Inuyama Monorail - a Photo Essay
with commentary by Kim Pedersen

Although Nara Dreamland had built the first concrete beam straddle monorail a year earlier, the 1962-built Inuyama Monorail was the first Japanese monorail to be built with Hitachi's newly acquired Alweg license agreement. Inuyama's Monorail was a perfect showcase line to test Alweg technology. Above is the cover of a promotional brochure on the system, dated from the opening of the 1.3 kilometer line.


The line features two three-car trains operating on 1,500 volts. The trains could be linked together when ridership was high.


The brochure shows the original Alweg-designed bogie.


Like most monorails, construction of the line was swift, with pylons cast in place and beams brought in and lifted into place.


This page from the brochure is wonderful for those of us that love maps and details. Note that every pylon and the grade details are shown.


This original year postcard shows the prototype trains, linked together, cruising into the hills of Inuyama.


The first Alweg in Japan was no speed demon, as speed topped out at only 35 kph. Yet it proved the technology so well that only two years later in 1964, the longest Alweg technology monorail to date was built from Tokyo to Haneda International Airport.

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