Lartigue Monorail
Lartigue is the name of a monorail system invented by the French engineer Charles Lartigue (1834-1907). The most famous Lartigue railway was the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway, which opened on 1 March 1888.
Lartigue had seen camels in Algeria carrying heavy loads balanced in panniers on their backs. This inspired him to design a new type of railway. Instead of two parallel tracks on the ground, it had a single rail sitting above the sand and held at waist height on A-shaped trestles. The carriages would sit astride the trestles like panniers.
By 1881 Lartigue had built a 90km monorail to transport esparto grass across the Algerian desert, with mules pulling trains of panniers that straddled the elevated rail.
Another problem with using the Lartigue system in populated areas was that due to the track's design it was not possible to build level crossings. In order for a road to cross the track, a kind of double-sided drawbridge had to be constructed, which required an attendant to operate it.
Another example
Another inventor in the 1970s built a forestry railway system using A-frame rails laid directly on the ground. The locomotive incorporated a crane which could move the track panels around as required. Since the line only carry one product, it is relatively easy, like the grass hauled by the Lartigue system, to balance the loads.
External links
- The Rebuilt Lartigue Monorailway website
- Modern day Lartigue railway photos
- Original Lartigue Goods Store Restoration project
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