The things you find when browsing the interweb on a Sunday morning. Via a post on vowe dot net about the Google Arts & Culture app I found the Google Arts & Culture site, where in turn I came across this picture of a Railplane trial line near Glasgow. I was intrigued.
A quick search helped me to find out this was the Bennie Railplane. It of course reminds a bit of the famous Wuppertal Schwebebahn. While sadly it wasn’t a success and almost nothing physical remains of it today there are at least three videos of it in action, first from the National Library of Scotland:
Second a short video on British Pathé:
Third a longer documentary also on British Pathé:
A few links to further information:
- Secret Scotland – Bennie Railplane
- Canmore entry for Milngavie, Bennie Railplane
- Dewi’s Trains, Trams & Trolleys: The George Bennie Railplane/Monorail (with some interesting pictures of what became of it)
- Mike’s Railway History: A British Railplane
Certainly a very interesting invention, must have looked very futuristic back in the 1930s. Well, it wasn’t meant to be.