Waldner Aero Train: Monorail System in Moscow 1993

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

At the end of October 1933, a mysterious structure appeared to the eyes of the inhabitants of Moscow. It was located in the Park of Culture and Leisure. A. M. Gorky and was a small copy of the "air train" - a super-high-speed monorail patented in the same 1933 by a domestic mechanic - minder S. Waldner (A. S. 35209).

When creating his monorail system, Waldner, like Beni, primarily paid attention to ensuring the stability of the movement of the car at high speeds, but he managed to find a solution in which the overpass would be much easier. At the time of development, such a scheme had no world analogues.

he is, front view.

For the Waldner train, the top bogie and side runner bogies of an original design were developed. The bogie had jawless single-drive axle boxes, which will find wide application in carriage and locomotive building since the 60s. In the event of an axle or spring breakage, the trolley had to "land" on the safety ski.

air car suspension system

Waldner's invention was recognized as particularly important. At the Central Institute of Buildings NKPS, a special group was created - later the "Waldner Air Train Bureau", headed by the inventor himself. The developments were carried out jointly with TsAGI. Professors S. Dadyko, N. Shchusev, M. Babichkov, I. Rabinovich, M. Goncharov, A, Nekrasov, A. Tupolev took part in the design.

(clickable)

The life-size air train was supposed to accommodate 300 passengers - like a post-war airbus (picture above). Two 530 hp engines were supposed to provide a very significant speed of 250-300 km / h, even in modern times. For lightly loaded directions, a crew with 80 seats was also developed. (fig. below)

(clickable)

The July 1934 issue of Popular Science published an extensive article on Waldner's air train, calling it an "amphibious train." The article indicated plans to build three air train lines in the USSR with a total length of 332 miles (530 km) in different regions, including Turkestan. It was indicated that the trains will be equipped with diesel engines, can reach speeds of 180 miles per hour (290 km / h), the carriage capacity will be 40 people, and when moving through the Amu Darya, in order not to make a heavy bridge, the carriages will float on water. guided by an overpass. It was noted that survey work on the routes had already begun. Judging by the data given in the article, the magazine is talking about the Tashauz-Chardzhou highway in Turkmenistan.

(clickable)

… Work on the air train was canceled abruptly, despite positive results, and the reasons for this are still unclear. According to the engineer B. Kachurin, who participated in the development, “the circumstances that did not relate to the essence of the invention itself so developed that the rapidly begun work on its implementation was discontinued at the end of 1936. All materials - about 600 drawings, not counting calculations and text material - ended up in the archive, where they are to this day (August 1971, - OI)"

• "Passenger monorail roads", V. V. Chirkin, O. S. Petrenko, A. S. Mikhailov, Yu. M. Halonen. M., "Mechanical Engineering", 1969, 240s.
• B. Kachurin. Waldner airport train. "Science and Life", 8, 1971.
• Yu. Fedorov. The stability triangle. "Technology - Youth", 10, 1972.
• From a steam locomotive to "LADovoz". "Technology for Youth", 10, 1971.