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Build Your Own Monorail
jpatokal writes "Building your own roller coaster may be fun, but how about something a little more practical -- like a monorail in your back yard? Kim Petersen designed his from scratch, building the elevated track from wood, scavenging the engine from a motorized walker and handcrafting the train from sheet metal. Total cost: $4000! See the photo tour and the construction history."
Monorail...monorail...MONORAIL
Don't let Homer Simpson drive it!
Seriously, why in the hell would you want this? Bragging rights are ok when talking about a coaster... But why the hell a monorail? If you happen to have a big backyard (not 'ranch' big), just buy a 4 wheeler. It's a bit cheaper. Hell, make one for less than you can buy it.
"Kim Petersen designed his from scratch, building the elevated track from wood, scavenging the engine from a motorized walker and handcrafting the train from sheet metal. Total cost: $4000"
Does this include the money he lost because he didn't work during this time, the money he lost to a divorce lawyer (his wife must have been pissed) blah blah blah???
Kidding.
-Shaunak.
This could quite possibly be one of the coolest ideas ever. Not that it would actually serve a point, but then again this is comming from the person who has like 9 computers and people wonder if they all actually have real uses.....I'm a fan, now if I only had $4000.
ahh, the egg in the basket..
Google has a cache of the text.
and of course look here also here
More practical?
More practical for someone who needs a tram in their backyard? K.
What would be more practical for the referenced site is a webserver than handle more than 5 hits per hour.
c-hack.com |
And how much does having a $4000 monorail in your backyard increase your home owners insurance? :p
(to be sung in the key of C...)
[Lyle Lanley] Well sir, there's nothin' on earth like a genuine, bonafide, electrified, six-car monorail! What'd I say?
[Ned Flanders] Monorail!
[Lyle] What's it called?
[Patty & Selma] Monorail!
[Lyle] That's right, monorail!
[All chant] Monorail, monorail, monorail...
[Ms Hoover] I hear those things are awfully loud!
[Lyle] It glides as softly as a cloud!
[Apu] Is there a chance the track could bend?
[Lyle] Not on your life, my Hindu friend!
[Barney] What about us braindead slobs?
[Lyle] You'll be given cushy jobs!
[Grandpa] Were you sent here by the devil?
[Lyle] No, good sir, I'm on the level.
[Chief Wiggum] The ring came off my pudding can.
[Lyle] Take my pen knife, my good man!
I swear it's Springfield's only choice;
Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
Monorail!
What's it called?
Monorail!
Once again!
Monorail!
[Marge] But Main Street's still all cracked and broken...
[Bart] Sorry, mom, the mob has spoken!
[All] Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
[Homer] Mono- d'oh!
You can't stop me.
I'm not to certain as I haven't had my own house or type of place where I could build something "in the back." Are there any guidelines/regulations one would have to meet with the city to do this? I mean it seems there could be a lot of safety/security issues with this. I mean there's lots of litigations just over people having a pool in their backyard let alone this. :)
( o ) one could say I'm rather baked
Applying P4, Kory starts the climb up the first grade Obviously an Intel processor....
good ol' /. effect
He made raised his track a good tree meters off the ground. If he made it half a m off the ground it would still be a monorail. He must really trust his engineering abilities.
Of course the guy with a roller coaster was much more brave. His creation would do loops and stuff and looked much less solid.
Sheesh...
M C: www.monorails.org/tMspages/Niles.html+&hl=en&ie=UT F8
Here's the google cache.
And in case you don't trust an anonymous post:
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:colgaaDa9r
Mr Snrub votes that we spend our money on the nuclear power plant instead...
Monorail time... just watch the Simpsons quotes roll in!
You gotta admit this is a fairly creative project. Wow, this guy must have alot of time and money to spare.
/.ed. Maybe we should find a way to mirror/cache the linked pages automatically so we don't hit some guy's site 1e20 times and cost him $10k in bandwidth usage fees. Just a suggestion.
But, who gets you down from there if your train gets stuck? I dont see any ladders around. Rope ladder maybe?
What is this thing powerred by? Human-power, electric?
P.S. Bah, the site seems to be
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
This is more of a shelbyville.org story
Error: Erection reset by beer.
Click here!
Do not click on them unless you want to "sound" like a complete idiot.
Hey, check it out! It's their next door neighbor Wilson!:
http://www.monorails.org/webpix%202/nmt10.JPG
"Derp de derp."
Seems to be /.ed. Here are the google caches:
main page
monorail history
Photo tour
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
Quimby: And now, I'd like to turn things over to our Grand Marshall, Mr. Leonard Nimoy.
Nimoy: I'd say this vessel could do at least Warp Five.
[appreciative laughter from the crowd]
Quimby: And let me say, ``May the Force Be With You!''
Nimoy: [annoyed] Do you even know who I am?
Quimby: [indignant] I think I do. Weren't you one of the Little Rascals?
"I named the big one bitey!" - Homer Simpson
Also nearby is the Redwood Valley Railroad, which is in slightly larger scale than the monorail and runs half-scale steam trains. Redwood Valley has quite a layout, with a roundhouse, turntable, sidings, bridges, and tunnels.
Niles was once the Western terminus of the first transcontinental railroad. So there's much railroad history there.
First the information superhighway in the backyard.
That was cool.
Next, someone put in a backyard rollercoaster.
Still OK, a bit whacked though.
Someone else came up with a Monorail in their backyard? Now that's starting to get out of hand.
My next summer's project: Backyard Spaceport! Donations accepted. Just email me.
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
O.K. Someone want to go in with me on a backyard maglev?
And issue your own customized terrorism warning!
Just imagine the real estate ad when the guy tries to sell the place: "3 bedroom, 2 baths, large kitchen, livingroom, backyard with pool, surrounded by a large garden, and a wooden monorail track which circles the house. Perfect for getting from the basketball court to the pool. It may take longer than walking, but it's fun!"
Hey! This could be the first time that more than 10 people have gone to the monorails.org in a day.
Look around when you're there, and you'll learn why the monorail is a practical, underused, safe form of transport. It's been stigmatized by Disney. (I've been a monorail advocate for some time) It's a very cool site.
-twb
This reminds me of a recent story on slashdot on the guy who built his own roller coaster. Also seems to have been slashdotted just as quickly.
I.O.U One Sig.
Anyone see that monorail they're building at JFK aiport in NYC. I think its suppose to connect the airport to a redone Jamaca staion. Anyone know anything about it?
Veramocor
We're working on plans to build an expanded monorail system in Seattle. True, compared to Kim's backyard monorail, it's a little longer (14 miles) and a little pricier ($970M-$1.7B), but it'll haul about 60,000 people per day, and likely turn an operational profit. And it's probably the only transit system in the country created by a citizens' initiative...yes, that's right, no monorail salesman or catchy jingle needed--just a good grassroots campaign! For more info, visit The Elevated Transportation Company. The plan goes to the voters November 2002.
For info on the campaign (which I'm helping out with--yes, this is a shameless plug), visit Rise Above It All
I'd kinda like to make a minirature railroad myself...
That's not funny! In fact, it is hard to say out loud, and you sure can't dance to it.
Come on now! Use your head!
Timing is everything. If you are going to post something lame, at least get it right.
Get rid of the "it".
Now you have:
IANAN, but I know this is better.
Still not worth reading, but now I am dancing.
The damn article itself says "Building your own roller coaster may be fun, but how about something a little more practical -- like a monorail in your back yard?"
and the bold links to the previous slashdot article
OK. maybe it is karmawhoring. But if I didn't put the links, how would you be able to see the article?
props to Conan O'brien for his 1337 script writing skills (Season 4 Episode 12- "Marge vs. The Monorail" was his crowning achievement as a producer of The Simpsons).
This person would'nt happen to be from Ogendenville or North Haverbrook would they?
Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?
Mirror of http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/Niles.html
Insurance to cover liability: Priceless.
Does the story really matter?
Finally, an expansion of BYOM other than Bring Your Own Monkey.
-Shaunak.
Now he can avoid all that traffic... in his backyard.
Unless he has kids, you'd think riding that thing around would get old really quick. Heck, even *with* kids it would get old quick.
This guy lives in the Bay Area (notice the BART train go past his backyard in the pictures?) Now, from my rudimentary knowledge of geology, the Bay Area is susceptible to earthquakes on a regular basis. Could this spell possible trouble for a home-built monorail?
Damn I love Disney World! But better yet is the public monorail transportation system in Sydney....... Mmmmmmm... Sydney.......
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
New 4 wheelers are over $5000.
Old ones as much as 6-8 years old can still be over $3000. (granted nice ones)
Sure you can find a used one and put another $500-1000 to get it running again. Still your talking thousands of dollars plus freaking licenses, possible increases in your regular insurance just because you own it, etc.
Who are you kidding???
[teacher]: Brian, tell me the plural of ox, and use it in a sentence.
[brian]: Uh, oxen. I saw a herd of oxen.
[teacher]: Good. Now try "box."
[brian]: Boxen. I ate two boxen of doughnuts.
[teacher]: No Brian, it's boxes. Let's try another one. What's the plural of goose?
[brian]: Geese. I saw a flock of geese.
[teacher]: Good. Now how about "moose?"
[brian]: Mee... MOOSEN! I saw a flock of moosen! There were many much moosen! They were in the woodses--woodsen! They were eatinen the foodeninen!
[teacher]: Brian, you're an imbecile.
[brian]: Imbecilen!
(transcribed from memory. probably lots of mistakes)
c-hack.com |
It has pictures, not just a text mirror!
OT:
/bin/laden is much better (and actually makes sense)...
re your sig
chmod a+x
>>Kim Petersen designed his from scratch, building the elevated track from wood
:)
not only is this guy creative but powerful to be able to elevate things with his wood. impressive
my blog
No, it's "I call the big one Bitey."
How can y'all bash the creator of this masterpiece left and right? This is creativity in pure form... a technical wonder... 100 points of "coolness"... one of the most amazing things I have ever seen! I know people who have spent half this much on the game Everquest buying intangible items, yet I doubt such purchases would drum up anywhere near the negative response that spending $4000 on this creation has elicited on Slashdot... Give this guy some credit!
...especially the kind of miniature rail you can ride. This is just beyond cool.
It'd be nice if he could find a way to package this up so it could be demonstrated to transportation planners as a viable solution to rail travel.
This is a classic case of "can I" rather than "should I". As a US expat, I find the comment on the last page about "only in America" painfully accurate, but probably not the way the author intended.
Do any of them?
Damn they got expensive when they added that 4th weel just because a few hundred people cleaned the jean pool with the three wheelers.
The friendly folks at the Monorail Society might disagree with you on that. Monorails are an efficient solution for crowded cities, since they can be built in the air, and as (by definition) the car is wider than the track they use less space than light rail. Their speed and capacity are more than sufficient for most applications, and they cost a lot less than building subways. This is why there has been a bit of a monorail renaissance lately, with cities as diverse as Las Vegas, Chiba, Kuala Lumpur and Okinawa (Naha) building monorail systems.
Cheers,
-j.
...and I see from your post history that you are an unemployed bum as well.
that is all.
Maybe a mechanical engineer in the audience can enlighten me?
And, on a side note: can somebody explain to me his remark at the last page of the Tour: This picture just screams "only in America," doesn't it? I find his project very beautiful, but what's so American about it? Is it really unimaginable for US citizens that this kind of impressive creative tinkering also happens in other countries?
Name one monorail that doesn't go in a circle.
Here is Colorado, Ours is about as short sighted as they come. He pushes more lanes, handed back permanent tax cuts to businesses who did little for the state (his buddies), and recruited companies who when the economy went slightly south pulled out.
He (and the denver mayor webb ) was one of the reasons why we did no get our monorail
Some cities regulate just about everything you could possibly do. That includes permits for decks, patios, sidewalks, trees, etc. It gets rather insane and annoying at times--but this typically is only done in those subdivisions were they want everything to look "similar".
Most cities, though, don't care much. I have a 15' easement from the road--I cannot build any permanent structures there. After that 15', though, I can build right up to the property line on either side towards my neighbors or all the way back to my fenceline. In the country, things get even more relaxed--you can build just about anything and it's not a problem. Sometimes you are limited to the size you can build a barn without a special permit--but that's generally the worst of it.
Of course, if I were to do something like this 3m in the air, it would look rather odd around here. Folks don't even have plush gardens. Nope, around here it's mostly just folks who have a deck, a tree or two, a fence, and grass. A monorail in my backyard would the the talk of the city for years.
Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
Looks like it's an excuse to jump from the hot tub into the monorail and over to the neighbor's window to ... that's my oppinion.
Why do you say that? Why do you think this? Disney had a problem with moving a heckuva lot of mob-level crowds between different areas. Getting back and forth between Epcot and Magic Kingdom is pretty easy due to monorail. For other places in the park, they have hundreds of city transit buses.
When I was there, I thought the monorail did quite well. When the water/fireworks show in Epcot let out, for example, the bus area was a mess and the monorail hauled all manner of people out of the area quickly...
This is a place you can fly in, get a shuttle into the park, stay all week, get around, and never need to rent a car. I think it works well...
This isn't worthy of a slashdot story. Neither would someone's wasting money on Everquest stuff, you don't rate a story by how "good" it is, but if it's good enough to be a /. story. Frankly, I think it's boring.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
This is nothing. There are crazier hobbies than this!
After five years of construction, only 4000$? Mayve in raw materials, but the tools and the time? I don't know.
Plus you need a house that is pretty big with a huge backyard (with pool and jacuzzi?).
What I want to know is, what does this guy do for a living?
Well, uh, actually...
http://www.rocketguy.com/flash.html
http://www.artbell.com/rocketguy.html
Good point.
Perhaps I didn't make myself clear:
Disney uses the monorail VERY well, and they know how good it is. I'm not saying that they made the monorail seem bad, but by being a pioneer in the transport industry (they built some of the best monorails ever, the Mk.IV class), people think of the monorail as a Disney amusement park ride, not the quiet, safe system of transport it is.
Disney brought the monorail out of darkness. They were trying to introduce the world to a new thing, but the world saw it as a game.
I have nothing against the WDW, DL monorail systems. They are the best in the world, but everyone sees the monorail as a park ride now, so they don't want one in their city.
-twb
Reckon this is as true a definition of a hacker as any other covered by /. , certainly it's news for nerds. The man's into monorails, he builds his own. Charming mad inventor eccentricity.
I think my favourite statement is "While we go around the loop, imagine how much of the garden and fence we would have needed to rip out to put in a garden light rail instead of this!" ... wonderful, I mean, hands up how many people assume that the average back yard will have a 'garden light rail'. Good on him and best of luck I say, and keep us posted.
Eric
Be who you are...and be it in style!
A) Why would someone want a monorail in their backyard? Who has a big enough yard, anyway? What I am trying to say is that not all people are lucky like me to blessed with living in a slightly suburban/rural area with lots of land. A monorail would be impractical for people with less land because the monorail would have to loop in circles... a hard task! B) Who on Gaia has $4K to spend like that?
Seattle. There are others, too. Like Tokyo.
The name monorail means 'mono', meaning 'one', and 'rail', meaning 'rail'. This concludes your 6 week course.
"The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw."
We have a roller coaster. We have a monorail.
I wanna see someone build thier own Subway, complete with two stops and a building over each one.
Tcl my Pico! There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Operating profit is fare - operating cost, ie. maintance, employees, etc. Notice that it does NOT include the initial investment.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
I'd be impressed if it was a maglev.. Of course then your power bills would be a b*tch. :-)
Planetes
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promo Ad
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitl
As already mentioned here, amongst the no-brainer Simpsons quotes, this would get old. Quickly. With kids, this would get old. Still quickly. Despite it being cool from a technical/elbow grease point of view, I'm just not stimulated. It dosnt make me jealous. And it wouldnt be worth the hassle with the missus.
For me, it has to be *fanfare* the DIY Wall Of Death(tm)... Bring it on!
Timber: Like I can be fucked to bang out a quote? Well, call it a grand (British Pound Ster£ing!) with my staff discount.
Bike: Call it £300.
Safety Gear: Are you taking the piss? (Note to kids: Not big, not clever. Heh.)
Planning Permission: Free, upon acceptance of application. [AFAIK]
Bribes for Planning Permission: Around here you'd be looking at about 10 grand for something like that. "Around here" is in my info.
Kids: Priceless!
Hey that's a point, my loins are currently fruitless... Can I borrow your kids? No? Ok then.
Ali
"Windows and Linux can co-exist on the same machine." - Microsoft Corporation.
you're a very boring person, get a life.