Gizmodo: monorail

Puppy Monorail Makes Me Fear for Mankind's Future

Adrian Covert — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:15:00 EDT

Of all the ridiculous things one can see at the Maker Faire, the Puppy Mover Monorail might take the cake.

The scary thing about the Puppy Monorail is that it has managed to evolve over the years. The project started out as a modest 3 car train, but now has expanded to a WHOPPING five cars (FIVE!!!). Still, until I see some real puppies moving 10 feet down that squiggly track, I'm not sold. Also, one of the train cars should really be a milk bowl. [Puppy Mover Monorail]

We Want Monorails, These Monorails

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:56:00 EDT

The Señor Presidente Obama may want a high speed train. We want it too. Actually, we want a monorail, which have been dreamed and actually built since the very beginning of the 20th century.

Dark Roasted Blend has published a good collection of early high speed monorail concepts like the ones you are seeing above. Some of them are gorgeous. Sadly, the US high speed trains won't look anything like this. Hopefully, they will look like this:

Soundtrack included. [Dark Roasted Blend]

Crazy Human-Powered Monorail Would Deliver You to Work in a Sweaty Capsule

Adam Frucci — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:20:00 EDT

How's this sound: rather than hopping on the subway, when in a large city you'd hop into a little pod hanging from an elevated track. It would have pedals. You would then pedal yourself around the city, working up a lovely sweat before you reached your destination. Sound good? No?

Well, thank your lucky stars that the people who run our cities have at least some sense in their heads, because it would be highly doubtful for this to appear in the flesh anytime soon. Even still, designer Geoffrey Barnett built one for his New Zealand adventure park as a proof of concept, hoping to convince people to build them elsewhere.

And while sure, maybe they're fun for racing when you're on vacation in New Zealand, good luck convincing anyone to commute to work in one of these things. No thanks. [Agroventuresvia Gizmag]

Comfy IKEA Train Makes Me Want to Move to the Subway

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:30:00 EDT

IKEA has outfitted a train in Kobe with sofas and curtains—probably with names like Oompa-loompa, Svenssonjohansensson, Frida, and Bucarest. Unfortunately, the makeover is temporary, to mark the opening of a new shop in the city. Good, because otherwise I would move to live in there. I will miss my stair bookcase, yes, but I would make as many one-serving friends per hour as the number of pictures in the gallery after the jump.

[Kiyomaro via Pink Tentacle]

Lyle Lanley Sells Futuristic Rail System to Ann Arbor, Detroit

Adam Frucci — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:15:00 EST

Update: Unsurprisingly, this is bunk, as confirmed by Ann Arbor officials. But hey, the concept is still… interesting.
Everybody knows that the biggest, most bustling cities in America are Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan. You know what they say: "If you can make it in Ann Arbor, you can make it anywhere!" That's why it makes perfect sense that there are plans underway to build an insane futuristic transport system between the two cities.

Dubbed the Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Highway, it's a rail system that combines Maglev, Hydrogen and Solar power to create a zero-emission mode of transportation. In addition to carrying people and vehicles between the cities, it can also distribute "electricity, water, liquid waste, fiber optics, hydrogen, oxygen and other fuels in its course."

And while those circa-1996-quality concept graphics might make you think that this is nothing more than a pipe dream of some grad student with Maya, it's actually going to start being built later this year. Maybe. The website also looks straight out of the 90's, so it's tough to tell if this is a real project or something that's been whipped into "reality" by blogs, but I'm an optimist, so I'm going to go ahead and say that yes, Detroit and Ann Arbor will soon be linked by a futuristic, eco-friendly railway system.

The future is now! [Project Page via New Launches]

Puppies Taking Advantage of Mass Transit

Charlie White — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:31:17 EST

Get out of the way, everybody, here come the puppies! On a monorail! They even look like they're enjoying it, too. Built by their handy master, James Horecka, a couple of them are apparently wondering how easy it would be to jump off. What started out as a joke turned into a weekend project for Horecka, who built the small train "Hollywood style" as he called it, where there's not really a curcuit of track, just what you see here.

Looks to us like getting them to sit still in that little monorail for this photo op was probably as challenging as building it.

Monorail for Puppies [Boing Boing]

Monorail Modeling - Puppy Mover Monorail