Stimmt so jetzt nicht, 24/7 ist Quatsch - 23 Uhr ist Schicht und in der früh morgens gehts wieder los - ich wohne direkt nebendran, also 'verlässliche Quelle' ;)
In 1950, baby elephant Tuffi was taken on a ride along with it's ringmaster as an advertisement for a circus. Tuffi panicked, broke through the wagons' wall and fell down 10m into the river. She survived, and the ringmaster was charged with 450 DM for "careless endangering of transport", because the train was "not suitable for carrying an elephant". While visiting a neighbouring towns' townhall, Tuffi ate a bunch of flowers and peed on a persian carpet.
Wuppertal, where this is, was a centre of early industrialisation in Germany. The city, as it is today, includes multiple former towns along the river Wupper. As it is a tight valley and space was at a premium, they built this hanging railway mainly above and along the river to connect those former towns. Wuppertal literally means "Wupper Valley"
The elongated shape of the town also resolves a weakness of any monorail design: changing direction. Switches are a lot more difficult to solve with monorails (hanging or not) than with normal trains. The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal solves this by not having any. It just goes back and forth, while still covering the whole city because it’s so long and narrow.
@@asmodon They did have a switch - basically a straight section of rail which could be turned. A railway turntable which could completely accommodate a full train. They figured out three things: 1. Sometimes, trains would get stuck on the "Wendeanlage" 2. Oil was dripping from the "Wendeanlage". Not an issue for a regular railway turntable, where you can catch the dripping oil, but with the trains hanging under rail, this was not possible. And since there was the river below, the dripping oil contributed to pollution. 3. When they planned an additional Wendeanlage, they figured that they actually didn't need any in the first place. So the existing one was dismantled and plans for any new Wendeanlagen were scrapped.
Some facts: The steel framework was renewed for the 100th anniversary (Beginning in 1990s) The stops were also renewed or modernized. And the "Flying Trains" were renewed. When the suspension railway was built, the name "Wuppertal" did not yet exist. It was only in the 1920s that towns along the River Wupper were merged to form a "large city", which was given the name "Wuppertal". Wuppertal has a population of around 330,000. Flying Train transports around 85,000 people every day. This means that every fourth inhabitant travels on the Flying Train every day Flying Train is mainly built over the river "Wupper". The first section shown in the video runs over a road. This is in the west of Wuppertal. Flying Train also runs over the "Autobahn" there - the world famous german motorway/highway "with no general speed limit". As you can see in the video, there were hardly any cars on the road at the time. But it was expected that the number of cars would increase rapidly and that problems would arise due to the narrowness of the valley. The "tal" in the name of the town Wuppertal means "valley". The Wuppertal suspension railway is considered one of the safest means of transport in the world. One of the Flying Trains crashed into the River Wupper during the renovation for the 100th anniversary celebrations. 5 people died. The suspension railway does not run at night. So a lot of work on the scaffolding took place at night. The scaffolding workers had forgotten to dismantle a claw on the rail and so the first train hit this claw early in the morning and crashed. In 1950, an animal circus came to town. To advertise, a young elephant (Tuffi was his name) was brought into a wagon. The slight rocking of the wagon caused the elephant to go on a rampage and finally punching a hole in the side wall, causing it to plunge 10 metres into the River Wupper. Unfortunately there is no film footage of this. The elephant only got a few scratches. Fun fact: Four tickets had to be bought for him. By the way: Bayer, the worldwide known chemical giant, was founded in Wuppertal (not Leverkusen). And the Flying Train" also runs across the factory site 12 meter high. Wuppertal is located in the west of Germany. Friedrich Engels, the co-founder of "communism", is particularly famous around the world. A factory owner's son who was Karl Marx's closest friend. His birthplace is within sight of a ride on the suspension railway. Denis, who made the video, is known for restoring old films. There are also some from before and after 1900 showing US scenes. I recommend all US viewers of Ryan's videos to watch these. You will be amazed.
Tuffi was female and a Dairy company in Wuppertal was named after her. She died at the age of 43 in a zoo in Paris. Wuppertal has pictures and statues of Tuffi everywhere and there are also children’s books about the incident. They’re even advertising the Schwebebahn with an elefant falling out of it.😅
It's so haunting seeing those restored and colourised scenes. I've seen the footage of the modern day Schwebebahn and as a German I'm used to seeing houses that are older, but those turn of the century clothing! And it's so haunting seeing those kids play next to their house, knowing that if they survive, they'll see two world wars...
I moved to Wuppertal almost four years ago and every time I use the Schwebebahn (several times a week) I feel like a little kid. I will never get tired of enjoying this so much. It’s something so special. They have technical problems from time to time though. Just recently, they opened up the Schwebodrom where you can experience the ride in an old coach like it was a 100 years ago with VR goggles. 🤩
As french 🇫🇷 this makes me sad. We love you my german neighbor. You deserve more than an austrian dictator in your history. Love all of you and peace .
@@hdkiller7820 I love our french neighbours, got lots of french friends. My grandpa used to have some french accent for some random words liek praline cuz he learned them when he was clearing up mines in normandy after the war
I’m European and I’ve actually been on a train in Indiana. I was an exchange student in Michigan and convinced my host family to take the train with me from New Buffalo, MI to Chicago through Indiana. It was only a bit late and actually pretty convenient!
Yes, I just thought of the same one. I lived in northern Indiana for a while, and also took that train to downtown Chicago a few times. Almost like a S-Bahn around here...
My wife was born there, so I rode it several times. It's a very special and unique experience. And it is very affordable. A 24-hour ticket for the whole public transport system in Wuppertal (including the Schwebebahn) costs €8.30 ($9.10) and there's a train every 3 minutes.
The Schwebebahn is part of the regular public transport, so you can also ride it with the 49€ monthly Deutschlandticket, which even makes sense for tourists if they are at least a week in Germany.
I'm so happy you're learning about the Schwebebahn. I'm from Wuppertal and I've been on it hundreds if not thousands of times and I just love seeing people's reactions to it. It never fails to amaze everyone.
When the people of Wuppertal gather under the video of an American being amazed by the Schwebebahn. I love the internet xD Grüße aus der Heimat in die Heimat! ❤
Its basically a suspended tram. That way it does not interfere with the traffic in the streets. Similar to the train they have in Chicago, only hanging down. But apart of the Schwebebahn, I find this video (I have seen it before) absolutely amazing. It has a fantastic quality for a film from 1902, being restored and colorized, with a bit of sound added. To see what the streets and houses , and the people, looked like 120 years ago, and knowing how it looks there today, is just stunning. Like a time travel.
Good morning and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel.
There is a version of this film on youtube where someone has put the same trainride in modern days side by side. There you can see how the war and the automobile damaged the city.
My daughter lives in Wuppertal. I've ridden the "Schwebebahn" many times. That's very cool. She is always on time because she doesn't have to worry about car traffic. It's a really relaxing ride with a great view.
Ah, the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn, or: "What happens if you want a subway but there's a fraggling riverbed in the way?" 😁 Awesome Public Transportation, did ride it a few times when visiting Wuppertal. Allmost like a slowride in a Theme-Park. Just less... Themeparky... and a lot cheaper. :)
The flying train is a safe and extremely comfortable way to travel through the complete city of Wuppertal. We can highly recommend it, it is worth a visit. BTW great videos
Living in a town bordering on Wuppertal and having worked there for several years I have always used the flying train to reach my workplace. No traffic lights, no car drivers who shouldn’t own a drivers license. I have loved it. The highlight of this historic train is undoubtedly the transport of 🐘 Tuffi (60 years ago or so) that wasn’t a real Schwebebahn-fan and decided to leave the train on its own and take a jump into river Wupper 😂 A very amusing story also for me who was born decades later
Herdecke born and raised here, we learned about Tuffi from the schoolmilk that we got in elementary, i THINK it was a pyramid at first and only later changed to Tetrapak.
The"Schwebebahn" Suspended Railway, is still in service, with new trains nowadays. The reason to build this way, was, because the riverbed was the only space left in the narrow Wupper-Valley, to build a high-speed (relatively high speed, of course, up to 70km/h) line. The existing tramway network was already at the end of capacity, so this was the only way to improve traffic. The other main railwayline, in the valley, was not suited for short distance travel within the city. Here you can see how they "switch tracks" in the terminal station, just by moving the tracks sideways: ruclips.net/video/zQcWvMPcTxU/видео.html (It's on my channel, by the way... )
1880-1920 was the Golden Age for all type of rail transport. Then the car (did you realize there was none? How beautiful!) destroyed walking and transit.
I was riding on this gliding railway in Wuppertal (only train of this sort in Germany, AFAIK) once in my lifetime, during my childhood, visiting relatives.😊
Lived in Wuppertal for two years and the Schwebebahn is just awesome! And particularly it solved the main issue they had: there was no space for a tram in the valley, so bulding the main means of commute over the river is just so genius!🥰
That's wrong. There was a tram right next to the suspension railway for decades. The tram was there before the suspension railway. Das ist falsch. Es gab jahrzehntelang eine Tram direkt neben der Schwebebahn. Die Tram war vor der Schwebebahn da.
@@Michael_from_EU_Germany Indeed, there was the tram. However, Wuppertal already suffered from serious congestion back in the days, and the horse trams were slow. The Schwebebahn didn't compete with the other traffic on the roads and was much faster, especially in bends. It was originally developed in Cologne, so it was not totally experimental but had already prototypes running in Cologne-Deutz. Another major factor was, apparently, that it was more awesome than a tram. Especially more awesome than the Belgian horse trams. Naturally, the Belgian operator went to court but lost the case.
As a German, the craziest part about this is seeing the houses and the people (especially since this was coloured later on). I mean, we have old houses still standing, so the architecture isn't all that weird to me either, but the people wearing turn of the century clothing while the Schwebebahn is going by is just so crazy. To think, those kids playing in the garden of that one house, just living their lifes while there will be two world wars in their future (or they may not even survive that first one). It's haunting to think about.
@@LythaWausW At that time there were some huge horse stables in the city, some of which extended over several floors. If you take the train (from west to east) look out for the buildings on the left about 150 meters behind the “Pestalozzistrasse” station. There you can see an extension between the first floor and the ground floor. This is a horse staircase. A shipping company was based there around 1900 and the building was the horse stable. The hall was later used by a tennis club and then for a martial arts club.
I grow up in Wuppertal from 1973 (age 4) to 1981 and I loved it to ride the "Schwebebahn". In 1903 a baby elephant jumped out of the train into the river.
The trains are still available - you can ride the modern ones or the old historical "Kaiserwagen" < When you do a ride with the Kaiserwagen, you'll get coffee and cake while riding this train. Nice! :)
Wuppertal= Wupper the River + tal Valley . And the 2 neighboring City Solingen and Remscheid are Like a traffictriangle connected with old Bridges and old streetpaths along the mountainrange or the River. So they are completly build on steep Hills withoud any flat Terrain. Thats why they have this Kind of Infrastruktur to spare space ON the ground. Also at the time of building there wasnt the Autobahn nr1 which connects thoose Towns today.
Solingen is famous for its world class cutlery and it goes without saying along the route of Schwebebahn, you will find one of the most recognisable commercial buildings in the world, world-famous Bayer. 😊
I grew up near Wuppertal and going to the "Wuppertaler Zoo" by "Schwebebahn" (the flying train) was an absolute highlight for me as a kid. My little brother is now a firefighter in this amazing but also kind of strange city. I was also going to mention "Tuffi" the elephant which jumped out of the train into the river "Wupper" (Wuppertal means Valley of the Wupper". There is also a phrase in the area around "Über die Wupper gehen" - which translates to "Going over the Wupper", and means that somebody died, like he passes from one life to another. I really enjoyed watching your reaction on this!
Funfact: The phrase had its possible explanation in the fact that people that were sentenced to death had to cross the river Wupper from the jail to the place of execution.
Tuffi survived, unharmed apart from a few scratches. She landed in a shallow (only 50cm deep) but muddy part of the river. The Tuffi milk products are named after the elephant. And another possible explanation for "über die Wupper gehen" ("cross the Wupper") is that the bankruptcy court was on an island in the Wupper. If had to go there, your business was "über die Wupper". And yet another explanation is that the Wupper was also a natural border between to regions. In one region, young string men would be recruited by force to fight in the army. On the other side of the Wupper, they were safe.
I grew up in a city close to it and have always known about it, but actually never took a ride. What I never realized is how old it is. That must have been amazing back then. And yes, it's still around.
hi Ryan ! I am native and still resident German and I don't come from the area shown in your video but I know a bit more than you do - to explain some facts. The town shown here is Wuppertal (Wupper is the river crossing this area and "tal" means as much as "valley" in a not so big size you Americans are used to). This area is part of the industrial heart of Germany where lots our inventions started and still run. AND ! There isn't much space left on the ground for transport systems, so they put the railway one floor higher ! And it worked for about nearly 100 yrs. without any problems, accidents or crash. There's a saying that . . . need not to smile right now . . . an Elephant being transportet within this railway managed to open the doors and he fell off into right into the river below. But, as far as I know, this is so damn far away in time and they managed to get him out alive of the river. For sure there are some photos available in the internet, cause this is a "funny story".
the trains only have 2 or 3 compartments, but during rushhour they run every 2 minutes, towards the evening this stretches to every 10 to every 20 minutes at the end (around 8pm). this makes it really convenient because you don't need do memorise a scedule, you just go there and a train comes.
there is even a video with a side by side shot of the Footage from 1902 and today, its epic to see the areas change but still you can make out that its the same. The Schwebebahn was Practical for Wuppertal, you have to imagine Wuppertals City Layout is like a bit I so there are only 2 Main Roads left and right and in the Middle is a River (Wupper) so there had no more room for Public Transport without Clocking up the 2 main Roads... so there used this over the Wupper River, the only free Space there had, without getting in the way of the Overcrowded Roads :D
The schwebebahn actually mostly rides above the river, because there was no place for a ground train in wuppertal. The River is caller „Wupper“ btw. Most recently, most of the Schwebebahns don’t even have a driver anymore
I live in nearby Solingen and I visit Wuppertal fairly regularly. For people in and around Wuppertal, the Schwebebahn is just a regular form of public transport, just like a bus or a subway. My grandparents used to take me on rides with the Schwebebahn when I was a child to visit the zoo or to go shopping. I'm not even surprised when a Schwebebahn passes by above my head. 😄 A single fare ticket for the whole route Vohwinkel - Oberbarmen is €3.40 btw
I'm german. I didn't know that the Schwebebahn of Wuppertal is so old. It exists and you can take a ride on a 13 km way along the wupper river. The Schwebebahn nowadays is from 2019 and it's very modern.
I live 20 meters away from a skytrain station in Bangkok. It’s just an elevated electric train but it’s above all the crazy traffic. I love to sit inside and look at google maps traffic and know that the distance that takes 10 minutes in an air conditioned train while cars need 1hour for the same distance. It’s impressive how fast they build new lines and expand the network. Worth a visit and realize that first world western countries can learn from developing nations, too
It is practical here in Wuppertal, but pretty much only here, hence why it isn't used in many other cities. Our city is built alongside the river Wupper, with steep hills on either side, so every bit of available space is used by now, the only part that is still free is right above the river itself. We also can't have underground railways here as the ground is solid rock making excavation really difficult and expensive. The city is pretty long due to the hills on either side, making one line across the river more practical than in cities that are less stretched out.
1:12 Pretty much still looks like that today still, at least in the areas where the houses haven't been bombed in WW2, especially in Vohwinkel (pretty much the western-most part of the track) 2:20 It's actually called Schwebebahn, which would directly translate to hovering train, but it's more like a hanging train, actually. 3:31 It is so practical that I genuinely wonder why there's just that one on the entire planet. But I guess it's due to the fact that it's practical in particular for that place where everything is crammed into the Wupper valley. You can literally hop onto one of those trains like every 3 minutes at the highest frequented times and they don't impact any other form of traffic at all... 6:12 Noteworthy that it were the cities of Barmen, Elberfeld and Vohwinkel that got this. Together with Ronsdorf and Cronenberg those were fusioned into Barmen-Elberfeld in 1929, only to be renamed into Wuppertal a year later. 6:28 It's 3.30€ for a single ride to anywhere within the city with either this, a bus or by train or any combination of those. A 24h ticket is 8.30. You'd better get the so called "DeutschlandTicket" though, it's currently 49€ and allows you to use all off public transport for an entire calendar month except for ICE, EC and IC trains (and, obviously similar high speed trains like the French TGV) and a few exceptions (wouldn't be Germany without... there are some RE lines that are being run by the DB Fernverkehr AG which you can't take with that ticket either). 6:47 I might suggest reading about the Tuffi story. 7:05 I wouldn't be surprised if the current ones are faster than the original ones :) 7:23 Try to hit one of the weekends where you can take a ride on the historic O-Bus in Solingen (one of the three cities that still have trolley busses in Germany, the others being Esslingen and Eberswalde) as well which usually goes on the 683 line that ends right where the Schwebebahn is (not sure if they still take that route, they did in the past though). On its other end, the bus goes onto a huge turntable since there's no way it could turn around in the streets where that is since it's down in the valley of the Wupper in Solingen-Burg. That's one of only 4 of those turntables left on the entire planet and just one of two that are still actively used, even though it's only in use for those historic events still. They still have an Uerdingen/Henschel ÜH IIIs from 1959 and most other models that have been used since. Video recommendations: - "Why Wuppertal's Suspended Monorail Wasn't The Future Of Travel" - "Schwebebahn: timelapse back and forth - end to end" - "Wuppertal Schwebebahn 1902 & 2015 side by side video" And one for the ond O-Bus in Solingen with one from the 80s/90, also showing the turntable: - "Die RitterTour in Solingen O Bus Museum Solingen"
I once rode on that train. It's amazing but the river (Wupper) wasn't the cleanest one.Still working!It's like the monorail from Haneda to Tokyo, where the Schwebebahn has the rails above and the monorail below the cars.
I visited "Schwebodrome" as a team event a month ago. It is a new museum with the "Schwebebahn" as a topic. It is quite amazing. As the last station of the museum, you can "drive" as a VR-Tour with the flying-train in that old time. Nice experience :)
This was such a good idea. A train system that can run over the roads without disturbing other traffic is something that really should have spread across Europe. The only reason I can see for it still being limited to a local service is the cost of installation.
on the top of the rails, that's where the maintence team is working if something needs to be replaced, repaired, etc. Also there was one fatal accident in 1999 where a train fell into the Wupper river. That was the fault of the maintence team. They forgot to remove the brackets and the train crashed into it at full speed (obviously, you can't see the brackets from the driver POV)
i took the schwebebahn when i was in school everyday in like 1994/1995, from oberbarmen to werther brücke and back. i never knew it was a tourist thing or something like that, it was just public transport like a bus or a train.
I love these restored fims, it is really uncanny to recognize the same streets you life in being already there more than a century ago. The only thing that really has changed are the people. And even that is usually the clothing. When there is Schützenfest, then there are even the Prussian style uniform still around, and that one really gets uncanny.
you really have to ride this thig when in Germany. It's a really cool experience if you didn't ride such a rail before. I once visited Wuppertal 20 years ago and I loved this thing.
Yeah it is still around and working. In Wuppertal it is pretty usual to use it. There is a very special story with an elephant. I know it well because I live in Remscheid, a neighboor city of Wuppertal. What is very close in Germany. As far as I know the "Wuppertaler Schwebebahn" is existing only once in the world. No other city has this thing and that over 100 years later. It is pretty amazing if I think about it, but I have been in Wuppertal so many times that I'm not that amazed.
I had my hotel in Wuppertal during gamescom and I took the "Schwebebahn" train there, it was pretty fun :) there exist only a handful of train systems like this in Germany and yes the reason why so few exist is cause it's just impracticle, you need a ton of steel and concrete for it.
Well, for a valley like Wuppertal using so much steel to get the trains up from the precious ground is probably a better choice than putting a railway or tram on the ground. And I’m not sure, if an underground system would have worked there at the time.
@@jennyh4025 Indeed, an underground tunnel would not have worked in Wuppertal. I guess it would have been the world's first underground underwater train. All the major tunnels in the Wuppertal area go though elevations, not down into the ground below. Ground water level is 4.5 meters below the ground already. Mining was primarily strip-mining. Also, the city area was already quite densely built (which was another reason why they preferred the Schwebebahn over the horse-drawn trams - which *did* exist before the Schwebebahn took over).
When you pass on the video the child on/in the swing, on the right hand side, at 2:15, you are seeing a large field that, 50 years later, after ww2, become the biggest autobahn crossing in europe. There is a side to side watch of this clip with 1902 and now (okay, 2015) on youtube: "Wuppertal Schwebebahn 1902 & 2015 side by side video" to see the century difference. Worth a watch imho.
It works really well because Wuppertal essentially is around the river - it does not really sprawl out orthogonally to the river valley - there is no US like urban sprawl. So this Schwebebahn actually goes to every important point of the city. I used it daily when I had an assignment there in 2003.
Indiana used to have a pretty dense passenger (!) network like the rest of the US (maps from the 1900s in google). But with most trains, streetcars etc. it was mostly ripped out after WWII to make space for 6 - 12 lane roads and the rest was sold off to cargo companies who don't care about passenger trains and frequently de-prioritize the sad rest now represented by Amtrak. In Europe, we also built roads, but we mostly left our city centers and train tracks (unfortunately some were also lost in that time) intact and just added the roads and highways. So thats why we have more trains, not that these are something you never had. ;-)
The Wuppertal Schwebebahn since 2018 has been twinned with the Shonan Monorail in Ofuna, Japan. China has the third monorail in the world, the Wuhan Sky Train! 😊
It's a real beauty of industrial design when you see the structure from outside. I rode it a few times visiting Wuppertal in the last couple of years. The train cars themselves are all modern of course. The view over the city when riding it is pretty nice indeed.
It just absolutely blew my mind when you said you've never been on a train before! For me the train is my freedom, because I don't have a car, so if I think about how to get somewhere it's just always by train. So crazy, maybe you need to tell us a bit more about the U.S. too!
Ryan, if you've never traveled by train before, come to Germany and ride all the passenger trains there are! ICE, IC, regional express (RE), regional train (RB), the "flying" train in Wuppertal (the one from your video, named "Wuppertaler Schwebebahn"), subway, tram. This will bedefinitely impressive for you... Best regards from Frankfurt am Main/Germany
A friend's mother once came to visit a few years ago; she wanted to ride the Schwebebahn and expected some beautiful tourist trap. Instead she was disappointed to find rather the efficient version of a tram ;-) And the locals immediately spot a tourist by looking at his face ... tourists are not used to the trains shaking from left to right and all show the same surprise when first experiencing it.
greetings to wuppertal, bought my last car there and drove with this too on my way. As others already meantioned if you buy a ticket (time or target based) you can use this as part of the city public transportation like any other bus. Joyable if you see a traffic jam below you :)
My hometown 💕 it's still activ. The river is called Wupper. I used it every single day when I have lived there. Google the story of Tuffi the elefant. She drove with the Schwebebahn in the 1950s and jumper out of it and fall into the river. Was not injured.
I'm from Wuppertal and a lot of people use the "Schwebebahn" what translates more to "levitating train" every day. The form of the town along the river "Wupper" makes it very useable, because you can get to most of the city by using this train. And (of cause) there are no problems with carcrashes, or something like that. A very long time the Schwebebahn was called safest vehicle in the world. Is the Schwebebahn practical? Yes it is! But it is also because it was build in the past. Wuppertal was patrtital formed by the Schwebebahn. More Houses where the Schwebebahn connects you to the rest of the town. So it fueled itself by being an attractive vehicle over the years. But there are some problems with this thing (for sure). First of all the trainsystem is old so it is loud and causes vibrations while driving. You can feel and hear every train while passing by. And the pass all the houses very close. Second is that maintaining this whole system is super difficult, cause there are absolutly NO parts you can use from other systems. So everytging has to be build directly and exclusivly for the Schwebebahn. And some years ago there was a problem with the whole systen and it had to be taken off for maintenance for over 2 years. Ok, you may think "Maintenance is importent and for sure it is an old vehicle, that is nothing probkematic". But we live still in germany and some prejudices are right. The (very close) OVER 2 years of shutdown forced all drivers to get there driverslicens new, cause you have to have practise as a driver of public trains. And cause there are no trains you could drive all the drivers had to get a new licens after the maintenance finished. That was so "german" that we make jokes about it. Btw I realy like your videos. Makes me laugh a lot, because I'm not aware of a lot of things that are a thing outside of germany. So thanks for your content.
James Bray rode the »flying train« in Wuppertal recently. So it's your turn. When i had my studio for 19 years in Wuppertal, i rode the Schwebebahn every day and some of the old Stations still exist. There are of course modern Trains, but you can rent one of the old Trains like in the movie for Events or can buy Tickets for Sightseeing in the »Kaiserwagen« (Emperor's wagon). The Schwebebahn is by the way since its construction the safest transporting system on the planet, with one exception 25 years ago, when track workers forgot a hook on the rails, causing a train to derail and plunge into the Wupper. Several people lost their lives, and that was the first and only serious accident in the 120 years of suspension railway history.
Many years ago, I made a special tour in the "Kaiserwagen". This is the original old wagon that was used by the Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II when he opened the train. It was used for site seeing trips going slowly in between the normal operation without stopping at the stations.
The CGI is so well done! I was on this train on a daily basis to get to work. It’s absolutely practical . You need half an hour from start to the end! Google the Tuffi incident if you have the time! It’s a true story!
After watching some of your videos, I want to say this: I don't usually laugh at videos, even if I find them funny. But there is something about your quick thinking and delivery that hits just right. You also seem to be an overall very pleasant and reflective person. I noticed that you seem a bit tired in this one (might just be the lighting or time of recording, idk) and hope you're doing alright.
Hi Ryan, i live in Wuppertal. The owner Company are the“WSW“ or Wuppertaler Stadtwerke in german. If you Look for advertisment in englisch They call it „ The flying Angel“. So if you come to Germany i‘ll invite you to make a Trip with the flying Angel. If it’s possible with the „Kaiserwagen“. He is actual in restoration and it Need a longtime for that. He is from the First System of the Train. Because They changed the System from the analog System to the digital system it’s a complicated change. Greetings from Wuppertal 🚟😀
The sad thing is, that even in the rest of germany, only a few people know about this. Everytime i tell someone im from wuppertal, they dont know what/where that is. Only either the very well educated or the ones who are intressted in construction know the Schwebebahn (at least in my expierience) And funny to know, there is a second, similar thing with the same name in i think it was dresden. But its a far smaller version with only 2 stops.
I live near this city. It is a very fascinating and safe way of travelling. The trains arrive every five minutes in the daily rush hour, maybe every 10 minutes at late evenings an on weekends. There was only one fatal accident, caused by human mistakes after maintenance work. Several years ago there was an advertisment with a real elephant. The elephant "Tuffi" jumped out of the train and fell into the river. Nothing happend to him, but a German milk brand is named after him. And on the track, where it passes the flats in the city, the residents got "Gardienengeld" (money for curtais), so that the passengers can*t look in the bedroom :), but not anymore. I think curtains are a lot cheaper today. You can travel with the Schwebebahn with a normal ticket you would buy for busses (short trip for three stations, day ticket ect.).
There is nearly no latency riding this trains. They arrive - and leave - every 3 minutes. It´s route traces the river "Wupper" from "Wuppertal-Vohwinkel" to "Wuppertal-Oberbarmen". Absolutely amazing. ("Wupper" - the river + "-tal" = valley) I think a better translation of "Schwebebahn" will be hovering train.
Literal translation would be "hovering train" (Schwebe-Bahn) but that is not what it does. Its waggons are hanging downwards on special rail bridges ... quite unique in Germany, and yes, it is still there
Funny enough I just had been to Wuppertal this week. I never been in this before since IDK if there is any exciting place it stops at but I oneday want to go into it myself. When I was little we once drove on the highway to a place where a part of the Schwebebahn was going over the highway and it felt so surreal that I asekd my mom if we could oneday visit Wuppertal and go into the Schwebebahn. She said yes but we never did that together, but my mom reminded me a few times about it whenever Wuppertal was on TV
I work in Wuppertal and I'm quite used to it. But when I took a ride in the Schwebebahn for the first time, it was a special event for me. I would love to see it in other cities too. No more traffic jams in the city.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
I ride the Schwebebahn everyday. It still exists and is running 24/7. Of course it was modernized several times
It does not run 24/7, the last train is around 11pm
And it is broken and needs repairs every 6 months.@@cdhagen
Stimmt so jetzt nicht, 24/7 ist Quatsch - 23 Uhr ist Schicht und in der früh morgens gehts wieder los - ich wohne direkt nebendran, also 'verlässliche Quelle' ;)
I rode it everyday as I used to study in Wuppertal ❤
It doesn't run 24/7 and literally breaks down every two days
In 1950, baby elephant Tuffi was taken on a ride along with it's ringmaster as an advertisement for a circus. Tuffi panicked, broke through the wagons' wall and fell down 10m into the river. She survived, and the ringmaster was charged with 450 DM for "careless endangering of transport", because the train was "not suitable for carrying an elephant".
While visiting a neighbouring towns' townhall, Tuffi ate a bunch of flowers and peed on a persian carpet.
It's funny that Tuffi didn't just survive, she only had a few scratches at her butt and has been fine until she died in 1989 with around 43 years.
@@wernerwalther6011 also ich kenn keinen aus Wuppertal, der nicht dran glaubt (selbst Wuppertalerin)
Wuppertal, where this is, was a centre of early industrialisation in Germany. The city, as it is today, includes multiple former towns along the river Wupper. As it is a tight valley and space was at a premium, they built this hanging railway mainly above and along the river to connect those former towns. Wuppertal literally means "Wupper Valley"
The elongated shape of the town also resolves a weakness of any monorail design: changing direction. Switches are a lot more difficult to solve with monorails (hanging or not) than with normal trains. The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal solves this by not having any. It just goes back and forth, while still covering the whole city because it’s so long and narrow.
W- Upper Valley😁
@@asmodon They did have a switch - basically a straight section of rail which could be turned. A railway turntable which could completely accommodate a full train.
They figured out three things:
1. Sometimes, trains would get stuck on the "Wendeanlage"
2. Oil was dripping from the "Wendeanlage". Not an issue for a regular railway turntable, where you can catch the dripping oil, but with the trains hanging under rail, this was not possible. And since there was the river below, the dripping oil contributed to pollution.
3. When they planned an additional Wendeanlage, they figured that they actually didn't need any in the first place. So the existing one was dismantled and plans for any new Wendeanlagen were scrapped.
Some facts:
The steel framework was renewed for the 100th anniversary (Beginning in 1990s)
The stops were also renewed or modernized.
And the "Flying Trains" were renewed.
When the suspension railway was built, the name "Wuppertal" did not yet exist. It was only in the 1920s that towns along the River Wupper were merged to form a "large city", which was given the name "Wuppertal".
Wuppertal has a population of around 330,000.
Flying Train transports around 85,000 people every day.
This means that every fourth inhabitant travels on the Flying Train every day
Flying Train is mainly built over the river "Wupper". The first section shown in the video runs over a road. This is in the west of Wuppertal. Flying Train also runs over the "Autobahn" there - the world famous german motorway/highway "with no general speed limit".
As you can see in the video, there were hardly any cars on the road at the time. But it was expected that the number of cars would increase rapidly and that problems would arise due to the narrowness of the valley. The "tal" in the name of the town Wuppertal means "valley".
The Wuppertal suspension railway is considered one of the safest means of transport in the world. One of the Flying Trains crashed into the River Wupper during the renovation for the 100th anniversary celebrations. 5 people died. The suspension railway does not run at night. So a lot of work on the scaffolding took place at night. The scaffolding workers had forgotten to dismantle a claw on the rail and so the first train hit this claw early in the morning and crashed.
In 1950, an animal circus came to town. To advertise, a young elephant (Tuffi was his name) was brought into a wagon. The slight rocking of the wagon caused the elephant to go on a rampage and finally punching a hole in the side wall, causing it to plunge 10 metres into the River Wupper. Unfortunately there is no film footage of this. The elephant only got a few scratches. Fun fact: Four tickets had to be bought for him.
By the way: Bayer, the worldwide known chemical giant, was founded in Wuppertal (not Leverkusen). And the Flying Train" also runs across the factory site 12 meter high.
Wuppertal is located in the west of Germany. Friedrich Engels, the co-founder of "communism", is particularly famous around the world. A factory owner's son who was Karl Marx's closest friend. His birthplace is within sight of a ride on the suspension railway.
Denis, who made the video, is known for restoring old films. There are also some from before and after 1900 showing US scenes. I recommend all US viewers of Ryan's videos to watch these. You will be amazed.
great informative comment - Thanks!
Tuffi was female and a Dairy company in Wuppertal was named after her. She died at the age of 43 in a zoo in Paris. Wuppertal has pictures and statues of Tuffi everywhere and there are also children’s books about the incident. They’re even advertising the Schwebebahn with an elefant falling out of it.😅
It's so haunting seeing those restored and colourised scenes. I've seen the footage of the modern day Schwebebahn and as a German I'm used to seeing houses that are older, but those turn of the century clothing! And it's so haunting seeing those kids play next to their house, knowing that if they survive, they'll see two world wars...
I moved to Wuppertal almost four years ago and every time I use the Schwebebahn (several times a week) I feel like a little kid. I will never get tired of enjoying this so much. It’s something so special. They have technical problems from time to time though. Just recently, they opened up the Schwebodrom where you can experience the ride in an old coach like it was a 100 years ago with VR goggles. 🤩
As french 🇫🇷 this makes me sad. We love you my german neighbor. You deserve more than an austrian dictator in your history. Love all of you and peace .
But we dont Love you
@@hdkiller7820that’s not true, we are all neighbours and history that connects us in many more ways than this war
@@MrsStrawhatberry idc about our history they r just arrogant assholes
@@hdkiller7820 I love our french neighbours, got lots of french friends. My grandpa used to have some french accent for some random words liek praline cuz he learned them when he was clearing up mines in normandy after the war
@@hdkiller7820"we" explained: he means the german Nazis from the AfD party
An Elefant once fell from it. No joke. I think Tom Scott did a great video on it.
The elefants name is "Tuffi" :)
Thats no Cap, the Tuffi Story is worth a whole Video! With a happy end.
I’m European and I’ve actually been on a train in Indiana. I was an exchange student in Michigan and convinced my host family to take the train with me from New Buffalo, MI to Chicago through Indiana. It was only a bit late and actually pretty convenient!
Yes, I just thought of the same one. I lived in northern Indiana for a while, and also took that train to downtown Chicago a few times.
Almost like a S-Bahn around here...
My wife was born there, so I rode it several times. It's a very special and unique experience. And it is very affordable. A 24-hour ticket for the whole public transport system in Wuppertal (including the Schwebebahn) costs €8.30 ($9.10) and there's a train every 3 minutes.
The Schwebebahn is part of the regular public transport, so you can also ride it with the 49€ monthly Deutschlandticket, which even makes sense for tourists if they are at least a week in Germany.
I'm so happy you're learning about the Schwebebahn. I'm from Wuppertal and I've been on it hundreds if not thousands of times and I just love seeing people's reactions to it. It never fails to amaze everyone.
When the people of Wuppertal gather under the video of an American being amazed by the Schwebebahn. I love the internet xD
Grüße aus der Heimat in die Heimat!
❤
Its basically a suspended tram. That way it does not interfere with the traffic in the streets. Similar to the train they have in Chicago, only hanging down.
But apart of the Schwebebahn, I find this video (I have seen it before) absolutely amazing. It has a fantastic quality for a film from 1902, being restored and colorized, with a bit of sound added. To see what the streets and houses , and the people, looked like 120 years ago, and knowing how it looks there today, is just stunning. Like a time travel.
It was the first monorail in the world and they’re also found in Japan and China.
Good morning and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel.
There is a version of this film on youtube where someone has put the same trainride in modern days side by side. There you can see how the war and the automobile damaged the city.
Just wanted to say that. It goes under the title "Wuppertal Schwebebahn 1902 & 2015 side by side video" on the channel @pwduze.
@@vonBlankenburgLP THANK YOU! That's amazing seeing all the details of the changes. I only wish it went all the way to Oberbarmen.
My daughter lives in Wuppertal. I've ridden the "Schwebebahn" many times. That's very cool. She is always on time because she doesn't have to worry about car traffic. It's a really relaxing ride with a great view.
Ah, the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn, or: "What happens if you want a subway but there's a fraggling riverbed in the way?" 😁
Awesome Public Transportation, did ride it a few times when visiting Wuppertal. Allmost like a slowride in a Theme-Park. Just less... Themeparky... and a lot cheaper. :)
Welcome to Germany. The home of inventors, thinkers and poets ❤❤❤
The flying train is a safe and extremely comfortable way to travel through the complete city of Wuppertal. We can highly recommend it, it is worth a visit. BTW great videos
Living in a town bordering on Wuppertal and having worked there for several years I have always used the flying train to reach my workplace. No traffic lights, no car drivers who shouldn’t own a drivers license. I have loved it. The highlight of this historic train is undoubtedly the transport of 🐘 Tuffi (60 years ago or so) that wasn’t a real Schwebebahn-fan and decided to leave the train on its own and take a jump into river Wupper 😂 A very amusing story also for me who was born decades later
Herdecke born and raised here, we learned about Tuffi from the schoolmilk that we got in elementary, i THINK it was a pyramid at first and only later changed to Tetrapak.
No Tuffi were harmed. Tuffi was a baby elephant, thats why it fits on the train. It was a promo for a circus.
That's funny cause in italian "tuffi" is the plural of "tuffo", which means "dive" (the noun).
Well if you call a 4 year old elephant a baby ;-)@@boblife3647
Tuffi only knocked a window out, he never jumped off!
die wuppertaler schwebebahn war eine kölner erfindung , auch heute noch kann man in köln sehen wo diese überall gefahren ist z.b. mülheim usw
The"Schwebebahn" Suspended Railway, is still in service, with new trains nowadays. The reason to build this way, was, because the riverbed was the only space left in the narrow Wupper-Valley, to build a high-speed (relatively high speed, of course, up to 70km/h) line. The existing tramway network was already at the end of capacity, so this was the only way to improve traffic. The other main railwayline, in the valley, was not suited for short distance travel within the city. Here you can see how they "switch tracks" in the terminal station, just by moving the tracks sideways: ruclips.net/video/zQcWvMPcTxU/видео.html (It's on my channel, by the way... )
1880-1920 was the Golden Age for all type of rail transport. Then the car (did you realize there was none? How beautiful!) destroyed walking and transit.
I was riding on this gliding railway in Wuppertal (only train of this sort in Germany, AFAIK) once in my lifetime, during my childhood, visiting relatives.😊
It's the only train of this sort in the entire world, actually.
Lived in Wuppertal for two years and the Schwebebahn is just awesome! And particularly it solved the main issue they had: there was no space for a tram in the valley, so bulding the main means of commute over the river is just so genius!🥰
That's wrong. There was a tram right next to the suspension railway for decades. The tram was there before the suspension railway.
Das ist falsch. Es gab jahrzehntelang eine Tram direkt neben der Schwebebahn. Die Tram war vor der Schwebebahn da.
@@Michael_from_EU_Germany Indeed, there was the tram. However, Wuppertal already suffered from serious congestion back in the days, and the horse trams were slow. The Schwebebahn didn't compete with the other traffic on the roads and was much faster, especially in bends.
It was originally developed in Cologne, so it was not totally experimental but had already prototypes running in Cologne-Deutz.
Another major factor was, apparently, that it was more awesome than a tram. Especially more awesome than the Belgian horse trams. Naturally, the Belgian operator went to court but lost the case.
@@klausstock8020Thank you for the additional information. Danke für die ergänzenden Informationen.
Hello from inside of the "Schwebebahn" (the suspension Monorail). 😂
As a German, the craziest part about this is seeing the houses and the people (especially since this was coloured later on). I mean, we have old houses still standing, so the architecture isn't all that weird to me either, but the people wearing turn of the century clothing while the Schwebebahn is going by is just so crazy. To think, those kids playing in the garden of that one house, just living their lifes while there will be two world wars in their future (or they may not even survive that first one). It's haunting to think about.
THE OBSESSION ABOUT GERMANY IS INCREDIBLE TO ME ,THERE SO MUCH MORE !!
But isn’t this a reaction channel about Germany?
I am from Wuppertal and I use the Schwebebahn very often, it looks way more modern now and it is like a reverse subway
It's not a flying train. It's a monorail. A train hanging on a rail. It's iconic and nice.
What I also find impressing, how quiet and peaceful the streets are. Like "Not Just Bikes" (I think) once put it: Cities aren't loud - cars are.
But where are all the horses?
@@LythaWausW I assume people had stables, just as they nowadays have garages.
@@LythaWausW At that time there were some huge horse stables in the city, some of which extended over several floors.
If you take the train (from west to east) look out for the buildings on the left about 150 meters behind the “Pestalozzistrasse” station. There you can see an extension between the first floor and the ground floor. This is a horse staircase. A shipping company was based there around 1900 and the building was the horse stable. The hall was later used by a tennis club and then for a martial arts club.
@@Tuetensuppenkasper I will find this place. Thank you!
I grow up in Wuppertal from 1973 (age 4) to 1981 and I loved it to ride the "Schwebebahn". In 1903 a baby elephant jumped out of the train into the river.
Greetings from Wuppertal. We love our trains.
The trains are still available - you can ride the modern ones or the old historical "Kaiserwagen" < When you do a ride with the Kaiserwagen, you'll get coffee and cake while riding this train. Nice! :)
Wuppertal= Wupper the River + tal Valley .
And the 2 neighboring City Solingen and Remscheid are Like a traffictriangle connected with old Bridges and old streetpaths along the mountainrange or the River. So they are completly build on steep Hills withoud any flat Terrain.
Thats why they have this Kind of Infrastruktur to spare space ON the ground.
Also at the time of building there wasnt the Autobahn nr1 which connects thoose Towns today.
Solingen is famous for its world class cutlery and it goes without saying along the route of Schwebebahn, you will find one of the most recognisable commercial buildings in the world, world-famous Bayer. 😊
I grew up near Wuppertal and going to the "Wuppertaler Zoo" by "Schwebebahn" (the flying train) was an absolute highlight for me as a kid. My little brother is now a firefighter in this amazing but also kind of strange city. I was also going to mention "Tuffi" the elephant which jumped out of the train into the river "Wupper" (Wuppertal means Valley of the Wupper". There is also a phrase in the area around "Über die Wupper gehen" - which translates to "Going over the Wupper", and means that somebody died, like he passes from one life to another. I really enjoyed watching your reaction on this!
Funfact: The phrase had its possible explanation in the fact that people that were sentenced to death had to cross the river Wupper from the jail to the place of execution.
Tuffi survived, unharmed apart from a few scratches. She landed in a shallow (only 50cm deep) but muddy part of the river.
The Tuffi milk products are named after the elephant.
And another possible explanation for "über die Wupper gehen" ("cross the Wupper") is that the bankruptcy court was on an island in the Wupper. If had to go there, your business was "über die Wupper".
And yet another explanation is that the Wupper was also a natural border between to regions. In one region, young string men would be recruited by force to fight in the army. On the other side of the Wupper, they were safe.
It was built in 1900, not in 1902. In 1902 was made the footage that is known.
I grew up in a city close to it and have always known about it, but actually never took a ride.
What I never realized is how old it is. That must have been amazing back then.
And yes, it's still around.
hi Ryan !
I am native and still resident German and I don't come from the area shown in your video but I know a bit more than you do - to explain some facts.
The town shown here is Wuppertal (Wupper is the river crossing this area and "tal" means as much as "valley" in a not so big size you Americans are used to). This area is part of the industrial heart of Germany where lots our inventions started and still run. AND ! There isn't much space left on the ground for transport systems, so they put the railway one floor higher !
And it worked for about nearly 100 yrs. without any problems, accidents or crash. There's a saying that . . . need not to smile right now . . . an Elephant being transportet within this railway managed to open the doors and he fell off into right into the river below. But, as far as I know, this is so damn far away in time and they managed to get him out alive of the river. For sure there are some photos available in the internet, cause this is a "funny story".
I rode it two weeks ago! It is just a normal train here. You was also mentioned in a newspaper here now because of your reaction.
the trains only have 2 or 3 compartments, but during rushhour they run every 2 minutes, towards the evening this stretches to every 10 to every 20 minutes at the end (around 8pm). this makes it really convenient because you don't need do memorise a scedule, you just go there and a train comes.
Yoooo Ryan, this video has made the local news here in Germany! I've read about it on two different local news website a day ago 😂
there is even a video with a side by side shot of the Footage from 1902 and today, its epic to see the areas change but still you can make out that its the same.
The Schwebebahn was Practical for Wuppertal, you have to imagine Wuppertals City Layout is like a bit I so there are only 2 Main Roads left and right and in the Middle is a River (Wupper) so there had no more room for Public Transport without Clocking up the 2 main Roads... so there used this over the Wupper River, the only free Space there had, without getting in the way of the Overcrowded Roads :D
Kind regards from my hometown of Wuppertal 🙂
The schwebebahn actually mostly rides above the river, because there was no place for a ground train in wuppertal. The River is caller „Wupper“ btw. Most recently, most of the Schwebebahns don’t even have a driver anymore
I used a few of these couple of times when I visited Germany 4 years ago. We spent most of our time there in Bonn and it was great
Heyy thats my town! It is very much still around and I ride it frequently, it is just a normal part of public transport here.
Well. It is not flying it is hanging. "Schwebebahn", literally translated, means "hovering train/car" or "levitating train/car".
I live in nearby Solingen and I visit Wuppertal fairly regularly. For people in and around Wuppertal, the Schwebebahn is just a regular form of public transport, just like a bus or a subway. My grandparents used to take me on rides with the Schwebebahn when I was a child to visit the zoo or to go shopping. I'm not even surprised when a Schwebebahn passes by above my head. 😄 A single fare ticket for the whole route Vohwinkel - Oberbarmen is €3.40 btw
I'm german. I didn't know that the Schwebebahn of Wuppertal is so old. It exists and you can take a ride on a 13 km way along the wupper river. The Schwebebahn nowadays is from 2019 and it's very modern.
I live 20 meters away from a skytrain station in Bangkok. It’s just an elevated electric train but it’s above all the crazy traffic. I love to sit inside and look at google maps traffic and know that the distance that takes 10 minutes in an air conditioned train while cars need 1hour for the same distance. It’s impressive how fast they build new lines and expand the network. Worth a visit and realize that first world western countries can learn from developing nations, too
amazing how u just rode right by where i live..
It is practical here in Wuppertal, but pretty much only here, hence why it isn't used in many other cities. Our city is built alongside the river Wupper, with steep hills on either side, so every bit of available space is used by now, the only part that is still free is right above the river itself. We also can't have underground railways here as the ground is solid rock making excavation really difficult and expensive. The city is pretty long due to the hills on either side, making one line across the river more practical than in cities that are less stretched out.
There is another Schwebebahn build in Dresden
@@tobiasrendel4211 but that is basically just a glorified hill lift. It doesn't serve a real purpose in daily commuting.
1:12 Pretty much still looks like that today still, at least in the areas where the houses haven't been bombed in WW2, especially in Vohwinkel (pretty much the western-most part of the track)
2:20 It's actually called Schwebebahn, which would directly translate to hovering train, but it's more like a hanging train, actually.
3:31 It is so practical that I genuinely wonder why there's just that one on the entire planet. But I guess it's due to the fact that it's practical in particular for that place where everything is crammed into the Wupper valley. You can literally hop onto one of those trains like every 3 minutes at the highest frequented times and they don't impact any other form of traffic at all...
6:12 Noteworthy that it were the cities of Barmen, Elberfeld and Vohwinkel that got this. Together with Ronsdorf and Cronenberg those were fusioned into Barmen-Elberfeld in 1929, only to be renamed into Wuppertal a year later.
6:28 It's 3.30€ for a single ride to anywhere within the city with either this, a bus or by train or any combination of those. A 24h ticket is 8.30. You'd better get the so called "DeutschlandTicket" though, it's currently 49€ and allows you to use all off public transport for an entire calendar month except for ICE, EC and IC trains (and, obviously similar high speed trains like the French TGV) and a few exceptions (wouldn't be Germany without... there are some RE lines that are being run by the DB Fernverkehr AG which you can't take with that ticket either).
6:47 I might suggest reading about the Tuffi story.
7:05 I wouldn't be surprised if the current ones are faster than the original ones :)
7:23 Try to hit one of the weekends where you can take a ride on the historic O-Bus in Solingen (one of the three cities that still have trolley busses in Germany, the others being Esslingen and Eberswalde) as well which usually goes on the 683 line that ends right where the Schwebebahn is (not sure if they still take that route, they did in the past though). On its other end, the bus goes onto a huge turntable since there's no way it could turn around in the streets where that is since it's down in the valley of the Wupper in Solingen-Burg. That's one of only 4 of those turntables left on the entire planet and just one of two that are still actively used, even though it's only in use for those historic events still.
They still have an Uerdingen/Henschel ÜH IIIs from 1959 and most other models that have been used since.
Video recommendations:
- "Why Wuppertal's Suspended Monorail Wasn't The Future Of Travel"
- "Schwebebahn: timelapse back and forth - end to end"
- "Wuppertal Schwebebahn 1902 & 2015 side by side video"
And one for the ond O-Bus in Solingen with one from the 80s/90, also showing the turntable:
- "Die RitterTour in Solingen O Bus Museum Solingen"
I once rode on that train. It's amazing but the river (Wupper) wasn't the cleanest one.Still working!It's like the monorail from Haneda to Tokyo, where the Schwebebahn has the rails above and the monorail below the cars.
I visited "Schwebodrome" as a team event a month ago. It is a new museum with the "Schwebebahn" as a topic. It is quite amazing. As the last station of the museum, you can "drive" as a VR-Tour with the flying-train in that old time. Nice experience :)
This was such a good idea. A train system that can run over the roads without disturbing other traffic is something that really should have spread across Europe. The only reason I can see for it still being limited to a local service is the cost of installation.
I used to study in Wuppertal.
The Schwebebahn is still functioning
and many people rely on it when they go to work every day.
on the top of the rails, that's where the maintence team is working if something needs to be replaced, repaired, etc. Also there was one fatal accident in 1999 where a train fell into the Wupper river. That was the fault of the maintence team. They forgot to remove the brackets and the train crashed into it at full speed (obviously, you can't see the brackets from the driver POV)
And we still have it here in Wuppertal. Its an amazing way to reach many spots here!
i took the schwebebahn when i was in school everyday in like 1994/1995, from oberbarmen to werther brücke and back. i never knew it was a tourist thing or something like that, it was just public transport like a bus or a train.
Sie fährt seidenweich durch die Luft/Stadt, sehr angenehm. 👍 Kein Vergleich zu einer Achterbahn. 🦋
I love these restored fims, it is really uncanny to recognize the same streets you life in being already there more than a century ago. The only thing that really has changed are the people. And even that is usually the clothing. When there is Schützenfest, then there are even the Prussian style uniform still around, and that one really gets uncanny.
I missed the part where it crosses over the Autobahn LOL
you really have to ride this thig when in Germany. It's a really cool experience if you didn't ride such a rail before. I once visited Wuppertal 20 years ago and I loved this thing.
Yeah it is still around and working. In Wuppertal it is pretty usual to use it. There is a very special story with an elephant. I know it well because I live in Remscheid, a neighboor city of Wuppertal. What is very close in Germany. As far as I know the "Wuppertaler Schwebebahn" is existing only once in the world. No other city has this thing and that over 100 years later. It is pretty amazing if I think about it, but I have been in Wuppertal so many times that I'm not that amazed.
There are ones in Dresden and Memphis as well as at the TU Dortmund and Düsseldorf airport 😅
@@_jpg They take you to less places.
I had my hotel in Wuppertal during gamescom and I took the "Schwebebahn" train there, it was pretty fun :)
there exist only a handful of train systems like this in Germany and yes the reason why so few exist is cause it's just impracticle, you need a ton of steel and concrete for it.
Well, for a valley like Wuppertal using so much steel to get the trains up from the precious ground is probably a better choice than putting a railway or tram on the ground. And I’m not sure, if an underground system would have worked there at the time.
@@jennyh4025 Indeed, an underground tunnel would not have worked in Wuppertal. I guess it would have been the world's first underground underwater train. All the major tunnels in the Wuppertal area go though elevations, not down into the ground below. Ground water level is 4.5 meters below the ground already. Mining was primarily strip-mining. Also, the city area was already quite densely built (which was another reason why they preferred the Schwebebahn over the horse-drawn trams - which *did* exist before the Schwebebahn took over).
When you pass on the video the child on/in the swing, on the right hand side, at 2:15, you are seeing a large field that, 50 years later, after ww2, become the biggest autobahn crossing in europe.
There is a side to side watch of this clip with 1902 and now (okay, 2015) on youtube: "Wuppertal Schwebebahn 1902 & 2015 side by side video" to see the century difference. Worth a watch imho.
Check out the self balancing monorail train. That one's a doozy. Louis Brennan's self balancing train also from the early 1900's. :)
It works really well because Wuppertal essentially is around the river - it does not really sprawl out orthogonally to the river valley - there is no US like urban sprawl. So this Schwebebahn actually goes to every important point of the city. I used it daily when I had an assignment there in 2003.
I live nearby the Schwebebahn, just 50 Meters away. Got a piece of this metal framework on my desk.
Indiana used to have a pretty dense passenger (!) network like the rest of the US (maps from the 1900s in google). But with most trains, streetcars etc. it was mostly ripped out after WWII to make space for 6 - 12 lane roads and the rest was sold off to cargo companies who don't care about passenger trains and frequently de-prioritize the sad rest now represented by Amtrak. In Europe, we also built roads, but we mostly left our city centers and train tracks (unfortunately some were also lost in that time) intact and just added the roads and highways. So thats why we have more trains, not that these are something you never had. ;-)
the victorians didnt just do practical , they did it with style :)
Not really Victorian, but yeah, nothing beats the train cathedrals of the late 19th century!
In germany it´s called Wilhelminic times not victorian, because our emporer was Wilhelm the 2nd at this time.
@@denzzlinga yes sorry, my apologies 🙂
The Wuppertal Schwebebahn since 2018 has been twinned with the Shonan Monorail in Ofuna, Japan. China has the third monorail in the world, the Wuhan Sky Train! 😊
It's a real beauty of industrial design when you see the structure from outside. I rode it a few times visiting Wuppertal in the last couple of years. The train cars themselves are all modern of course. The view over the city when riding it is pretty nice indeed.
It just absolutely blew my mind when you said you've never been on a train before!
For me the train is my freedom, because I don't have a car, so if I think about how to get somewhere it's just always by train. So crazy, maybe you need to tell us a bit more about the U.S. too!
Ryan, if you've never traveled by train before, come to Germany and ride all the passenger trains there are! ICE, IC, regional express (RE), regional train (RB), the "flying" train in Wuppertal (the one from your video, named "Wuppertaler Schwebebahn"), subway, tram. This will bedefinitely impressive for you... Best regards from Frankfurt am Main/Germany
A friend's mother once came to visit a few years ago; she wanted to ride the Schwebebahn and expected some beautiful tourist trap. Instead she was disappointed to find rather the efficient version of a tram ;-)
And the locals immediately spot a tourist by looking at his face ... tourists are not used to the trains shaking from left to right and all show the same surprise when first experiencing it.
The trains are sometimes so full that you won't get in at peak hours. But there is a train every ~4min
greetings to wuppertal, bought my last car there and drove with this too on my way. As others already meantioned if you buy a ticket (time or target based) you can use this as part of the city public transportation like any other bus. Joyable if you see a traffic jam below you :)
I ride it last week, it’s in Wuppertal near by Dortmund ( BvB Dortmund )
My hometown 💕 it's still activ. The river is called Wupper. I used it every single day when I have lived there. Google the story of Tuffi the elefant. She drove with the Schwebebahn in the 1950s and jumper out of it and fall into the river. Was not injured.
I'm from Wuppertal and a lot of people use the "Schwebebahn" what translates more to "levitating train" every day. The form of the town along the river "Wupper" makes it very useable, because you can get to most of the city by using this train. And (of cause) there are no problems with carcrashes, or something like that. A very long time the Schwebebahn was called safest vehicle in the world.
Is the Schwebebahn practical? Yes it is! But it is also because it was build in the past. Wuppertal was patrtital formed by the Schwebebahn. More Houses where the Schwebebahn connects you to the rest of the town. So it fueled itself by being an attractive vehicle over the years.
But there are some problems with this thing (for sure). First of all the trainsystem is old so it is loud and causes vibrations while driving. You can feel and hear every train while passing by. And the pass all the houses very close. Second is that maintaining this whole system is super difficult, cause there are absolutly NO parts you can use from other systems. So everytging has to be build directly and exclusivly for the Schwebebahn.
And some years ago there was a problem with the whole systen and it had to be taken off for maintenance for over 2 years. Ok, you may think "Maintenance is importent and for sure it is an old vehicle, that is nothing probkematic". But we live still in germany and some prejudices are right. The (very close) OVER 2 years of shutdown forced all drivers to get there driverslicens new, cause you have to have practise as a driver of public trains. And cause there are no trains you could drive all the drivers had to get a new licens after the maintenance finished. That was so "german" that we make jokes about it.
Btw I realy like your videos. Makes me laugh a lot, because I'm not aware of a lot of things that are a thing outside of germany. So thanks for your content.
A next interesting topic could be the oldest City in germany ... the city is from 16 B.C and is called Trier
James Bray rode the »flying train« in Wuppertal recently. So it's your turn.
When i had my studio for 19 years in Wuppertal, i rode the Schwebebahn every day and some of the old Stations still exist. There are of course modern Trains, but you can rent one of the old Trains like in the movie for Events or can buy Tickets for Sightseeing in the »Kaiserwagen« (Emperor's wagon).
The Schwebebahn is by the way since its construction the safest transporting system on the planet, with one exception 25 years ago, when track workers forgot a hook on the rails, causing a train to derail and plunge into the Wupper. Several people lost their lives, and that was the first and only serious accident in the 120 years of suspension railway history.
Many years ago, I made a special tour in the "Kaiserwagen". This is the original old wagon that was used by the Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II when he opened the train. It was used for site seeing trips going slowly in between the normal operation without stopping at the stations.
Psst.... "Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II" is like "King König Charles III" ;-)
The CGI is so well done! I was on this train on a daily basis to get to work. It’s absolutely practical . You need half an hour from start to the end! Google the Tuffi incident if you have the time! It’s a true story!
After watching some of your videos, I want to say this:
I don't usually laugh at videos, even if I find them funny. But there is something about your quick thinking and delivery that hits just right. You also seem to be an overall very pleasant and reflective person.
I noticed that you seem a bit tired in this one (might just be the lighting or time of recording, idk) and hope you're doing alright.
Have a nice x-mas! :) Ty 4 your videos!
A camel train, caravan, or camel string is a series of camels carrying passengers and goods on a regular or semi-regular service between points.
Hi Ryan, i live in Wuppertal. The owner Company are the“WSW“ or Wuppertaler Stadtwerke in german. If you Look for advertisment in englisch They call it „ The flying Angel“. So if you come to Germany i‘ll invite you to make a Trip with the flying Angel.
If it’s possible with the „Kaiserwagen“. He is actual in restoration and it Need a longtime for that. He is from the First System of the Train. Because They changed the System from the analog System to the digital system it’s a complicated change.
Greetings from Wuppertal 🚟😀
Wow Wuppertal was so beautiful back then. 2 World Wars later nothing of it but the Schwebebahn has survived 🙁
The sad thing is, that even in the rest of germany, only a few people know about this. Everytime i tell someone im from wuppertal, they dont know what/where that is. Only either the very well educated or the ones who are intressted in construction know the Schwebebahn (at least in my expierience)
And funny to know, there is a second, similar thing with the same name in i think it was dresden. But its a far smaller version with only 2 stops.
I live near this city. It is a very fascinating and safe way of travelling. The trains arrive every five minutes in the daily rush hour, maybe every 10 minutes at late evenings an on weekends. There was only one fatal accident, caused by human mistakes after maintenance work. Several years ago there was an advertisment with a real elephant. The elephant "Tuffi" jumped out of the train and fell into the river. Nothing happend to him, but a German milk brand is named after him. And on the track, where it passes the flats in the city, the residents got "Gardienengeld" (money for curtais), so that the passengers can*t look in the bedroom :), but not anymore. I think curtains are a lot cheaper today. You can travel with the Schwebebahn with a normal ticket you would buy for busses (short trip for three stations, day ticket ect.).
I planed a trip with my small children’s, and they were excited to drive with that.
There is nearly no latency riding this trains. They arrive - and leave - every 3 minutes. It´s route traces the river "Wupper" from "Wuppertal-Vohwinkel" to "Wuppertal-Oberbarmen". Absolutely amazing. ("Wupper" - the river + "-tal" = valley) I think a better translation of "Schwebebahn" will be hovering train.
Hi from Wuppertal. Love your reactions. keep it up.
Literal translation would be "hovering train" (Schwebe-Bahn) but that is not what it does. Its waggons are hanging downwards on special rail bridges ... quite unique in Germany, and yes, it is still there
Funny enough I just had been to Wuppertal this week. I never been in this before since IDK if there is any exciting place it stops at but I oneday want to go into it myself. When I was little we once drove on the highway to a place where a part of the Schwebebahn was going over the highway and it felt so surreal that I asekd my mom if we could oneday visit Wuppertal and go into the Schwebebahn. She said yes but we never did that together, but my mom reminded me a few times about it whenever Wuppertal was on TV
I'm living close to Wuppertal. And I easily get seasick when I take a ride with it.😅 swinging und wobbling....
So i Live next to Wuppertal and i Love it i am there Like 4 Times a month. And i am Always there and it feels awsome
I work in Wuppertal and I'm quite used to it. But when I took a ride in the Schwebebahn for the first time, it was a special event for me. I would love to see it in other cities too. No more traffic jams in the city.