Alweg was a transportation company based in Germany known for pioneering straddle-beam

monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, ...

History

Alweg was founded by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

industrial magnate Dr. Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren in January 1953 as Alweg-Forschung, GmbH (Alweg Research Corporation), based in

Fühlingen Fühlingen is a village in the northern part of the city of Cologne. It is part of the Stadtbezirk, borough of Chorweiler. Fühlingen is well known for its artificial lake, Fühlinger See. Location The town is located in the north of the city of ...

, a suburb of

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The company was an outgrowth of the Verkehrsbahn-Studiengesellschaft (Transit Railway Study Group), which had already presented its first monorail designs and prototypes in the previous year. The Alweg name is an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

of Dr. Wenner-Gren's name (Axel Lennart WEnner-Gren). Alweg is best remembered for their role in building the original

Disneyland Monorail System The Disneyland Monorail System (originally named the Disneyland ALWEG Monorail System) is an attraction and transportation system at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, United States. It was the first daily operating monorail in the W ...

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

, which opened in 1959, and the

Seattle Center Monorail The Seattle Center Monorail is an elevated straddle-beam monorail line in Seattle, Washington, United States. The monorail runs along 5th Avenue between Seattle Center and Westlake Center in Downtown Seattle, making no intermediate stops. ...

, which opened for the 1962

Century 21 Exposition The Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World's Fair) was a world's fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962, in Seattle, Washington, United States. Both systems remain operational, with the

Seattle Center Seattle Center is an arts, educational, tourism and entertainment center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Spanning an area of 74 acres (30 ha), it was originally built for the 1962 World's Fair. Its landmark feature is the tall Space Needle ...

Monorail still using the original Alweg trains which have traveled over one million miles. A third system, built in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

for the Italia 61 exposition remained unused a few months after the exposition closed and was destroyed by a fire in the late 1970s, most probably set by vandals. The remnants of the system were scrapped in 1981, with the north station repurposed as an office building. In 1963, Alweg put forward a proposal to the

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their first ...

for a monorail system that would be designed, built, operated and maintained within

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

by Alweg. Alweg promised to take all financial risk for the construction with the cost of the system to be recovered through fares collected. The supervisors voted down the proposal, mostly due to political pressures from Standard Oil of California and

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

, which were strong advocates for automobile dependency. This move was greatly resented by famed author

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and r ...

who supported the monorail project and resented the later move to build a subway in Los Angeles.Bradbury Speaks: Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars (c.2005) for essay entitled: "L.A., We ''Are'' the World! A New Millennium Revelation"(1989) Alweg's technology was licensed in 1960 by

Hitachi Monorail The Hitachi Monorail System refers to the family of monorails offered by Hitachi Rail. List of notable Hitachi monorails Hitachi's designs are ALWEG-based, and are available in three configurations: All Hitachi trains except those on Japan's ol ...

, which continues to construct monorails based on Alweg technology around the world. What was for decades the world's busiest monorail line, the

Tokyo Monorail The , officially the , is a straddle-beam, Alweg-type monorail line in Tokyo, Japan. It is an airport rail link that connects Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) to Tokyo's Ōta, Shinagawa, and Minato wards. The line serves 11 stations betwe ...

, was completed in 1964 by what was then the Hitachi-Alweg division of Hitachi, and today's busiest monorail system,

Chongqing Rail Transit The Chongqing Rail Transit (branded as CRT; also known as Chongqing Metro) is the rapid transit system in the city of Chongqing, China. In operation since 2005, it serves the transportation needs of the city's main business and entertainment ...

, is also based on Alweg and Hitachi technology. After Alweg ran into financial difficulties, Alweg's German operations were taken over by

Krupp The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...

. Krupp wound up all Alweg operations by 1964. In the 1960s there was a plan to build an ALWEG monorail in the

High Tatras The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains ( Slovak: Vysoké Tatry; pl, Tatry Wysokie; rue, Высокі Татри,'' Vysoki Tatry''; hu, Magas-Tátra; german: Hohe Tatra; french: Hautes Tatras), are a mountain range along the border of norther ...

in Slovakia.

References

External links

{{Commons category, ALWEG
Los Angeles monorail proposal (The Monorail Society)
ALWEG Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1953 Manufacturing companies based in Cologne Defunct companies of Germany Monorails Science and technology in Sweden 1953 establishments in West Germany Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1964 1964 disestablishments in West Germany

History

See also

References

External links