Monorail History - The Gyro Monorail

The Gyro Monorail

Perhaps the only true monorail was the Gyro Monorail developed independently by Louis Brennan, August Scherl and Piotr Schilovski. This was a true single track train which used a gyroscope-based balancing system to remain upright. All were demonstrated by full scale prototypes, but development was effectively stopped by the First World War. Brennan's design was given serious consideration for the North-West Frontier of India, and a Schilovski monorail was proposed by the USSR government between Leningrad and Tsarskoye Selo in 1921. Considering the volatility of the regime at that time, it is not surprising that funds ran out shortly after construction began.

In the early 1930s, New York city considered a monorail system, which would have been the first in the US, but instead decided on a conventional elevated train system.