Editing Monorail (section)

===1950s–1980s===
[[File:Seattle Monorail station.jpg|thumb|[[Seattle Monorail]] built in 1962 and still using the original ALWEG trains]]
In the latter half of the 20th century, monorails had settled on using larger beam- or girder-based track, with vehicles supported by one set of wheels and guided by another. In the 1950s, a 40% scale prototype of a system designed for speed of {{convert|200|mph|km/h|abbr=on}} on straight stretches and {{convert|90|mph|km/h|abbr=on}} on curves was built in Germany.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zdwDAAAAMBAJ&dq=true&pg=PA127 "German's Develop Fast Monorail System For High Speed Travel"] ''Popular Mechanics'', January 1953, p. 127.</ref> There were designs with vehicles supported, suspended or cantilevered from the beams. In the 1950s the [[ALWEG]] straddle design emerged, followed by an updated suspended type, the [[SAFEGE]] system. Versions of ALWEG's technology are used by the two largest monorail manufacturers, [[Hitachi Monorail]] and [[Bombardier Transportation|Bombardier]].

[[File:6308-DisneyLandHotelMonorailStation.jpg|thumb|The original Red Mark I [[Disneyland Monorail]], with the additional car to make it a Mark II, as seen at the [[Disneyland Hotel (California)|Disneyland Hotel]] station in August 1963]]
In 1956, the first monorail to operate in the US began test operations in Houston, Texas.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QuEDAAAAMBAJ&dq=1954+Popular+Mechanics+January&pg=PA77 "First U.S. Monorail Has Trial Run."] ''Popular Mechanics'', June 1956, p. 77.</ref> [[Disneyland]] in [[Anaheim, California]], opened the United States' first daily operating [[Disneyland Monorail System|monorail system]] in 1959.<ref name="monoraildisn">{{cite journal|title=Disneyland Adds Submarine and Monorail|journal=Popular Mechanics|date=July 1959|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttsDAAAAMBAJ&q=monorail&pg=PA77|access-date=21 December 2010}}</ref> Later during this period, additional [[List of monorail systems|monorails]] were installed at [[Walt Disney World Monorail System|Walt Disney World]] in [[Florida]], [[Seattle Center Monorail|Seattle]], and in [[Monorails in Japan|Japan]]. Monorails were promoted as futuristic technology with exhibition installations and amusement park purchases, as seen by the legacy systems in use today. However, monorails gained little foothold compared to conventional transport systems. In March 1972, Alejandro Goicoechea-Omar had patent DE1755198 published, on a 'Vertebrate Train', build as experimental track in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
Niche private enterprise uses for monorails emerged, with the emergence of [[air travel]] and [[shopping mall]]s, with shuttle-type systems being built.