History of the Walt Disney World Monorail System

magic kingdom the most magical place on earth regarded as walt disney's greatest ambition and completed by his brother roy but how is it done and what are the stories behind it i'm alex the historian and i've been studying disney's history stories and technical achievements for over 17 years now six of those years were as a disneyland cast member working my way up to guest relations tour guide and private host after leaving disney in 2016 i decided to share my knowledge with youtube so join me as we peek behind the curtain flip through the pages of time and experience a little bit of magic kingdom history today for this program is provided by jason from interactive realm my friend jason creates custom crafts and signs if you check out the interactive realm youtube channel you can watch the creativity unfold be sure to visit his website and online store to purchase items he has for sale or to order your own custom-made craft lastly the interactive rom website is also where you can find my online store here you can explore my exclusive alex the historian merchandise links will be in the description below check in now and again to see what's new interactive realm crafting the magic the walt disney world monorail system every year this custom-built transit sees 50 million riders some of you have yet to travel aboard this highway in the sky but anyone who's heard about the resort knows that this amazing engineering wonder is part of the experience one can easily imagine the excitement of watching that sleek monorail train pulling up to the station and being able to step inside for one of the greatest observation spots the resort has to offer it's a fantastic achievement of modern transit ingenuity but walt disney world was not the first disney property to have a monorail system on june 14th 1959 walt disney introduced the disneyland monorail as part of his first major park expansion project originally the disneyland monorail was engineered by disney legend bob gur and built as a ride attraction designed to entertain the visitors of walt's original magic kingdom in anaheim california the train rode atop a concrete beamway that dipped tilted climbed and weaved through the landscape of tomorrowland on a non-stop journey back to tomorrowland station it was the first daily operating monorail system in the western hemisphere the intention for the monorail was not just for entertainment but to showcase reliable and safe public transit for the future in 1961 the disneyland monorail was expanded so that the trains could leave the park and cross over the parking lot making a round-trip journey to the disneyland hotel and back to tomorrowland this made it the first monorail to travel adjacent to a major thoroughfare and the first to cross over a major roadway this expansion also introduced the mark ii monorails which were the next generation featuring an extra passenger cabin the mark iii monorails were introduced in 1968 they featured five passenger cabins and more powerful electric motors when walt disney was coming up with plans for his florida project back in 1965 he had intended to build a larger monorail system to connect the resort airport with an entrance complex an industrial park then epcot and finally the theme park resort going by monorail was going to be the most exciting and futuristic way to get around the property however after walt disney's death in 1966 the plans for the resort property had to be changed and the epcot project along with several others were shelved roy disney wanted to refocus the effort on getting the theme park resort complex built he felt that once that was completed the new generation of executives could decide what to construct next the resort complex was originally going to have a massive man-made lagoon surrounded by four resort hotels a transportation and ticket center and of course the magic kingdom theme park a configuration like this was perfect for interconnecting it with a monorail system for transporting guests the levels of traffic they were expecting would require two separate lines one servicing each station and another providing express service from the transit center to the theme park imagineer bob gert was once again called upon to design the new monorails they needed to have a higher capacity than the disneyland versions and since this system would be treated as a serious transportation service the design couldn't feature the whimsical rocket ship design the previous versions had so bob drew inspiration from the popular learjet which was seen as stylish and modern he incorporated the look into a larger five-car monorail with a total capacity of 200 seated passengers in order for 10 mark iv monorails replaced with martin marietta at a cost of 6 million dollars per monorail these new trains only had an interior height of 5 ft 10 inches so it was seating room only and each cabin was separated into four aisles each aisle with two rows of seats cramming the guests in like sardines in a can the vehicles were eight feet four inches wide and stretched 171 feet long and when fully loaded with passengers they weighed 122 600 pounds to handle such dimensions and weight they would need larger stronger track beams than the ones used in california at 26 inches these beams were half a foot wider and were built with an arch design for strength unlike the disneyland monorail beams which have a uniform size all the way across the walt disney world beams would have a minimum depth of 48 inches which broadened out to 80 inches at the ends measuring 100 feet long they were double the length of the disneyland beams they were fabricated on-site using a high-strength concrete mixture that was poured around a honeycomb cage of welded rebar the rebar was then put under tension to give the frame extra strength and each beam is hollow at the core in order to keep the weight under 50 tons each the beams were then trucked across the property using custom-built two-part tractors and lifted into place by crane the minimum turn radius on the walt disney world line would be 250 feet which was over twice that of the disneyland monorail each concrete pylon support was designed with a low profile and has a foundation base measuring 20 feet across and extends five feet underground the track circles the seven seas lagoon on a 3.5 mile double loop and has a track switch near the theme park that accesses the spur line to the monorail storage facility the storage house was constructed into two identical buildings supplying enough space for all ten monorails plus an extra track for a cleaning and painting facility the bottom level of the left building houses the trains of the walt disney world railroad while the bottom level of the building on the right holds a vehicle maintenance center now you might be wondering how a monorail works and this graphic shows a very similar monorail design to the one at both disneyland and walt disney world as you can see each monorail car has two wheel assemblies called bogeys and each bogey is made up of drive tires on the top that bear the load and propel the vehicle and then there's side tires which guide the train around curves and clamp down on the beam to prevent derailment i must note that the monorails at disneyland and walt disney world only have one load-bearing drive tire on top of each bogey not two by the time walt disney world was ready to open in october of 1971 they only had four monorails ready for service the other six hadn't been delivered yet though two more would be delivered in november and december in the early months of 1972 the resort was becoming inundated with guests and the ferryboat service to the magic kingdom was not yet built lions backed up for hours in the florida sun at the transportation center the northern end of world drive was closed so parking trams could pick up guests at the transit center and take them straight to the park gates in order to help relieve some of the stress from the monorail system the mark iv trains had a primitive air conditioning system while it was functional it provided little relief from the heat and humidity at the time guests were pretty forgiving of that flaw because a ride aboard the monorail was like no other and offered panoramic views of the astonishing resort property by the end of the year all 10 monorails were in service the operation of the system flowed with relative ease the monorails were equipped with automated analog block signals that prevented trains from approaching too close to one another with the growing popularity of walt disney world and the daily service of the monorails the company decided it was wise to build two more monorails that way if one needed to undergo refurbishment it wouldn't affect the efficiency of the system on a high traffic day in 1977 monorail's coral and lime were delivered and they featured a new detail they had an extra cabin making them both a six-car train after that monorails that were sent away for refurbishment came back with a car added to their length increasing their capacity of 200 passengers to 244. in the mid-1970s imagineering was pushing forward with the plans for epcot walt's original plans were to have a city of the future populated by people who live and work there unfortunately epcot could not be constructed the way he wanted all his ideas dreams and influence died with him so the idea for completing epcot would change to one about building a theme park based on a futuristic land of tomorrow and a showcase of the major nations of the world basically a world's fair the company wanted guests to be able to travel by monorail from both parks the decision to expand the walt disney world monreal system included routing the monorail track through the future world section of the theme park giving guests a bird's-eye view of the adventures that await in early 1982 the epcot line was completed and a special preview service offered a monorail ride counter-clockwise to epcot station guests would exit at the station and were educated about the park's future offerings the preview ended with the spectacular run by of the park under construction before returning to the transportation and ticket center when the park eventually opened the monorail service ran clockwise in order to give guests a view of epcot before they disembarked at the station by the mid-1980s the walt disney world monorail service was unable to keep up with the demands of transporting guests the monorails themselves were just too small and too inefficient the company decided to upgrade the system with all new six-car monorails former imagineer bob gur who was at the time helping design disneyland's mark v trains was asked to continue work on a new mark vi system for walt disney world the new monorails would need to be taller in order to include standing room on board but they were limited to the clearance of the contemporary resort's hurricane doors after determining that they had an extra foot of space the design of the mark vi monorails would have 6 feet 10 inches of headroom inside the cabins the fabrication of the monorails was contracted out to the company bombardier and though the walt disney world system was limited to a 600 volt motor capacity the eight new motors that would propel the monorails were slightly stronger each capable of 113 horsepower in the year 1988 the new grand floridian resort opened along the edges of the seven seas lagoon and included a station stop for the monorails this would be the most recent station added to the walt disney world system even to this day in june of 1989 the first monorails were being delivered and more would gradually arrive over the next two years completing the delivery in 1991. the new trains were 203 feet long and had a maximum speed of 55 miles per hour though their speed would be limited to 40 miles per hour on resort property each cabin was able to seat four rows of 20 passengers but had standing room for up to 40 more meaning that the whole train could accommodate 360 passengers far more than the 244 passengers of the previous system another important feature was that the mark sixes had entryways with dual automatic swinging doors which finally allowed access to passengers using wheelchairs since all the doors could be closed at once with the push of a single button they needed a safety spiel warning guests too please stand clear of the doors this now famous safety spill was recorded in 1989 by jack wagner a man who was considered the voice of disneyland since the early 1970s at one point he narrated the walt disney world monorail journey but his narration has been replaced several times over the years except for his safety spiel which was recorded separately from the narration and has been allowed to stay for 31 years so far while the first mark vi train arrived in june of 1989 its service was delayed until christmas because they had trouble adapting the monorail's new digital navigation controls to the current system which was still using the analog design meaning that for the next two years the monorail system would simultaneously run both an analog and digital system until the last mark iv train was retired in 1991 two of the mark ivs were sold to the city of las vegas to be used as part of their new monorail service but the other trains would sit on an empty lot in florida rotting away for years the mark 6 trains were a major improvement to the system they had better air conditioning more spacious cabins large emergency exit hatches and windows they were even equipped with state-of-the-art fire detection systems designed to monitor the moving parts for overheating but despite the advanced technology human error still played a major factor in a tragic event in july of 2009 monorail's pink and purple were involved in a collision that resulted in the death of a monorail pilot an investigation into the collision was launched so that the company could figure out how to prevent a similar incident in the future the event was taken seriously the monroe pilots had to be retrained over at disneyland in california they had been used to operating three monorails on busy days for decades up to that point but the decision was made to permanently reduce operations to a maximum of two trains at walt disney world both colors pink and purple were permanently retired monorail teal was introduced later that year followed by monorail peach in 2011 both were made of salvaged portions of the previous trains the mark vi monorails were designed with digital navigation from the start but they always required a monorail pilot to manually drive the vehicle however in 2014 the monorails underwent gradual conversion to full automation this means that now a computer drives the monorails keeping them running safely and efficiently but there's still a mono pilot there to supervise ready to take control of the train in case of a malfunction or emergency generally speaking vehicles like modern cars buses and even disney monorails are built to last 20 years with regular maintenance but once that age is surpassed major investments and refurbishments are going to be required to keep the vehicles running this is why disney usually just replaces their monorails every two decades with all new ones but this was not the case with the mark vi monorails the newest ones went into service in 1991 and surpassed the 20-year mark in 2011. there was no indication from disney that they had planned to replace them with a new fleet of mark 8 monorails instead the old trains just kept putting along just like with the disneyland monorail system the one at walt disney world has always had tow tractors that help crews perform maintenance work and safety checks originally the walt disney world monorail system owned two of them but have since retired the originals and replaced them with a fleet of four tractors each powered by a 12-cylinder diesel engine the tractors are able to hook up to a monorail and tow them even in the event of a power failure with maintenance issues mounting and the monorails really starting to show and smell their age an incident happened in january of 2018 that raised awareness of the aging trains while monorail red was passing over epcot one of the automatic doors opened guests reported the malfunctioning door when the train arrived at epcot station the whole event was recorded and posted on social media and raised so much attention that by april of that year disney had made negotiations with bombardier to have their monorail set back one by one for a complete strip down and rebuild the plans were accelerated when in november of 2018 that same year a door detached from monroe green and fell between the tracks at the grand floridian station in 2019 monorail's silver black and green returned with a complete rebuild new interiors and a fresh coat of paint monorail peach was delivered in mid-2020 followed by monorail blue when blue came back it appeared as though they hadn't replaced the floors or the wall carpets which is a sign that they might be giving less attention to the next monorails in line as of the publishing of this video there are still seven more monorails that have yet to undergo refreshing many disney fans have anticipated the overdue announcement of a mark viii monorail to replace the current fleet but what mainly stands in the way is money since they already have a deal with bombardier to refurbish their current fleet it's highly unlikely the mark 8s will be coming anytime soon we might not see them until the mark sixes reach 35 years of age in 2026 or perhaps in 2031 when they are 40 years old one of the reasons we won't be seeing an expansion to the walt disney world monorail system is because the layout of the resort has just expanded too much with other disney parks and resorts in the property being separated by a few miles from one another it just isn't financially viable to use a monorail to transport guests to these various locations you might be wondering if walt disney world has 12 monorails but only space at the shop for 10 of them where are the other two monorails stored well two monorails are stored at the transportation and ticket center overnight on a rotating schedule so the trains aren't kept out in the elements any longer than they have to be if a hurricane is to hit the resort they will leave one monorail stored on each line one for the express line one for the resort line and one for the epcot line the epcot monorail is stored at epcot station during the hurricane and the other two monorails are stored inside the contemporary resort they also leave out three of the four monorail tractors one stored on each line at the transportation and ticket center this is so that if any of the track switches should be rendered unusable after the hurricane there is at least one monorail per line to safely transport guests whenever monorails are discussed it brings up a conversation topic that is unfortunately full of misinformation there's all kinds of myths that monorails are always inefficient or that they cost too much or that they aren't safe in the description below i will post a link to a video that settles all those myths and puts them to rest showing you that monorails can be very useful in modern society the walt disney world monorail system is a marvel of engineering though it's nearly 14 miles of beamway isn't close to the largest system in the world it is one of the earliest examples we have of a fully functioning system that still transports millions of people a year in comfort efficiency and safety this monorail system is a classic experience a must see for both new and returning visitors it brings with it a sense of magic and excitement as it glides overhead leaning into turns and speeding across vast stretches of open land fans young and old can rest assured that the walt disney world monorail system will continue transporting guests on disney's highway in the sky for many decades to come

Channel: Alex the Historian

Views: 10,817

Rating: 4.9417477 out of 5

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Id: 9PifBAvaQaE

Length: 20min 33sec (1233 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 12 2020