Wuppertal mono railway

Wuppertal mono railway stamp

In 1976 a stamp was issued on which the Wuppertal mono railway is pictured. The railway celebrated its 75th anniversary at that time. The stamp, printed in offset, shows a train in a landscape with river.

Disaster

On 12 April 1999 a disaster took place. A railway carriage collided into a maintenance wagon left there by the technicians. The carriage crashed in the river Wupper and 38 passengers were wounded. Four people died.
The mono railway is regarded as one of the safest means of transport.

Build by Carl Eugen Langen

The Wuppertal railway was build by Carl Eugen Langen and was opened in 1901.
Carl Eugen Langen was a businessman from Cologne who invented a way to transport flour-sacks. Later he realised that it could be used for transport of people too.
Most cities were not interested in this revolutionary idea. Only the cities Elberfeld and Barmen (later: Wuppertal) were fascinated by this new way of transport. Above the river Wupper a mono railway, extending 13 km, was build. For the construction steel was used and therefore looks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which was completed two years earlier.

More information

Postage Stamps 1999