Seriously. This happened. And she lived to tell the tale. Tuffi escaped with minor injuries and went on to live another 39 years - presumably being asked to retell the story at every one of those snooty elephant cocktail parties she was not doubt constantly invited to after the incident.
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Forget Tufi. Check out the technology. Opened in 1901 and still carrying 70,000 pax/day (25 million yearly), the Wuppertal Schwebebahn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn is the oldest monorail system in the world. 13.3 km long, 20 stations, 27 km/hr average speed and end to end in 13 minutes. It even has switching. Aside from Tufi, its only accident resulted from a worker leaving tools on the guideway.
Question. With such a ‘track’ record, why is this technology not standard-issue the world over?
Answer. Same reason gondola can’t make it as urban transit. Except gondola is far worse.
@ Dave: “Question. With such a ‘track’ record, why is this technology not standard-issue the world over? Answer. Same reason gondola can’t make it as urban transit. Except gondola is far worse.”
I don’t think you actually gave us an answer. You said “same reason gondola (sic) can’t make it as urban transit.” What, do tell, would that reason be?
Can’t read any answer.
possible answer: not every city has the opportunity of owning the river wupper 😉
but Dave, gondolas have made it as urban transit, so what are you saying?
Who the hell decided to put an elephant into monorail train o_O
It was actually a marketing stunt for a local circus. They brought the whole circus crew onto the Schwebebahn. Tuffi (the baby elephant in question) wasn’t too thrilled with the idea and kinda, sorta freaked out. Don’t worry. She survived the fall and lived a good life for decades after.
Still – how totally weird?
(Also: I totally want a poster of that image someday.)
This reminds of the (spurious) tale that gets regurgitated from time to time of a cow that fell from the sky and sank a Japanese trawler. Rumour has it that the cow was stolen by a Russian air force crew but it became agitated at 30,000 feet and became a threat to the aircraft. It was therefore ‘removed’ from the aircraft with some rather wet and dazed Japanese fishermen being the end result.
You do have to wonder who thinks it’s a good idea to place large mammals within the confines of a relatively (relative to the large mammal) delicate piece of machinery, whether it be a cow or an elephant, an aeroplane or a monorail.