The suspension railway may seem like an old-fashioned story today but that 19th century vision of what the future of thrilling transport will be like will surely make all the upside down rail travel in today’s age! Its original name was Eugene Langen Monorail Overhead Conveyor System. It is the oldest electric elevated railway in the world. Which has a hanging car and is a unique system in Germany! Unlike a normal train line that stays firmly fixed in a terra firma. The suspension slides through the railway pylons and hangs tangled under the tracks. It does not walk on congested roads, rocks, vehicles, rivers and other obstacles but it passes over it! Passengers enjoy the view. Without it Nadtare reaches the destination.
For four years before the airport closed in 1974, short-term ventures such as the Branif Jetril Fast Park system, which carried passengers from the Dallas Love Field parking lot to the terminal, were successful, but no journey has been as easy as the suspension railway. Suspension railways are currently operating at Wuppertal in Japan and Germany. It has its roots in Germany and is still considered the best mode of transportation! All its splendor is seen in all its charms. Although this began in the 1880s, Eugene Langen, an entrepreneur and engineer in the afterglow of rapid industrial expansion in the so-called Grunderzeit era of imperial Germany, was suspended to move goods, including sugar properties, to his sugar factory in Cologne.
The nearby town of Wuppertal, meanwhile, had a problem with vehicles. The booming local textile industry saw the area grow from small settlements along the Wupper River to an urban population of over 40,000. People needed to get around with vehicles but the long and winding river valley made conventional rail or tramways impossible. City officials invited proposals to resolve the issue.
In 1893 the city engineer Eugene Lange was offered a suspension railway system, which was rejected. Designed by Eugene Langen and first offered to the cities of Berlin, Munich and Braslau, but with elevated stations established in Barman, Alberfeld and Wohwinkel. Construction began in 1898, and in 1901 Emperor Wilhelm ૨ and his wife, Augustus Victoria, took a test ride and formally opened the suspension railway line, offering an option! The work was not easy.
About twenty thousand tons of steel was used to build the elevated track. As the train passed through the city, 20 beautiful art new stations were built for it. The sleek glass and wood interior decoration of the carriages were appreciated. Which made the journey of the sixty-five passengers strangely easy. Following the success, the network was extended to its final length of 13.0 kilometers (8.3 miles) in 1904, beginning and ending at the turning loops connected to the line’s Wohwinkel and Oberbarman stations.
The new railway proved successful for the locals. Over the next few years the length of the train, which ran every five minutes, was increased from two to six carriages. Many of Wuppertal’s workers were serving in the military when the number of passengers declined during World War I, but by 1925 the network was already carrying 20 million passengers across the Wuppertal River. The network was badly affected by the bombardment of Wuppertal during World War II, but by Easter twelve months before the end of the war in Europe, the whole route was back to normal.
Rosemary Weingarton was born in 1933 in the Barman district of Wuppertal. Wuppertal’s Railways has inspired artwork and is seen in many films. The representation of both Wuppertal and Barman is more symbolic than that of Schwabeban. In 1950, an elephant named Tufi jumped into shallow water ten meters below a train carriage in the Wooper River. Elthof Circus was running in the city and a promotional trip was organized to attract the youth. Tuffy the elephant was considered a celebrity in West Germany at the time. People lived fearlessly around Tuffy. So the circus owner Franz Elthoff regularly used it to advertise his shows.
She boarded a train at Wuppertal-Barman station to buy four tickets for Tuffy and one for herself. But the car was packed with reporters and officials. So when Tuffy tried to turn around after a while it couldn’t and Tuffy panicked. He slammed into a row of seats in the chaos and then jumped out of a window into the river ten meters below! At that point the river was only fifty centimeters deep but the ground was muddy. So Tuffy had to deal with a bit of confusion. Apparently Althof wanted to jump behind him but instead he kept going to the front stop, from where he ran back to the stunned elephant and brought him to the circus camp! The event became memorable as a statue made by artist Bernd Bergkamper of basalt is installed on the spot where Tuffy jumped.
The lightly swaying Shwebeban no longer transports elephants, but is still used as a commuter train, providing an astonishing journey of twenty-five million passengers annually. Almost all the magnificent pre-generation trains have disappeared. The iconic GTW 72 carriage has also been replaced by the sleek blue trains of the Generation 15 after 27 years of operation. The new trains are also popular among the Shwebeban railway lovers. The attraction to Shwebeban is natural. It is inconceivable that such a project could have been realized without a computer aided system centuries ago. Rides in Shwebeban take passengers by storm with wonderful views. It looks like a fairground attraction. Shwebeban is the safest way to travel. It was also considered the safest mode of public transport in Germany.
Minor accidents were reported in almost 100 years of operation. There have been some ups and downs. Especially since the upgrade when a 350-meter-long power cable broke in 2018 and disabled Shwebeban for nearly nine months, the longest service disruption in its history. The railway reopened in 2019 and was again widely and happily used. Given its wonderful history and iconic appearance, it is not surprising that Schweibban has been inspired by the abundance of artifacts and popular German culture in general. He was mentioned by the Zionist writer and political activist Theodor Herzl in the sci-fi novel Altenuland (The Old New Land).
She starred in director Wim Wanders ‘movie Alice in Dan Stadton (Alice in the Cities), Tom Ticker’s play Der Krieger and Die Kaiserin (The Warrior and the Empress), and again in Wanderers’ movie The depiction of an inverted train ride in ‘Pina’ became memorable. English artist Darren Almond made a super 8 movie work called “Schwebeban” in 1995 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York filmed the two-minute film “Schwebeban” from his carriage in his collection.
Nowadays stable and economical gray concrete is the choice and is a feature of the infrastructure but allowing the trains to transport its passengers under the ever-increasing amount of traffic under the iron girder of Schweibban, it looks very nice and beautiful! Since 2018, Shwebeban has been the sister railway of Shonan Monorail in Kamakura, Japan. Favorite thing is that the suspension may still pave the way for the future to promote rail travel as a sustainable means. Time is like a mirror before it reflects what is needed in the future! – Kusum Thakkar
