nace888
Well-Known Member
That coupler for the rod is on ONE SIDE on either end for the tow rod.
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Epcot Monorail Being Evacuated
- Thread starter peachykeen
- Start date
Does that not cover pretty much all of the Epcot beam way save for a couple locations over water and about 1/3 of the resort beam?
GrumpyFan
Well-Known Member
I see your point. I'm just being a bit of a stickler today, I guess. I kind of got set off earlier by some ridiculous press statements referring to the incident as a "Tragedy" or "Disaster".
Backing away from the keyboard for a while...
No worries.
Staying away from mainstream news is what keeps my blood pressure at 90/60.
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Wall-e
Well-Known Member
I've been at work all day so I haven't had a chance to read thru the whole thread so forgive me if it was mentioned already.
Being afraid of heights, the entire idea of an evacuation sounds extremely unnerving to me but if the situation became so dire I would suck it up and do what's necessary. But now having a 2yo son that raises even more questions for me. Being a 2yo he's very rambunctious and I could not imagine the ordeal it would be to navigate the top of a monorail, slide down the front if the monorail, then walk a track beam to safety.
Unless my life was in immediate danger I think I would wait for the fire department rescue ladder or cherry picker.
Being afraid of heights, the entire idea of an evacuation sounds extremely unnerving to me but if the situation became so dire I would suck it up and do what's necessary. But now having a 2yo son that raises even more questions for me. Being a 2yo he's very rambunctious and I could not imagine the ordeal it would be to navigate the top of a monorail, slide down the front if the monorail, then walk a track beam to safety.
Unless my life was in immediate danger I think I would wait for the fire department rescue ladder or cherry picker.
landauh
Active Member
There is one door on each side of a car that opens very easily without needing power. Also if necessary the windows pop out.
I believe (although this is an assumption, based on the pictures I have seen and my experience doing a car-to-car evac drill), that any Guests who transferred via the roof did so after RCFD had arrive and secured the Guests to the rail running on top of the trains, which is there for that specific reason.
Looking at the pictures and knowing that section of track, much of the train was on a curve which is surrounded by spur beams on either side. Most likely the scissor lift truck wasn't able to reach those particular cars due to the beams being in its way. I would guess what they did is position the scissor lift at the first car, which was easily accessible, then unloaded the Guests from that car, and then brought any Guests in other cars to that car via the roof hatches (again, after being secured), to then have them take the lift down.
Again, this is just speculation, but with some previous experience behind it. In addition, the Guests aren't actually up on the roof in the middle of the cars. What they do is take the Guest out of the hatch at the end of the car, they crawl over the gap between the cars, then immediately down the nearby hatch of the next car, then the Guests walk through the interior of the car, over the center bench, to the hatch at the far end, and repeat that procedure until they are in the desired car. You aren't walking the length of the Monorail on the roof. Most of the transfer is done within the car interior, with brief portions outside, to bridge the gap between cars.
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DznyGrlSD
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Gravity/physics makes it impossible to be stuck on the loop of any roller coaster.
However - they have to climb onto the roof of the monorail...no thanks - I won't climb on a ladder let alone a monorail roof.
ninjaprincesst
Well-Known Member
Thanks I was just curious. Getting to climb out the top sounds like a fun adventure to me though, not scary at all, my Mom was like " why don't we ever get to do the fun stuff" and she is 65 lol.
cw1982
Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
You might want to read through the thread.
Monorail_Red
Well-Known Member
It appears that all the discrepancies have been cleared up by peachykeen and a few others. So all I will add to this thread for now is, this scenario literally had to be the "perfect storm" for Gold to get stuck the way it did. I can empathize with the guests who were impacted by this, because without a question this was a major inconvenience to them. But the fact of the matter is, as uncomfortable and inconvenient the situation was, they were in no real danger. Kudos to Reedy Creek and the other CMs involved with the rescue.
"Normal Visual"
-Monorail_Red
"Normal Visual"
-Monorail_Red
Mrs.W9000
Well-Known Member
CDavid
Well-Known Member
Just out of curiosity, @peachykeen or @Monorail_Red or anyone know how the monorail was finally moved off the switch? Was it towed from the ground, repaired-in-place, or what?
dstrawn9889
Well-Known Member
would say that power was restored to the section of beam, allowing the monorail to head to shop to reset the roof doors and a general cleanup of the exterior (footprints on the exterior... not good, filthy interior? passable) LOL
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Monorail_Red
Well-Known Member
Like peachykeen I have been out of the department for a while as well, and with all the turnover I don't have many contact left there.
My best guess is they ultimately got power restored to move the train. I'm pretty sure the issue was just getting power restored to the beamway, and nothing on the train itself to repair in place. But I could be wrong.
With the guests off I wouldn't see a need to do a train-to-train tow or try to move it with a vehicle on the ground. I also heard that has been tested with a parking tram but I'm doubtful that it would work, unless there is a sizeable patch of pavement, because I believe adequate traction would be an issue.
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Monorail_Red
Well-Known Member
They could do this right at the station. It not uncommon for a hatch sensor to falsely register as open, and maintenance can reset those right at a station. As for cleaning up, I cannot say for sure after seeing how Monorail Peach debuted with debris in the Guest areas of the train. It had to go back to shop right after coming online for the first time...
dstrawn9889
Well-Known Member
with no power, the motors should freewheel... at least all the electric equipment i have ever used is this way. nothing that big though.
dstrawn9889
Well-Known Member
but a full evac, caught on camera, and they would continue service the same day? i know that it is fine, but wouldn't skittish people elect to pass on Gold for the rest of the day?
Monorail_Red
Well-Known Member
The monorails are programmed so when power is lost, it does an emergency stop. This is a safeguard for many things. There is a way to release the brakes, but without power and potentially not enough air pressure remaining, you cannot (fully) re-apply them if you needed to. So in this scenario, it was best to just let the train be and get the Guests off. Last thing you need is the train to roll while doing an evac via ground equipment.
You can't blame the train in this situation - the section of beamway happened to lose power while it was there. And to move the train with hatches that need to be reset, you can only do so on door bypass which limits the train to 15mph. Even without considering door bypass, it is much quicker just to reset the hatches and get custodial to do there thing at the closest station (if anything).
As for people being skittish...
This just my .02 worth. I think they will be skittish regardless, and I don't think the train color would make any difference. When I worked there I found that most guests didn't even pay attention to (or care about) the train colors anyway. While this may be big news to us, I doubt most Guests currently at WDW know this happened.