ItLUG World Record Longest LEGO Monorail

[Pix]

During the event in Ballabio (Italy) held the 7th and 8th of July 2012, ItLUG (Italian LEGO Users Group) sets the new World Record for the longest monorail track with an overall length of 362.5 m. The track was composed only by official LEGO monorail parts, brought to the event by many AFOLs from Italy and Netherland. This is the list of the parts used during the attempt, with reference length for each type. We deem that the best way to fix an objective rule in determining the track length is to consider the part list and relevant reference length, so:

- 325 x Monorail Track Straight Long (255 mm)

- 303 x Monorail Track Straight Short (255/4 = 63.75 mm)

- 470 x Monorail Track Curve Long (360 mm)

- 49 x Monorail Track Curve Short Left & Right (180 mm)

- 55 x Monorail Track Point Left & Right (180 mm on the curved way)

- 104 x Monorail Track Ramp Lower Part (260 mm)

- 105 x Monorail Track Ramp Upper Part (260 mm)

- 142 x Monorail Track Monoswitch (255/2 = 127.5 mm)

To read more and for the official video, go to the our website:

http://itlug.org/2012/09/new-world-record-lego-monorail/

Edited September 27, 2012 by Pix

[davee123]

Congrats! I'm glad to see the attempts at record breaking continue! ... Of course, now we'll have to try and re-claim the record!

How did you find the lengths of the track? I tried to start a discussion about this a while ago in a few places-- the easiest one I can find being LUGNET: http://news.lugnet.com/general/?n=55530

Here's what I found when I did my checking (these were the numbers used for NELUG's record):

Straight lengths were pretty straightforward:

- Straight Long: 32 studs * 8mm per stud => 256mm

- Monoswitch: 16 studs * 8mm per stud => 128mm

- Straight Short: 8 studs * 8mm per stud => 64mm

Curves were difficult, because monorail track doesn't form a perfect circle-- it's adjusted slightly so that the midpoint of a curve aligns perfectly on studs:

- Curve Long: (4 * ((pi - 4)/(1 - sqrt(1/2)) + 14) studs ~=> 44.277 studs * 8mm per stud => 354.216mm

- Curve Short Left & Right: 354.216mm / 2 => 177.108mm

Ramps were even more difficult. I couldn't find a good guess as to the "perfect" geometry, so I measured using a scanner. However, because it wasn't an exact method, I simplified and used 262.4mm for NELUG measurements.

- Ramp Lower Part: 262.5328mm (262.4mm)

- Ramp Upper Part: 262.3224mm (262.4mm)

Points (when straight) were simple, but I actually never figured out what they were when curved. They don't follow a perfect curve, and I didn't have a good method for determining their length. I DID count the teeth in each direction, but since the tooth spacing isn't consistent, it didn't really help. Hence, for our purposes, we simply used a half-curve measurement:

- Point Left & Right: 177.108mm (curved), 256mm (straight)

DaveE

[Vindicare]

Very cool, congrats! Great video.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Awesome record break, but how long did it take to complete the track?

[TheBunch]

Awesome record break, but how long did it take to complete the track?

As I recall, we started on friday at about 6pm, then by saturday at 4am we collected/tagged the rails and finished building prototype structures for the columns (4/5 people).

On Saturday at 9am we started again and built rails until 2am on sunday (5/7 people).

Then from 9am on sunday to 12am (5/7 people).

Sunday at noon we started the first complete run, it took 23 minutes to complete more or less.

The official run started in the early afternoon 2pm/3pm...

Soon after we started setting everything apart and by 7pm it was all gone.

[Jay Sathe]

Wow. I just got my first monorail on Tuesday and I thought my 4 long straights and 4 long curves were a lot of track!

Congratulations on the record, and that black airport shuttle is an awesome looking train.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Sunday at noon we started the first complete run, it took 23 minutes to complete more or less.

Thanks for the info TheBunch. That is a lot of setup time, and 23min runtime for the train is a good while, especially for a small train! I'd love to see something like that in person! Now, who can calculate the speed

[Ferrik]

Conratulations to all who helped out in building this. All those curls and swirls in the track are making me dizzy...

Actually, not really...

[davee123]

Now, who can calculate the speed?

They actually quote the speed on the page: "0.259 m/s or 0.93 kmh". About 1 length of long straight track every second, which is pretty common for monorail speed, in my experience. Assuming minifig scale of 1 stud per foot, that's about 22 miles per hour, or 35.5 kph!

DaveE

[Wedge09]

Congrats to itLUG, you have made a fantastic work :thumbup:

The two tower high 2,1 meter are impressive *oh2*

[Hrw-Amen]

Those towers with the spirals were rather good, I imagined the train flying off the top with that speeded up video, it did look a little precarious going across from one to another as it was. Still very good and I'd like to see this in real life!

[Bilbo Baggins]

That is really amazing I really liked the towers

[Jackattack7]

Whaaaaattttt!!!!???? that is amazing, that must of cost a lot of money and time.

[CP5670]

Really impressive. I love the wavy part with the three levels. Seeing this makes me want to buy more monorail track and expand my layout.