Editing Monorail (section)

===1900s–1950s===
Early designs used a double-[[flange]]d single metal rail alternative to the double rail of conventional railways, both guiding and supporting the monorail car. A surviving suspended version is the oldest still in service system: the [[Wuppertal Schwebebahn|Wuppertal monorail]] in Germany. Also in the early 1900s, [[Gyro monorail]]s with cars gyroscopically balanced on top of a single rail were tested, but never developed beyond the prototype stage. The [[Ewing System]], used in the [[Patiala State Monorail Trainways]] in [[Punjab, India]], relies on a hybrid model with a load-bearing single rail and an external wheel for balance. A highspeed monorail using the [[Lartigue Monorail|Lartigue system]] was proposed in 1901 between Liverpool and Manchester.<ref name="nla" />

In 1910, the [[Louis Brennan|Brennan]] [[Gyro Monorail|gyroscopic monorail]] was considered for use to a coal mine in Alaska.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5260767?searchTerm=monorail#pstart946719 |title=NLA Australian Newspapers - article display |publisher=Newspapers.nla.gov.au |date=1910-09-05 |access-date=2010-09-11}}</ref> In June 1920, the French Patent Office published FR 503782, by Henri Coanda, on a 'Transporteur Aérien' -Air Carrier. One of the first monorails planned in the United States was in New York City in the early 1930s, scrubbed for an elevated train system.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xSgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA71 "America's First Monorail Line Planned For New York."] ''[[Popular Mechanics]]'', November 1930, p. 71.</ref>

[[File:Xlg russian monorail.jpg|thumb|300px|[https://books.google.com/books?id=2CcDAAAAMBAJ&dq=new+russian+monorail&pg=PA41 ''Popular Science'' February 1934, p 41]: "A new Russian type of monorail that runs in a chute on large spheres. Fragmentary and contradictory reports have appeared from Russia about a new revolutionary type of railway undergoing secret testing there, sparking the curiosity and interest of the American engineering world, who have recently received the first full confirmations about the details of the new system with photos of the working model in operation."]]
The first half of the 20th century saw many further proposed designs that either never left the drawing board or remained short-lived prototypes. One of the most interesting projects created on the layout was the ball-bearing train by Nikolai Grigorievich Yarmolchuk. This train moved on spherical wheels with electric motors embedded in them, which were located in semi-circular chutes under a wooden platform (in the full-scale project the trestle would have been concrete). A model train, built to 1/5 scale to test the vehicle concept, was capable of reaching speeds of up to 70&nbsp;km/h. The full-scale project was expected to reach speeds of up to 300&nbsp;km/h.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKfWkjpnbE0&ab_channel=enodentetsu}}</ref>