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The Bizarre Train That Only Worked in Ireland | Tales From the Bottle

Qxir | October 19, 2026



This train is pretty bizarre in and of itself, but to see it in 1888 rural Ireland is mind-boggling.

“The Lartigue Monorail system was developed by the French engineer Charles Lartigue (1834–1907). He further developed a horse drawn monorail system, which had been invented by Henry Robinson Palmer in 1821.
Lartigue had seen camels in Algeria carrying heavy loads balanced in panniers on their backs. This inspired him to design a new type of railway. Instead of the conventional two parallel rails on the ground, it had a single rail sitting above the sand and held at waist height on A-shaped trestles. The carriages sat astride the trestles like panniers.
The most famous Lartigue railway was the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway in Ireland which ran for 36 years from 1888.
Despite how it is referred to, the Lartigue system was not truly a monorail, since it was necessary to add two further rails, one on each side, lower down the A frames. These did not carry any weight, but unpowered stabilising wheels fitted to all the engines and wagons contacted these extra rails to prevent the vehicles from overbalancing.”

More on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lartigue_Monorail

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Written by Qxir

Comments

This post currently has 20 comments.

  1. @ericwilliams1659

    October 19, 2026 at 8:18 am

    I guess i am jelly of you for even having public transportation.
    My country cares more about being victims of minority groups representing less then a few percent of the total population.

    Omg, I sound like a battered house wife, it is better to have a bad train system then no train system. I think my country needs help….

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