Abstract: A transportation system, particularly for handling containers for transport by rail vehicles, lorries or ships, includes an elevated guideway comprising a plurality of spaced parallel longitudinal tracks connected by tranverse tracks which are movable along the longitudinal tracks. Vehicles travel along the tracks and are equipped with hoists for lifting containers beneath the guideway into the vehicles. Each vehicle is equipped with lower wheels which run on rails on the longitudinal tracks and upper wheels which run on high level guides on the transverse tracks. When it is wished to transfer the vehicle from one track to another at a junction this may be effected by stopping the vehicle at the junction engaging the appropriate wheels with the guides or rails, as the case may be, on the other track and then continuing movement along that other track.

Abstract: Transportation apparatus comprises a guideway and at least one vehicle on the guideway. The vehicle has an integral load-carrying compartment. The guideway includes a divergent junction and selectively operable switches to direct the vehicle to follow either the left hand or right hand path out of the junction. The vehicle has a bottom support adjacent the bottom of the load-carrying compartment and at both sides of the vehicle for engagement with lower support rails on the guideway. Cantilever supports engage upper guide surfaces provided on the guideway. The cantilever supports are duplicated on both sides of the vehicle and include one and the same upper follower, for engagement with an upper guide surface on the guideway, common to both of the cantilever supports so that the vehicle may be supported in cantilever fashion from either side on a single lower support rail and a single upper guide surface.

Abstract: A transportation system comprising a plurality of driven vehicles movable along a track and controlled by the provision of deterministic cells, defined by track-to-vehicle speed and/or position command signals, which move along the track, each vehicle being confined within the limits of a cell but being capable of autonomous movement relative thereto to permit the formation of a contact train with other vehicles within the cell. A control is provided to close-up vehicles within a cell, and there may also be provided on board each vehicle three coordinated closed-loop subsystems, governing respectively the vehicle speed, position and closing speed relative to an adjacent vehicle.

Abstract: In a transportation system of the kind in which vehicles move along a guideway which includes diverging junctions and a vehicle-mounted track selection mechanism can be set to control which side of the junction the vehicle is to follow, both by an on-board operating member and by an on-guideway operating member. In normal use, the on-guideway operating member would be set to cause the vehicle to take the route with the highest traffic level so that intervention by the on-board operating member is necessary only when divergence from such route is desired.