Monorail Crash in 1980?

[Invero]

Originally posted by monorail256
when i was in disney world last (february 2-8) on our last day cry: ) they had a power control system failure or something like that and i had to ride the ferry. i hate that ferry.. i wanted to be on my monorails... but sadly i couldnt and when they did have them up and running.. it was time to go see fantasmic ill just have to wait...
ps. has anyone ever stayed on a monorail from the ttc to epcot 17 times in a row and not gotten off? i know i have.. lol :animwink:

I remember that day... We lost power for the majority of the day... not a fun day to be working. Thankfully, I had it off. :sohappy:

This was actually the second time this had happened to us in a week... blah... the previous Sunday I think it was, we lost power for part of the morning. Gotta keep maintenance busy I guess.

 

[mickeyman]

how much training is involved before they let you drive the monorails?

 

[Invero]

Originally posted by mickeyman
how much training is involved before they let you drive the monorails?

It's about 20 hours of Platform Training, then you work on the Platforms for about a month, and then it's about 60+ hours of actual Drive Training... very intense... very difficult...

 

[Richy_roo]

Monrail

There was an evacuation from the Disneyland monorail last month., i was there, not on it. i could see (from DCA) 6 helicopters (local news) filming it.

In this case it was a power failure and had to be evacuated.

 

[jcrb]

Monorail Stale 3/1/02

I was at Disney World on March 1, 2002 and somone told me that the mondorail had staled. A tracker was sent by the rondhouse and pulled the monorail back to station.

 

[WEDMagic]

yep

yeah I was there I haope it was only one of them, it was on the epcot beam and the diesel tow was pulling it back

 

[tenchu]

Originally posted by DBF John


1 red
2 black
3 blue
4 purple
5 green
6 silver
7 coral
8 pink
9 gold
10 orange
11 lime
12 yellow

Cheers for the list. But what is 'coral?' thats one of those colours i've never understood! I had never realised that there were so many different monorails doin the rounds.

 

[DisneyPhD]

FantasiaBoi (or any other pilots here), I've got a question.

When we were there in the second week of December 2001, on Saturday night when MK closed we went to take the resort monorail back to the Polynesian. The "line" up to the monorail was taking forever and when we got up to the platform we noticed that they were only letting people on the second half of the monorail. There were other guests already in the front half of the monorail presumably heading to other resorts. It wound up taking us over an hour to get back to the Poly (we could have walked it faster, I know we should have taken the ferry). So the question is ...

Why do this at closing when you have the most people to move?

It was the least magical part of our trip. It didn't help that our daughter was having an allergic reaction and we were trying to get back to our room to call her doctor.

 

[WEDMagic]

hehe

coral would be like pink but more peach

 

[JEDI1138]

Originally posted by tenchu


Cheers for the list. But what is 'coral?' thats one of those colours i've never understood! I had never realised that there were so many different monorails doin the rounds.

Coral and Lime were the last two colors added. They are most notable because they have the white insets in the stripe.

Question: If and when Disney expands the Monorail system, What colors do you think they should add, or should they paint them all the same with the transporation logo?

 

[Invero]

Re: yep

Originally posted by WEDMagic
yeah I was there I haope it was only one of them, it was on the epcot beam and the diesel tow was pulling it back

LOL... yup, every so often, just like your car, we experience technical difficulties and have to tow the train... Silver got towed yesterday... and it would have been ME driving it... but something had come up... grrr... I wanna get towed!!! LOL

(It's every Pilot's dream to get towed... don't ask why!)

 

[Invero]

Originally posted by DisneyPhD
FantasiaBoi (or any other pilots here), I've got a question.

When we were there in the second week of December 2001, on Saturday night when MK closed we went to take the resort monorail back to the Polynesian. The "line" up to the monorail was taking forever and when we got up to the platform we noticed that they were only letting people on the second half of the monorail. There were other guests already in the front half of the monorail presumably heading to other resorts. It wound up taking us over an hour to get back to the Poly (we could have walked it faster, I know we should have taken the ferry). So the question is ...

Why do this at closing when you have the most people to move?

It was the least magical part of our trip. It didn't help that our daughter was having an allergic reaction and we were trying to get back to our room to call her doctor.

There is a reason why we do this. I'm kind of confused about what you're telling me... I'm assuming they only opened the back half of the train, and kept the doors closed for the first two cars.

The reason we do this is to save space for the Contemporary Resort. I'm sure you've heard of "Park Exits"... when the park closes, and all the masses of people leave. Well... there's also "Dinner Exits"... and that happens when all the people at the California Grill, Concourse Steakhouse, and especially Chef Mickey's all bombard the Contemporary station...

Now, if all this happens during a Park Exit... you know those trains will be jam packed full of people. So... if we didn't hold those two cars, then the folks at the Contemporary station would never be able to get on the train.

Now a few other things I want to add... I am willing to bet that a good 30-50% of those people who got on at the MK station were really going to the TTC... and trying to "save time" by taking the Resort Monorail. We STRONGLY DISCOURAGE doing this... the reason being that the Resort Monorail is for those staying at the Resorts... that's why they pay more... for that convenience.

And although that Express line looks like it's HUGE... It's really not. We can move about 1500 people every ten minutes. Chances are that huge line will translate to about 15-20mins... Trust me. I work there, and I've gone through it many times myself.

You said that it took you an hour to get back to the Poly? We must have been having some problems with a Resort train that night, because they come every 5 minutes during exits. Even just half the train, that's 300 people every 10 mins, and I've never seen that line more than 750...

 

[Invero]

Originally posted by JEDI1138


Coral and Lime were the last two colors added. They are most notable because they have the white insets in the stripe.

Question: If and when Disney expands the Monorail system, What colors do you think they should add, or should they paint them all the same with the transporation logo?

Well, Coral has the white delta... Lime is a Highlighter Yellow, with a dark blue delta in it. A lil bit of Trivia... "Lime" was a tribute to the original lime colored monorail pilot costumes worn in the 70's.

If they ever did add new trains, they'd still follow the colors... That's how we identify them. We thought about having Character themed trains... but them we'd run into a problem with kids, "I wanna ride the Mickey train!" and so forth. As for what colors they'd use? Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[Goofette]

Fantasia Boi I have a question for you. I was just curious if anyone from these boards has ever rode in the front of one of your monorails you have driven? Wondering if anyone has said hello and I'm from the wdwmagic forum lol. We'll be there April 21, and I'm crossing my fingers hoping to get my daughter in the front of one of the monorails. I thought that would be pretty neat if you were the one driving it. You gave me information about the buses and monorail taking people to the castle for the breakfast in the morning on another thread here at the forums. I didn't realize you were one of the drivers at that time. Thank you for that information though. That was such a relief.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Originally posted by Fantasia Boi


The reason we do this is to save space for the Contemporary Resort. I'm sure you've heard of "Park Exits"... when the park closes, and all the masses of people leave. Well... there's also "Dinner Exits"... and that happens when all the people at the California Grill, Concourse Steakhouse, and especially Chef Mickey's all bombard the Contemporary station...

Now, if all this happens during a Park Exit... you know those trains will be jam packed full of people. So... if we didn't hold those two cars, then the folks at the Contemporary station would never be able to get on the train.

Now a few other things I want to add... I am willing to bet that a good 30-50% of those people who got on at the MK station were really going to the TTC... and trying to "save time" by taking the Resort Monorail. We STRONGLY DISCOURAGE doing this... the reason being that the Resort Monorail is for those staying at the Resorts... that's why they pay more... for that convenience.


You said that it took you an hour to get back to the Poly? We must have been having some problems with a Resort train that night, because they come every 5 minutes during exits. Even just half the train, that's 300 people every 10 mins, and I've never seen that line more than 750...

Thanks for the info. I figured it must have had something to do with getting people to or from the other resorts for dinner and such. You're right about people not going to the resorts. There were cast members trying to make sure that people getting in the resort line were actually going to the resorts (like us!!) but a number of people that got on a MK did get off at TTC We were in line with an older couple one of which was in a wheelchair. They were heading to the Poly because that's where they had parked.

Perhaps something was wrong with one of the trains because it seemed like a long time between trains and there were more express trains going through.

I was going to ask whether they would ever skip TTC but then how would people from the resorts get to the Epcot train. So never mind. I figured that one out on my own:animwink:

I want Monorail PLAID!!!

 

[monorail256]

haha plaid...it would be interesting to see that

 

[scotty_l]

Originally posted by DisneyPhD


Thanks for the info. I figured it must have had something to do with getting people to or from the other resorts for dinner and such. You're right about people not going to the resorts. There were cast members trying to make sure that people getting in the resort line were actually going to the resorts (like us!!) but a number of people that got on a MK did get off at TTC We were in line with an older couple one of which was in a wheelchair. They were heading to the Poly because that's where they had parked.

Perhaps something was wrong with one of the trains because it seemed like a long time between trains and there were more express trains going through.

I was going to ask whether they would ever skip TTC but then how would people from the resorts get to the Epcot train. So never mind. I figured that one out on my own:animwink:

I want Monorail PLAID!!!

In the past, the trains would not even stop at TTC... This did not last long and they went to what we called "load modes" on the resort beam E\(Even the addtion of Grand Flo did not effect this \). Different loading patterns for the train a different times of the day. For example, in the vening we would load Contemporary only in Car 6, the car behind the driver. (On the resort beam the trains operate out of cab 6 instead of cab 1). We would then load Grand Flo only in car 4 and Polynesian only in car 6. The resorts would load in the off cars 2-3 for ttc and car 5 for other resorts. So we would load up at the MK go upto the contemprary open car 6 and expect everyone to unload there..... If any one wanted to go to ttc they would have to reload on to the train..... In addtion we would not open either car 4 or 6 at TTC.. This caused an occasional banging on the door and then the driver or back cab would approach the car and state that the next stop was the pol or in 2 stops the Grand Flo....This all changed when the book "The Unofficial Guide to Disney World" came out. The book speciafically told guests about the reorts beam and the Monorail hosts/esses attempts to thwart any attempts or even attempt to ask for Resort ID...

This whole approach may have sounded rude, but the line for the Resort Beam at the Kingdom can get long at night and with 3-4 trains running at a cycle of 15-20 minutes. The volume does not match the expressmonorail or even the ferryboat...

 

[Disney4648]

Fantasia Boi, have you heard any rumors from Disney that there might be a new Monorail resort coming soon?

 

[Invero]

Originally posted by OrlandoDisney
Fantasia Boi, have you heard any rumors from Disney that there might be a new Monorail resort coming soon?

Not gonna happen... sorry...

 

[chellnjr]

I love this thread. It has been real interesting!

Fantasia Boi: do you ever have just adults ask to ride up front? I'm a litle afraid to ask since we don't have kids.