MADEONEARTH

Report from the world of backyard technology

Monomania

No rational person denies that monorails are the and the monorail has enough juice to make casual greatest mode of urban transit ever. So Kim Pedersen runs all day long. The wood-framed cars have a built one in his backyard, making it the greatest painted sheet-metal exterior. A headlight in front, backyard ever. The Niles Monorail, named for his bellows (made of duct-tape material), and detailing family’s Fremont, California neighborhood, treats inspired by Seattle’s Alweg monorail complete the riders to a looping, open-air journey between trees, streamlined look. across the back fence, above the pool, and along- Fifty-two-year-old Pedersen, who also founded a side the house before making a hairpin turn over monorail enthusiast and advocacy group that the driveway and returning to Kitchen View Station boasts over 3,800 members in 73 countries, admits for disembarking. that he has a one-track mind — but now he and his

The monorail’s graceful track is supported by kids can ride a monorail whenever they want.

4-inch square wooden pylons that range from five to —Paul Spinrad eight feet in height, each anchored in two feet of concrete. Plain 4x8-inch beams comprise the straight >> The Niles Monorail: monorails.org/tMspages/Niles.html sections, while curves are made from strips of

³⁄8-inch plywood that soaked in the pool before being bent and laminated together. The kid-size, 2- car trains run off of a 6-inch drive-wheel powered by twin motorcycle batteries and a 1-horsepower

Badsey scooter motor, controlled by a 4-speed

Winland WMC120 controller. One 6-hour charge,

Photography courtesy of The Monorail Society

14 Make: Volume 01