The Igorre monorail (Biscay, Spain): Technical characteristics and inaugural voyage (1905)

Abstract

Monorails, used for passenger and freight transport, were created and developed in the 19th century and continued into the 20th and 21st centuries as an alternative to conventional two-track rail traffic. The Lartigue system, invented by the French engineer who gave it its name, was one of them. Based on his concepts and ideas, between 1882 and 1924, he and others designed numerous variants of the system. One of these was the Igorre mining monorail, created in 1905 to serve a small iron pyrite mine in Vizcaya. This paper first describes the Lartigue system, then explains the technical characteristics of the Igorre prototype and describes its maiden voyage, which was a significant event for Basque industry. This was the brand's last monorail, the first of its kind in Spain, and the only one powered by a gasoline engine that also used the innovative continuously variable transmission (CVT) system. The work's notable contributions include the route's layout, for which no references have been found, and the proper description of the monorail, for which no notices have been found in specialized international literature. This was one of four monorails that used the Lartigue system for mining purposes, of the eight built and in operation out of a total of twenty-five models designed: twenty-four by the company itself and one by a North American mining company after Lartigue had already disappeared.