The narrowest gauge of all.......

[burgundy]

If anyone is visiting the west coast of Ireland, I can thoroughly recommend a visit to the Lartigue Monorail site at Listowel. The Listowel and Ballybunnion Railway is well known as one of the more eccentric examples of railway building, using the Lartigue monorail system. This used a very simple A frame construction, to support a single rail set about a meter off the ground, so that rolling stock and locomotives ran astride the track. Locos had a boiler each side so that the driver had to fire as well as drive.

The 10 mile long line seems to have provided an effective means of transport between the two towns from 1888 until 1924, when it finally closed after being effectively disrupted by the Civil War that followed Irish independence.
In recent years, a replica of the line has been constructed at Listowel, running for about 500 yards along the former trackbed of the Great Southern and Western Railway line. The GSW good shed (seen in the backgrond in  the photo below) is used as a museum, with a video feature that includes some amazing footage of the original line operating before the First World War.  

The line is operated using a pair of replica coaches and a replica steam outline loco, that is actually a diesel hydraulic. The visual effect is pretty good, even if the sound and smell are not quite what they should be.

My first reaction was to have a quick look and move on. However, the enthusiasm and friendliness of the volunteer staff made for an enthralling couple of hours. Mrs Burgundy has a fairly low tolerance of railways but found herself well and truly hooked and the couple of families with young children were also being very well entertained. I really can't think of another railway operation with such friendly and engaging staff. 
Passengers are required to more or less balance up the load and so need to board from both sides of the train. To enable this, one of the vehicles has a set of steps at the end to allow you to climb over the line to access the far side of each carriage.

You sit with your back to the centre, looking out over the countryside.
At each end, the loco uncouples and is turned before running around the train. There are turntables at either end of the line, which are used exclusively for turning the loco.

Quite separately, there are turnouts (for want of any better word), which align the route. These look like a turntable, but the track has a slight curve and they were used exclusively for running across, like a turnout. I did ask whether they could be used to turn the loco and was given the explanation that they were not built robustly enough to use in that way – although I would have thought that the stresses of the loco and carriages rolling across them would be at least as great as those created by turning a stationary loco. In any event, it made for much more fun at the end of the line as the loco had to be uncoupled, run forward across the turnout, the turnout had to be reversed to change the route, the loco then ran back over the turnout, another change of route to access the turntable for the loco to be turned, after which the loco ran forward to run around the train.

Perhaps it was just more fun than simply swinging the loco round on the turnout! I stood and watched it happen twice, taking photos as it was done and, would you believe it, I still cannot reconstruct in my mind how it works! There must be something clever about the geometry of the turnouts but the Google Earth view is not quite clear enough to give a clear aerial view. If someone could explain it to me, I should be extremely grateful, as it is now one of those things that is niggling away........
In any event, if you are in the area, the line is well worth a visit. Note that it is promoted as the Lartigue Monorail and Museum, rather than Listowel and Ballybunnion Railway.

 
Best wishes

Eric

[TomJ]

I had heard that the need to balance out the loads created unusual problems. So if a farmer took two cows to market but only sold one they had to find something to counter the weight of the remaining cow!! No idea if it's true but I like the idea of spare 'balancing' cows being kept at stations just in case!!

[pete_mcfarlane]

I had heard that the need to balance out the loads created unusual problems. So if a farmer took two cows to market but only sold one they had to find something to counter the weight of the remaining cow!! No idea if it's true but I like the idea of spare 'balancing' cows being kept at stations just in case!!

 

It must have been "interesting" trying to balance the passengers returning from market day, when they'd all have a few Guinnesses too many. The whole concept is completely bonkers from start to finish.

[byron]

It must have been "interesting" trying to balance the passengers returning from market day, when they'd all have a few Guinnesses too many. The whole concept is completely bonkers from start to finish.

Can you have too manyGuinnesses?

[burgundy]

It must have been "interesting" trying to balance the passengers returning from market day, when they'd all have a few Guinnesses too many. The whole concept is completely bonkers from start to finish.

Not quite as bonkers as it might appear. I understand that the initial construction costs were very low - although, as is often the case, this probably created higher operating costs. Watching the "shunting" required to run round the train, there seemed to be an awful lot of to-ing and fro-ing. Level crossings must have been fun as well using the flying gate. The video includes a lovely section of the train giving way to a donkey cart, with the donkey showing extreme reluctance to cross the bridge and having to be "helped".

As far as ordinary passengers are concerned, the "balancing" was fairly rough and ready - although an excellent excuse for the staff to chat to everyone. Notice that the A frame track includes lower rails either side, which do not appear to take any weight, but act like stabilisers on a child's bike.

Great fun; visit it if you can.

Best wishes

Eric    

Edited July 7, 2014 by burgundy

[Horsetan]

Someone, somewhere, is probably going to replicate this. In T gauge....

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...Quite separately, there are turnouts (for want of any better word), which align the route. These look like a turntable, but the track has a slight curve and they were used exclusively for running across, like a turnout. I did ask whether they could be used to turn the loco and was given the explanation that they were not built robustly enough to use in that way – although I would have thought that the stresses of the loco and carriages rolling across them would be at least as great as those created by turning a stationary loco. In any event, it made for much more fun at the end of the line as the loco had to be uncoupled, run forward across the turnout, the turnout had to be reversed to change the route, the loco then ran back over the turnout, another change of route to access the turntable for the loco to be turned, after which the loco ran forward to run around the train.

...

Perhaps it was just more fun than simply swinging the loco round on the turnout! I stood and watched it happen twice, taking photos as it was done and, would you believe it, I still cannot reconstruct in my mind how it works! There must be something clever about the geometry of the turnouts but the Google Earth view is not quite clear enough to give a clear aerial view. If someone could explain it to me, I should be extremely grateful, as it is now one of those things that is niggling away...

I like the off centre curved road 'turnout' turntable. The secret is that unlke the straight bridge of a turning turntable the assymetry in the bridge means that for any road 'on' there are two potential exits, dependent on which way around the bridge is positioned. I imagine it is the load being off centre that is the main factor precluding this doubling up as a turning table. However it wouldn't be beyond the wit of man to fit it with an adjustable counterbalance for the range of turning loads, so that it could 'double up'.

[pete_mcfarlane]

Someone, somewhere, is probably going to replicate this. In T gauge....

I remember seeing large scale models of the L&B - I think in the copy of Donald Boreham's book on Narrow Gauge modelling that was in my local library about 30+ years ago.

[John_Hughes]

I remember seeing large scale models of the L&B - I think in the copy of Donald Boreham's book on Narrow Gauge modelling that was in my local library about 30+ years ago.

 

I have a copy of the first edition of that excellent book, and it's not mentioned there; however, there were certainly some lovely big models - 32mm / ft? - featured in MRN back, if memory serves, in 1978 / 79, including a vertical boiler loco (which, inevitably, had two vertical boilers, one on each side). Can anyone turn up a copy?

 

As regards the original concept, the idea was that wagons would be towed by donkeys or horses, so it was really seen as a very cheap way to lay a temporary supply route for military or light industrial purposes; the Listowel line then took the idea about as far as it could go and then some, though it certainly provided useful public transport in an area that would otherwise have had none.

[PatB]

The models I remember seeing in MRN were 16mm scale but originated before it became commonplace for garden railways. IIRC the enterprise involved the late Colin Binnie applying his homebrew injection moulding techniques to make the A-frames for the track.

 

As for the full size L & B, 36 years isn't a bad run for an essentially light railway. Roughly the same as many of Colonel Stephens' lines lasted, anyway.

[pete_mcfarlane]

I have a copy of the first edition of that excellent book, and it's not mentioned there; however, there were certainly some lovely big models - 32mm / ft? - featured in MRN back, if memory serves, in 1978 / 79, including a vertical boiler loco (which, inevitably, had two vertical boilers, one on each side). Can anyone turn up a copy?

 

It looks like there are two editions. I've now got a copy of the first edition, but the one in my local library was the second (presumably revised) edition. There are some photos of the content here thanks to Amazon, including the VB locomotive.

 

(I'm sure there's some rose tinted glasses at work, but the selection of books in my local librry as a kind seems much better than waht you get now.....)

[decauville1126]

There was a Lartigue model (working!) at ExpoNG last October at Swanley, about 7mm scale I think. Whilst Don Boreham's model was often in the media I seem to remember that Dennis Allenden also did one which may have been the vertical boiler type?

Edited July 8, 2014 by decauville1126

[Talltim]

Saw this on Flickr today

OcTRAINber WIP #2 by Alexander, on Flickr

[009 micro modeller]

There was a Lartigue model (working!) at ExpoNG last October at Swanley, about 7mm scale I think. Whilst Don Boreham's model was often in the media I seem to remember that Dennis Allenden also did one which may have been the vertical boiler type?

I think the one at Swanley was based on the French line that used this system.

[Steve K]

Saw this on Flickr today

OcTRAINber WIP #2 by Alexander, on Flickr

Outstanding!

[Clive Mortimore]

Many moons ago some of the then Chelmsford club members were building a model of this system. I have no idea what happened to it.

[Rudititanic]

In case of interest, a working set is now available in N scale:

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by Rudititanic

[otherplanet]

On 20/10/2018 at 21:51, Clive Mortimore said:

Many moons ago some of the then Chelmsford club members were building a model of this system. I have no idea what happened to it.

A key member of the team unfortunately had real life get in the way of modelling when his work got very complicated. I believe it was his concept, and certainly he was leading the track development. Everything unfortunately then ground to a halt. I still have a prototype turntable  mechanism somewhere in a box, that operated the above mentioned rotating points.