For those wondering, my sound proofing involves me throwing a duvet or thick blanket over myself as I record, with my windows shut and fans off to also reduce noise... In a heatwave with no air-conditioning too, I think I'll just settle with a dip in sound quality

This is probably the only steam locomotive that can legitimately claim a Whyte classification with odd numbers in it.

I would love to see one of these rebuilt as a curiosity and tourist attraction. It probably wouldn't be worth it financially, but it's be one hell of a cool project!

To think, all this time I wondered what an 0-2-0 would look like if it could exist. A 2-1-0 or 0-1-2 never crossed my mind. 😂

Just imagine if these designs became successful in New York. Goodbye subway, say hello to bicycle railroads.

That derailment accident of the later example is exactly the kind of thing you would have to worry about with this design.

In H. G. Wells' 1908 novel "The War In The Air" he describes monorails where the trains run atop a single rail with no overhead support. Gyroscopes are used to keep the cars upright, but Wells offers no explanation about how this works.

THE most weirdest train I’ve ever seen. Definitely out of the ordinary, imo.

"0-1-2s aren't real. They can't hurt you" 0-1-2s:

I’ve seen that image of that engine when I typed cursed locomotives, and while I’m very impressed of the history of this one-of-a-kind engine, it looks like if you split a monorail steam engine and gave them bicycle wheels. Or more like a coffeepot stretched out vertically

There is also a gyro train that was a bicyle style train without a guide rail that stayed balanced with the use of a gyro.

I'd like to note that this particular railroad style is underrated when it comes to acknowledgement by the railfanning community in Long Islnad, since a similar system was also built in Patchogue in Long Island, which isn't too far away from my home town.

The primary problem from some further research was the line Boyton took over… was street running for the most part. It was originally built as basically a connection to allow one of the excursion railroads that served Coney Island to have a second terminal on the Bighton Beach side. This is how insanely busy Coney Island was, there were five railroads built to carry people there from the edges of the populated areas of Brooklyn, with connections on to New York City, then still separate. Of the five, only one was abandoned and the other four were bought and evolved to become the four subway lines to Coney.

This content is quite contradicting to your post about running dry for inspiration 😅 excellent work as always!

The sound is more than OK, don't worry about that.

BICYCLE! BICYCLE! BICYCLE! I want to ride my bicycle!

Audio didn't worry me as I'm deaf and captioning was accurate. If anyone modelled these they'd get invites to every Model Railway show in range! A fascinating video on two rather bizarre systems but you have to give them credit for thinking outside the box. Well done ToT.

Now that you made this, I wonder if you can make a video about the Ewing monorail system and the only railroad that uses it: Patiala State Monorail Tramway. I was fascianted by hiw easy it is to make a decent monorail railroad using this system...

Single wheel💀

Bicycle locomotives are the funniest locomotives I’ve ever seen.

Once again, thanks for using music from one of my favorite games, Cuphead, in the video! I see you used "Forest Follies" and in the Crash at Crush video it was "Inkwell Isle Two". Also the 20th Century Limited joke was pretty funny

I knew of this design, as it featured in a 1952 edition of Model Railroader which I possess, but I didn't know it got as far as being built. You learn something new every daY!

I'm really amazed that these things managed to operate for muiltiple years. As a NYC native and a train fan with a particular love for Coney Island, I'm amazed I never heard of the first one!

This idea would work better as a tram/trolley/streetcar replacement I think, it's definitely a short trip vehicle rather than a long haul vehicle. You just need to electrify it and provide enough units so you don't have to wait longer than 15 minutes for an empty space.

A true 0-1-1+1 Ground-Wupertalbahn moment

Brilliant! This was posted on my Birthday

It is unclear from the diagrams but could a conventional locomotive run on a bicycle track without striking the overhead infrastructure? If the design could be adjusted to allow a regular locomotive to fit on both rails while simultaneously allowing the half size to each occupy a single rail that would take the design to the next level. You could run full size goods shuffling back and forth or a two way half size passenger service...All of this would defeat the point of just running a regular service though?

Great work ToT, fascinating design.

It audio sounded fine to me. Another interesting video and very informative.

Now I like to see a working model of this unique train

Could you maybe do a video about the mason bogie locomotives?

I wonder what the radius of curves this locomotive would handle. Looks like it'd be... alright (?) on a straightway, but hills and curves?

I've been waiting for this for a while, the B.B.Ry. especially was an obsession of mine for a long time and I'm still trying to find more information on it.

there’s just two visible things leftover from operation: the access road to the station where passengers transferred to the regular railroad and a bit of right of way including a bridge in the park

You should do a follow up about Elfric Wells Chalmers Kearney and his concept for a tandem/bicycle railroad which was much more advanced than Boynton's, yet also sadly never took off. Actually trying to build a working model of it.

Wow, never heard of this oddity before!

Seems like a fun idea for a themepark to build.

I've heard of narrow gauge railways but this is ridiculous

So it still needed two rails

These combine my two favorite transport methods I want them. I should start a company like that.

What an absolutely wild idea.

You should make a video about the N&W Y6b, the strongest successful steam locomotive ever built, tractive effort being 177,000 pounds

Great! More like this, please!

Interesting video and locomotives. 🧐

Really cool video, where could I find these diagrams of the bicycle rolling stock?

i can tell you exactly why it failed, in fact it's in your video.. that one where it derailed because the bed sunk. that's it. Train tracks require constant maintance, and Bed Tamping is one of those things, but in a normal train, if the bed is a bit sullen, the train doesn't derail. wood also cracks, the only way to keep this thing cheaper than normal rail is to make the guide track cheaper than an additional ground rail., so they made it out of cheap wood. not really a good material for guiding a train, this would also have to be maintained constantly, , any sort of distortion or wear in the track, or guide, and the train derails,. not a good idea., I think most of the people that this idea was being sold too, realized that it would have too many problems

I can imagine myself as the mayor of a major city actually buying into the Bicycle Railroad idea and using it in the same capacity as a subway or elevated railway as a form of mass transit in said city

now here's an idea: using bicycle trains for passengers on a section of standard gauge track, such as for city transport. smaller, cheaper, more convenient(?) cars on infrastructure that would mostly already be there anyway, which could be taken off the rails relatively quickly when a freight train (or longer distance passenger train) comes through and needs the whole railway.

Someone has to say it. Passengers nowadays are quite a bit wider.

How would have points worked with the upper guide rail?

The train is so narrow you can't even fit an aisle between the seats. On standard gauge they'd be about 4 feet wide max. And building switches would be difficult.

Is it just me or did The audio not change when you removed/modified your sound proofing.

Blimey that was a long bit o' abandoned track running all the way from the Thames estuary to NY... :P Sorry I could not resist there :D

Audio sounds fine, honestly wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out 😅

Boynton also hoped to extend across Long Island.

The audio wasn't too bad, It's a difference but not bad!

We need to bring this back, and since we have much more advanced tech than what was available at the time this was originally made, we could probably make it even better

I like the design, very unique.

That's not a bicycle, that's a motorcycle.

I dont know how much info exists about the Bradford & Foster Brook Railway so I dont know if a video about it is possible to make. But it would be awesome if it were because it too was a monorail with steam locomotives.

The audio quality is perfectly alright imo. I've heard *so* much worse. Mostly from certain guests on WTYP.

Your sound.... well, sounded fine! By the way, railways still make more money from freight - most passenger trains need subsidising.

The overhead rail makes it a maintenance headache, unlike electric catenary if the rail fails the train falls over and passengers have a really bad day. Extra bad if it happens on a bridge. And now you get to maintain not just an elevated monorail but also a semistandard ground railroad as well.

If there's just the one driving wheel, I don't see there'd be much traction.

It can fit through alleyways, maybe depending. And if the first steam trains and quite a few more years we might have seen more innovation before switching to standard rail

2 levels of seating in a 15' gap?? There's one reason it didn't sell.

Oh my god, that disclaimer at the beginning was relatable, the UK is literally on fire right now

Anybody else think that it isn't a coincidence that all of the wackiest train designs come from a time when cocaine was legal and easy to acquire?

To be honest electrified passenger cars was the design that beat this concept, they were compact enough to be used as trams or streetcars on street level or in tunnels as subways or elevated rails like in New York and Chicago

Did they have switches?

I don't think the savings of width were such an issue that this sort of compromise is worth it. Despite working it was more of an over the top solution that was already mostly solved by narrow gauge.

Surely it would be unstable????

I could bet these are modern kickstarter projects.

im, not sure i get how it saves any materials tho, since, you need two rails for it, just like a regular train, so, instead of 1 x 2 on two rails, its 2 x 1 between two

It should have got a nickname called The Paper Mario Loco

sort of sounds like an awesome tram for crowded cities... poke em in overhead...

I think they're neat.

What happened to the locomotive’s?

It also seems kinda diff to get out incase of emergency

What about passenger comfort? Was there enough room?

I feel like they could have done well in the same place that normal bicycles do well, i.e. the narrow streets of old european cities.

Sound quality is certainly not that bad...

they had a flair fro crazy stuff back then, it would not get off the ground now ???

I’ve got to be honest, I can’t tell a difference in the audio quality between this video and others

wow

The wooden supports seem very much a weak point of the system if it would have been adopted to wide use.

If you like steam trains and bicycles, New York is the best place to go!

Bike-rails are good for one thing: Steampunk comics.

I can see why it did not take off.

Euros melting at anything above 75 degrees fahrenheit, meanwhile in the western, southwestern, and southern parts of the Greatest Nation on Earth, US European-Americans are working outside in hotter weather and calling it just another day! Lol. I'm just messing with you man, I don't have AC in my house, or even a swampy, so I feel ya!

Perfect use of Cuphead OST

Actually, had no problem with the audio myself.

Can somebody please draw a streamlined bicycle locomotive pulling the 20th Century Limited?

he has 66.6K subs and 66.6K views on this vid rn

A terrible shame

So I guess the moral of the story is that just because you are unique and can be made to work does not mean you are worth a damn

What is an upside to a mono rail? They suck. Always have, even the Simpsons made it known. I see a track suspended above another track. Needing much more than a bed and ties of a normal track. It's stupid to say it took less.

Why not use this concept in a metro?

Dutch train?

so what the loco is is a 0-1-2 🤣