December 15th 2015

The Sydney Monorail blew into this fine city for the Australian Bicentenary in 1988 as part of the creation of the Darling Harbour precinct to link it to the city.

The Monorail operated in a single loop in an anti clockwise direction and stopped at 8 stations - 

HARBOURSIDE - CONVENTION - PADDY'S MARKET - CHINATOWN - 
WORLD SQUARE -  GALLERIES VICTORIA - CITY CENTRE - DARLING PARK

It took 12 minutes to make the complete circuit and 4 trains were on the circuit at any time, 2 spare were kept in the Maintenance and Control Facility in Pyrmont and each train had seven carriages and could seat 48 people.

For the technical nerds out there here's the former mechanics of the monorail...

The track was a steel box girder of 94 centimetres width, raised at a minimum height of 5.5 metres from ground level on steel columns 20 to 40 metres apart. The minimum curve radius was 20 metres and the maximum gradient was 4.4% uphill and 6.5% downhill.

Power was supplied at 500 V AC to power the train, via a sheathed conductor below the running plate of the track. A control rail was also provided for train control, and a generator to clear trains from the track in emergencies. The train control and maintenance facility was located between Convention and Paddy's Market stations, where a traverser moved trains in and out of service.

Each station stop took 40 seconds, including the time to decelerate, board passengers, and accelerate again.  It was originally intended for the system to operate automatically, but after a number of breakdowns soon after opening, it was decided to retain drivers, who occupied the first car of each train. The monorail trains ran on rubber wheels, and each seven car train had six 37 kilowatts (50 hp) traction motors, permitting a normal operating speed of 33 km/h. The doors of each car were automatic, and the floor level was self-adjusting via an automatic suspension system. Each train was 32.12 metres long, 2.06 metres wide, and 2.6 metres high

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There was a collision of two trains at Darling Park station in 2010 that, apart from injuring 4 people, saw Train 1 housed permanently in the Facility centre. It collided with Train 4 which still continued afterwards as it's damaged last carriage was swapped with Train 1's last carriage. It still had the #1 on it too.

Sadly, many felt the Monorail was useless and expensive and it's ridership was mostly tourists and eventually this  led to the  decommission of the entire network. The NSW government purchased the Monorail to close it and remove it from the city and it closed 30th June 2013. 

Stage One of the demolition commenced in August 2013 and removed the following: - 

• 3.6km of steel track
• Convention, Galleries Victoria and City Centre stations
• the columns that support the track and station structures
• the concrete bases of the columns
• the maintenance facility on Darling Drive
• redundant electrical and other servicing infrastructure such as wiring and substations
• ticketing, signage and other equipment associated with the stations and Monorail network.
• structural features on Pyrmont Bridge will also be re-instated.

I  miss the familiar sight of the Monorail but hopefully the new light rail extension will be a more comprehensive transport system for the city. The bus network is disgusting so we need help badly.

James