Aerobus
The Aerobus is a monorail whose vehicles run suspended.
principle
The route of the Aerobus was a double suspension cable - later replaced by a double aluminum rail - on which the vehicles ran. Later it also served as a two-pole feeder for electricity to the vehicles . Originally there was an overhead line that was separate from the suspension cables . In contrast to the Wuppertal suspension railway , the support device was not rigidly mounted, but was suspended from the hangers of a suspension cable structure according to the principle of a suspension bridge . These in turn are supported by masts. The suspension cable was stretched upwards and sank horizontally under load.
The main advantage of the Aerobus is the large distance between the girders, which the construction allows, in Mannheim up to 233 m, which means that the construction work and the space required on the ground was minimal. In contrast to traditional means of transport in local public transport , such as the tram or the omnibus , the Aerobus travels unhindered by other road users and is very quiet.
Disadvantages are the comparatively complex construction of curves and switches as well as the high effort required when a vehicle has to be evacuated on the open road .
history
Trial operation
The Swiss Gerhard Müller invented the Aerobus . Marketing was carried out by Aerobus International, Inc. In 1970, the first test facility in Switzerland was built in Schmerikon on Lake Zurich and sold to Canada in 1975, where it was used as a feeder to a ski lift in the Mont Sainte-Anne ski area in the province of Québec until 1992 Operation stood. In 1974 a second test track was built in Dietlikon .
Federal Garden Show 1975 in Mannheim
The two exhibition areas of the 1975 Federal Horticultural Show in Mannheim , Luisenpark and Herzogenriedpark , were connected by a 2.8 kilometer stretch. The longest unsupported section was the crossing of the Neckar . The route ran from Herzogenriedpark at Neuer Meßplatz in an approximately southerly direction through Max-Joseph-Strasse to the Kurpfalzbrücke and crossed the Neckar on its eastern side. Then it turned in a 90-degree curve to the east, ran along the southern bank of the Neckar and ended at the telecommunications tower in Luisenpark. The route had a length of just over 3 km.
The eight cars used were 22 meters long and offered space for 100 passengers. They were each moved by their own electric motors .
During one of the first test drives, the then Lord Mayor of Mannheim, Ludwig Ratzel, had to be freed from a stopped vehicle with a turntable ladder due to a technical defect. However, operations during the Federal Horticultural Show went largely smoothly. In the 1850 operating hours, the system only failed for a total of 20 hours. In the period from April 18 to October 19, 1975, the Aerobus carried 2.2 or 2.3 million visitors. The journey time was nine minutes. The operating license expired in 1976.
Mannheim test track
The route was only used during the Federal Horticultural Show and was then dismantled except for a 600-meter-long, single-lane section at Herzogenriedpark and rebuilt for around 1.2 million German marks . The suspension cables were replaced by aluminum rails, which were supposed to ensure smoother running. After this conversion, the test track differed considerably from the system that had been operated during the Federal Horticultural Show. It served the then study society "Hochbahn Mannheim" as a single-lane test route. If funding was possible and the system proved successful, it was planned to develop further parts of the city with this improved Aerobus system. However, this was not implemented and the private test operation was discontinued in 1979. The rest of the route was dismantled and scrapped in 1987. There were also no other follow-up projects:
- In 2000, an agreement was reached with the city of Chongqing in the People's Republic of China for a 2.6-kilometer installation. It was not realized either.
- In 2004, an agreement followed with the Chinese city of Weihai for a 4.2 kilometer route. This project was not implemented either.
Worth knowing
A segment of one of the vehicles that drove in Mannheim during the Federal Garden Show came to the State Museum for Technology and Work (today: Technoseum ) in Mannheim. A model of a vehicle is shown in the Transport Museum Depot 5 in Mannheim.
literature
- Stadtpark Mannheim GmbH: Federal Garden Show Mannheim 1975 . In: Deutsche Bundesgartenschau GmbH (ed.): 50 years of federal horticultural shows. Festschrift on the history of the federal and international garden shows in Germany . Bonn 2001, pp. 76-85.
Web links
- Website of the manufacturing company
- Documentation of the Mannheim facility from 1975
- Side, which is the construction principle (English)
- Weekly report from November 16, 1970 about the test track in Schmerikon (RealVideo)
- Aerobus video with scenes from Mannheim
Individual evidence
- ↑ Documentation of the Mannheim plant from 1975 (web links).
- ↑ Aerobus technology throughout the world at www.aerobus.com
- ↑ a b c d Presentation in the Transport Museum Depot 5 in Mannheim.
- ↑ Stadtpark Mannheim GmbH: Federal Garden Show , p. 78.
- ↑ Aerobus Mannheim Buga 1975
- ↑ Stadtpark Mannheim GmbH: Federal Garden Show , p. 78.
- ↑ Customer magazine of the Wuppertaler Stadtwerke, September 2007, p. 5.
Remarks
- ↑ The Mannheimer Verkehrsbetriebe MVV were also involved in the study society