhr region (still is industrial, but not to the degree as in the past) that would otherwise have been unlikely to have received much tourism. It's not just a railfan thing - it shows up in lots of tourist books and flyers for general visitors as something interesting and unique to see. 

I've seen discussion in the past suggesting that Walt Disney was inspired by this operation for the monorail for the original Disneyland in California, something that also became a feature at Walt Disney World in Florida. That does not appear to be the case. instead, it's probably a conflation in story and legend of the Wuppertal system with another German monorail system in a different city which Walt Disney did in fact see during a family vacation to Germany in the mid-1950s. Walt was inspired by that system to install the first North American monorail in the original California park. 

That system was a straddle-beam non-suspended monorail, with the cars riding on the beam, which was in another city in central Germany near Cologne - not very far from Wuppertal, and thus perhaps easily conflated with Wuppertal in story and legend. That non-hanging straddle-beam monorail (also the system used in Seattle) has been designed and built by the Swedish Alweg firm, which collaborated with Disney on their system in California. Alweg was trying to sell their systems into the US, and the Disneyland system was the perfect calling card and sales demo. Particularly for Alweg's proposal for a monorail system throughout Los Angeles, which they offered to design and build on a turnkey basis with costs to be recovered through the farebox. LA turned Alweg down, despite the huge appeal of the system at Disneyland right down the freeway in Anaheim, where it was a top attraction.

The original trains for the original Disneyland system were designed and built in-house, with a team led by one of Disney's top "Imagineers", a guy named Bob Gurr, in collaboration with Alweg. The later trainsets for the Orlando park were built in collaboration with Alweg also but in central Florida - of all places - by aerospace firm Martin Marietta, which had a facility near Orlando that did a lot of engineering work for the space program, also centered in Florida. Later designs for both the Florida and California parks were built by Bombardier, whose trainsets are currently in service.

A fascinating and well-done video on the Disney monorail systems and their histories. It includes some rare and very interesting footage showing a fictional design for a Los Angeles system imposed on actual scenes of LA, including freeways filled with traffic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyFlpdoLCIg 

There is also some fascinating footage in the video of the opening of the original California Disneyland system by then-Vice President Richard Nixon and his family. They all took an enthusiastic ride, with Bob Gurr at the controls, on a nearly brand-new system which had not yet been fully tested-out and put into regular service. They also managed in the process to temporarily ditch their Secret Service detail, something which delighted Nixon, as it has many politicians who appreciate the coverage, but also tire of it and the constraints it places upon their personal lives. One can only imagine the headlines and volcanic social media eruptions were such a thing to happen today. A simpler time...

Did Walt also see the Wuppertal system and gain some inspiration for it from his Germany vacation trip, as well as the straddle-beam system that it is known that he did see? There isn't any obvious evidence that he did or didn't, and we'll probably never know the answer. But given the fact that it was an earlier system than any straddle-beam system, and was fairly well noted in travel and reference books in the 1950s when Walt and his "Imagineers" were doing their work, it seems entirely possible that he and his team were at least aware of it.

In any case, the system in Wuppertal remains, and is just as fascinating and useful as in the times when it first went into service. Long may it serve.

MC



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/25 16:42 by ironmtn.