I see you've found Kurt Bell's videos. His "Abandoned Japan" videos are quite interesting.

I've seen monorails like this in France and Germany in use at vinyards. Mostly on slopes that are too steep for anything else.

At a guess I'd say they're not cheap because of the teeth on the track. They're also somewhat loud and not very fast. But relatively safe since the cart locks on the teeth of the track when not moving. The rail itself isn't very big. I don't recall what the distance between the supports was, but I'd say a couple of yards at most.

Yes...Kurt Bell deserves the photo credit. I took the snap shot from one of his interesting videos on Youtube.

It would be easy enough to build one: use steel fence rails or even wood as rails (bi-rail for stability), a wheeled platform moved with a winch powered by a small engine, or even hand-cranked. Compare the price of the materials (rails & support posts mainly) with the cost of gravel for a decent driveway. Around here, the cost of gravel would be <$1 per running foot of drive.

This could be an excellent choice for your homestead. Snow and cold would not be a concern. You could "even out" your climbs by building higher supports for your rail. And given the swampy area you would have to convert to driveway, with sinking rocks and such, this option seems like it would be good. I couldn't find prices, but it would probably be cheaper than having to have the driveway cut through your rocky hills.

I contacted Nikkari and asked them if they could ship to the US. Unfortunately, the answer is no, they have no US distributors. They did send me a link to their export page though.

My cousin in Plymouth County, MA said to look up bicycle-powered monorail--in New Zealand! It seems that Google is investing in it. However I wish that there might be some other way, a combination of lines strung between some trees and good boardwalks, like at Bays Mtn...

Eric --- Thank you so much for doing that legwork! We'd sent the manufacturers a question along those lines last week, but I had a feeling it was getting bogged down in the language barrier.

Do you think there's a chance that if we emailed some specifics, you could break through the language barrier again to get a rough price from them? I don't know how much effort to put into the exporter until we know if the monorack is even in our price range.... (Feel free to email me at anna@kitenet.net instead of commenting if you're interested...and we'll be eternally grateful. )

Mom --- I like the idea of a bicycle-powered monorail a lot, but the Shweeb looks cool and trendy rather than functional....

Hy,

we are doing cable cars as well as Monoracks. No problem to ship them to the United States. Please check the link below for more info.

https://www.doppelmayr.com/en/products/monorack/

or contact me by mail. alex.baumgartner@garaventa.com

best regards, Alex

We have a steep property in the California mtns, owned by an enviro education nonprofit and we are considering whether to install monoracks. Anything transpired since 2015 on your research? Thanks! -Joel

I have seen a monorack near Seattle Washington. I was told by a neighbor it was salvaged from a farm in Itlay. I would like to one! Nikkari's web site maps shows a dealer in Florida.

Hello, I have had a great interest in monorail in mining and farming for many years, but never could find any equipment here in Canada, so I made up my study group for anyone interested in building a monorail for fun or profit.

I started a facebook group about 10 years ago, then in the last couple years the dorks at facebook when crazy so I made a new group on mewe dot com, When I had a machine shop we made material handling equipment, because I never knew what I know now, and I've suggested to my friends in the business, but they are afraid to take the chance.

So my group on mewe is the quick links reference book, to what is available on the market, Cheers Mike