Yesterday I rode the Seattle Center Monorail for the first time. I felt the need to get out and take a walk at lunchtime, so I strolled over to the Seattle Center. I wanted to visit the Children’s Museum (are they stuffed and mounted?) but I didn’t have time. After a decent char-broiled burger I went out to the monorail platform.
I loved the train. Definitely has that whole '60s vibe. Very Mod. Remember the futuristic films and shows from the '60s? I could totally imagine people dressed like that riding it. (I’m thinking of Commander Straker from U.F.O. in his Nehru suit. That show aired in 1970, but you know what I mean.)
Too bad it’s only a mile long. I could really get into riding a monorail around the city.
So I got a mile walk, saw an interesting place I’ll be going back to, and got a short ride on a very cool retro monorail. Good lunch.
The original monorail track routing kept the Hither track and the Yon track far enough apart that the two trains could never touch.
Then they redid the street or something, and had to shift the tracks. Since it was easier, the decision was made to run the tracks a bit closer together, and just schedule the trains so that the two would never collide.
You can see this coming, can’t you? Of course the scheduling got a bit off one day, and the trains collided. Put the Monorail out of business for quite a while. :rolleyes:
We are truly midgets standing on the shoulders of giants.
I though the only track change was right at the Westlake end. It used to be a stand-alone station, like the Seattle Center end, with platforms for each track. When they built Westlake Center, it’s only on one side, so they made those extending gates and moved the second track closer. At least the driver should have been going slow when they hit.
You say it’s got a 60’s vibe? I may have ridden it in the 60’s.
So why didn’t this ever catch on over subways? Maintenance on the Seattle Monorail seems to be a job for skilled artisans, but if they’d caught on, wouldn’t it have the same economies of scale as a typical subway/elevated? Of course, for any practical route system, there has to be track switching. Never quite figured out how they were going to manage that, but there must be a way.
Elevated light railways certainly did catch on, it’s just they stuck to two rails, for example the DocklandsLightRailway. Developments in making both trains and structures lighter mean that they needn’t take up much more ground area than a monorail would. Staying with two rails avoided all of the switching headaches, and makes grade crossings and street running possible where appropriate. (The latter was ruled out with the DLR, though, by the choice of driverless operation.)
I did ride it in the 60s — during the 1962 World’s Fair, as a matter of fact. On my way to, among other things, ride the Bubbleator to see what the World of Tomorrow™ would be like.
There was discussion in the mid to late 60s about expanding the monorail to the University in the north and the airport in the south (sound familiar?). If memory serves, something I’m counting on less and less, Alweg (the manufacturer) went bankrupt at about that time — or at least got out of the monorail business. So the scheme became another item on Seattle’s unusually long “pipe dream” list.
Johnny, perhaps you could do some more field research? Go ride the SLUT and give a report to the class. Just thought I’d mention it.
Yeah, the SLUT is on the list. And of course I’ll get a ‘Ride the SLUT’ T-shirt. I thought about doing it yesterday, only I try to keep my lunches down to half an hour. (Ran a little long yesterday.)
I have friends coming for a visit, probably in September or October. I’ll need to arrange a day in Seattle. We’ll ride the Ducks, the monorail, the SLUT, visit Pike Place Market, and perhaps do the Underground Tour.
Ah memories. In '01 and '02 I lived on lower Queen Anne three blocks from the Seattle Center. I would ride the Monorail downtown to work probably three times a week. It was more expensive but easier to catch than the bus, since it runs so often. I got to see a lot of wacky tourists over those months.
I rode the SLUT on its first or second day of service. Very similar to the streetcar in Portland, still clean and shiny and smoother than buses. It took a full 16 minutes from terminus to terminus (I think the literature promised 10 minutes), but 12 minutes the next time. Didn’t get stuck in traffic as the doomsayers warned, but they need to work on timing the traffic lights; too much time at red lights with no traffic around. Maybe that’s been corrected by now?
