Incredible railplane that travelled along the London & North Eastern Railway

The history of our railways is full of surprises, but this might be the most surprising of all. There once was a railplane that was driven along the tracks by a huge propeller. Yes, such a thing actually existed, and it once ran on a track owned by one of the major London rail companies.

Technicolour railway posters advertising the railplane – which was known as the The George Bennie Railplane System of Transport – hailed it as a “swift, safe and sure” means of getting around.

The experimental railplane – which was essentially a monorail hanging above the existing tracks – was set up above the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) railway, which led to the Burnbrae Dye Works factory just north of Glasgow. The LNER of course was one of Britain’s “big four” railway companies with lines connecting London with many major northern cities.

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The project was funded by George Bennie, an engineer who was born in Auldhouse in 1892 and had a passion for trains and planes. His idea generated great excitement and was seen by many as the future of rail travel. The railplane was supposed to be able to reach speeds of 120mph, and would have hung from high-level gantries above it.

As reported by Glasgow Live in 2019, a prototype monorail was built in Milngavie in 1930 – and was intended to be rolled out in the city of Glasgow. Electrically powered and propeller driven, the entrepreneur was determined that his railplane would change the world. He argued this new mode of travel would be cheaper to operate than conventional trains – and would free up room for freight traffic.

Bennie had really grand ambitions. He wanted his planes to run on lines between city centres and airports across the country, and even wanted to build a tourist monorail line between the River Nile and the Dead Sea – which would both transport passengers and provide desert irrigation.

The building of the monorail was a huge and very complicated operation, with parts being put together by William Beardmore & Co Ltd in Dalmuir. The railplanes were to be built to a high specification with luxurious interiors fitted out by famous upholsterers, Waring and Gillow, of Oxford Street in London, with comfortable seats and curtained windows.

The Orkney Herald trumpeted in July 1930: “This unique invention consists of a cigar -shaped carriage suspended from a single rail in midair and propelled by air screws which derive their motive power from electricity. The inventor claims that these carriages can attain the speed of anything from 100 to 120 miles an hour, while it has the advantage of being cheaper to install and maintain than the ordinary railway system.

“The system is particularly suited to mountainous country, and it suggests a means of opening up undeveloped places in the north of Scotland. The track can he laid without regard to gradients, and it eliminates the necessity of the expensive excavations such as were necessary in laying the existing railways through the north of Scotland. Already Mr Bennie has received many inquiries from transport concerns throughout the world, and there are indications that his invention will earn the reward which ten years of arduous labour deserves.”

The railplane was launched in July 1930 and passengers loved it. Yet, like so many other great ideas, it amounted to nothing when Bennie was unable to secure financial backing for his grand schemes. In 1936 he was ousted from the board of the railplane company, Inter-Counties Ltd. He was then declared bankrupt in 1937.

Bennie battled to take forward his monorail proposal in other parts of the world, and established two new companies – but Glasgow’s railplane fell into disrepair and sat rusting in Milngavie before being sold for scrap in 1956.

Within 12 months the bankrupt Bennie, who later ran a herbalist shop, passed away. Now all that is left is a blue plaque which is fixed on the wall of the timber merchants’ shed in Milngavie where the rail plane engine was built – a tribute to the bold Bennie’s vision for a greater future in travel.

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