Riding high in Germany on the world's oldest suspended railway

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/jun/09/riding-high-in-germany-on-the-worlds-oldest-suspended-railway

47•pseudolus•5h ago

Comments

tormeh•2h ago

This does seem like a superior way to build elevated rail. Less noise in particular, as turning doesn't induce slippage like on a normal train. Wonder why it's so rare.

frosted-flakes•1h ago

Lots of unnecessary complexity. In this case it makes sense because the majority of the line is directly over a river due to space constraints, but it's a lot simpler to build a concrete viaduct and run normal trains ovwr it. This also allows the train to transition to run underground or at-grade.

vegabook•2h ago

Bit of an HDR vibe going on in the photos.

somat•1h ago

Dangle-trains are one of those things that appeal to me for unknown reasons, they just look so cool. But I am unable to really quantify the appeal, so here is my attempt.

Advantages:

keeps your electrical plant out of the weather

allows the track to be out of the road while allowing street level access to train. This one is a bit iffy as the dangle train will usually be put above street traffic.

Disadvantages:

look at how much steel it takes to make that box beam.

Every thing is in tension, leading to complicated structure to contain it, joints can be much simpler in compression.

Any how as a dangle-train connoisseur I leave you with two additional videos.

A dangle train in japan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGLrP5eawdY

The Tim Traveler (perhaps the best all around esoteric travel channel) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kwpj1UOrhs

thoeri2o34j234•1h ago

+1 for the Shonan-Monorail.

For those travelling to Tokyo, go to Kamakura, take the famous Enoden to Enoshima, then take Shonan-Monorail to Ofuna and return to Tokyo.

gHA5•55m ago

Here is a German article about migration and integration in the immigrant city of Wuppertal. The Schwebebahn is also mentioned.

https://www.zeit.de/2025/11/migration-neue-alte-einwanderung... https://archive.ph/mzM0P

Stratoscope•48m ago

Here is a wonderful video, riding the Wuppertal Schwebebahn in 1902 and 2015 side by side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TqqdOcX4dc

As noted in the description, the 1902 video plays in real time, and the 2015 video has some cuts and framerate adjustments to keep them in sync.

spankibalt•9m ago

Riding high, high up in ze sky.

Ja, ja, all fun and games... until the dangly turns into a divey. :( [1]

1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Wuppertal_Schwebebahn_acc...]

FSE meets the FBI

Why Android can't use CDC Ethernet (2023)

Building supercomputers for autocrats probably isn't good for democracy

Riding high in Germany on the world's oldest suspended railway

Zig Devlog: Self-Hosted x86 Back End Is Now Default in Debug Mode

Omnimax

Analyzing IPv4 Trades with Gnuplot

Tracking Copilot vs. Codex vs. Cursor vs. Devin PR Performance

The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

Administering immunotherapy in the morning seems to matter. Why?

Panjandrum: The 'giant firework' built to break Hitler's Atlantic Wall

Endangered classic Mac plastic color returns as 3D-printer filament

My first attempt at iOS app development

Software Is About Promises

Show HN: Let’s Bend – Open-Source Harmonica Bending Trainer

Gaussian integration is cool

How to get started with writing tech video essays

Joining Apple Computer (2018)

How Compiler Explorer Works in 2025

Poison everywhere: No output from your MCP server is safe

Generating Pixels One by One

The last six months in LLMs, illustrated by pelicans on bicycles

I used AI-powered calorie counting apps, and they were even worse than expected

Binfmtc – binfmt_misc C scripting interface

Self-Host and Tech Independence: The Joy of Building Your Own

Cheap yet ultrapure titanium might enable widespread use in industry (2024)

<Blink> and <Marquee> (2020)

FAA to eliminate floppy disks used in air traffic control systems

Launching the BeOS on Hitachi Flora Prius Systems (1999)

Building an AI server on a budget

Riding high in Germany on the world's oldest suspended railway

Comments

FSE meets the FBI

Why Android can't use CDC Ethernet (2023)

Building supercomputers for autocrats probably isn't good for democracy

Riding high in Germany on the world's oldest suspended railway

Zig Devlog: Self-Hosted x86 Back End Is Now Default in Debug Mode

Omnimax

Analyzing IPv4 Trades with Gnuplot

Tracking Copilot vs. Codex vs. Cursor vs. Devin PR Performance

The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

Administering immunotherapy in the morning seems to matter. Why?

Panjandrum: The 'giant firework' built to break Hitler's Atlantic Wall

Endangered classic Mac plastic color returns as 3D-printer filament

My first attempt at iOS app development

Software Is About Promises

Show HN: Let’s Bend – Open-Source Harmonica Bending Trainer

Gaussian integration is cool

How to get started with writing tech video essays

Joining Apple Computer (2018)

How Compiler Explorer Works in 2025

Poison everywhere: No output from your MCP server is safe

Generating Pixels One by One

The last six months in LLMs, illustrated by pelicans on bicycles

I used AI-powered calorie counting apps, and they were even worse than expected

Binfmtc – binfmt_misc C scripting interface

Self-Host and Tech Independence: The Joy of Building Your Own

Cheap yet ultrapure titanium might enable widespread use in industry (2024)

<Blink> and <Marquee> (2020)

FAA to eliminate floppy disks used in air traffic control systems

Launching the BeOS on Hitachi Flora Prius Systems (1999)

Building an AI server on a budget