Monorail line repairs at EPCOT today

[MonorailLover]

The power can come from any number of sources: solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, even coal. The point is it's not the petroleum based buses currently in operation.

Let's just hope for renewables...... Maybe their solar farm can co-generate for the monorail system!

 

[Nubs70]

Let's just hope for renewables...... Maybe their solar farm can co-generate for the monorail system!

Especially at night.

 

[French Quarter]

Waking through Epcot, I saw the repair crew working on the monorail near the front entrance. I first saw the crew traveling towards the entrance by IMAG. It looks like monorail Peach is in the Epcot station and not moving.

These are cool pics. I love catching glimpses of things like this. Thank you.

 

[French Quarter]

Looks like they're replacing the doohickey with the thingamabob they were using that one time over at that place where that thing was...


.....Just trying to fit in..

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[French Quarter]

The we don't give a hoot cuz we are going out of business vibe grows stronger every day

Yes...WDW is going out of business. Everything must go.

 

[French Quarter]

Build a modern adaptation of a people mover:
Utilize many small capacity vehicles so routing can be essentially point to point without transfers.
Make the travel pathways redundant so a failure in a single location does not bring the entire system down.
Have each unit it carry its own energy supply to avoid the need for expensive power supply infrastructure.
Intelligently route the individual vehicles to safely and efficiently use all available travel pathways.

This is my favourite idea. I think multiple modes of transportation is the way to go but it should include some people movers. I mean, it's right there in the name. They move people.

 

[mcjaco]

That's what I'm saying, if they actually monitored the system more proactively, with manual labour or ultrasonic systems that @ford91exploder talked about, it might actually save them from issues like this.....

And do you have access to their inspection records, procedures, etc? I'd say the State of Florida probably has rules and regs for inspection like they do for any attraction and ride system for parks.

By monitoring the resistance of the circuit. A step wise increase in resistance would indicate an issue with the buss bar that should initiate a visual inspection.

Unless the pickup shoe snagged it and caused the break.

As metal fatigues resistance increases. If the bar were to fatigue to breakage, electrical flow will cease. Hence a break in the circuit. II amnot sure if the Epcot loop is an entire single circuit, multiple single circuits, or multiple parallel circuits. In every configuration, resistance monitoring would indicate impending failure. Even nightly thermographic inspection would reveal impending failure. How difficult would it be to get a thermographic drone and program it to fly each monorail loop as a nightly pm program?

Pretty confident the entire system is not one block/circuit. That'd be ridiculously stupid.

Armchair electricians and engineers. Yay.

 

[Nubs70]

And do you have access to their inspection records, procedures, etc? I'd say the State of Florida probably has rules and regs for inspection like they do for any attraction and ride system for parks.



Unless the pickup shoe snagged it and caused the break.



Pretty confident the entire system is not one block/circuit. That'd be ridiculously stupid.

Armchair electricians and engineers. Yay.

Why not a single circuit?

Armchair no, I am more a Barcalounger engineer.

 

[dstrawn9889]

the breaker contacts would have to be enormous

 

[Nubs70]

the breaker contacts would have to be enormous

How many KV does the system push?

 

[Jahona]

How many KV does the system push?

I find it a bit odd that the beam is apparently 600v DC as the monorail cars are equipped with inverters to go from DC to AC to run the air conditioning.

 

[unkadug]

I find it a bit odd that the beam is apparently 600v DC as the monorail cars are equipped with inverters to go from DC to AC to run the air conditioning.

But then the A/C units will then rectify that AC back to DC in order to run the electronics.

 

[Figment2005]

And do you have access to their inspection records, procedures, etc? I'd say the State of Florida probably has rules and regs for inspection like they do for any attraction and ride system for parks.



Unless the pickup shoe snagged it and caused the break.



Pretty confident the entire system is not one block/circuit. That'd be ridiculously stupid.

Armchair electricians and engineers. Yay.

Just an FYI for everyone. The problem that closed the system down was not found because something bad happened. It was noticed, shut down, fixed, and reopened so that nothing bad WOULD happen. This WAS proactive.

 

[MonorailLover]

Just an FYI for everyone. The problem that closed the system down was not found because something bad happened. It was noticed, shut down, fixed, and reopened so that nothing bad WOULD happen. This WAS proactive.

Thank you for this information, it previously sounded much more like it wasn't proactively fixed.

 

[Nubs70]

I find it a bit odd that the beam is apparently 600v DC as the monorail cars are equipped with inverters to go from DC to AC to run the air conditioning.

I would have thought the beam would be AC then rectify at the motors.

 

[Nubs70]

Just an FYI for everyone. The problem that closed the system down was not found because something bad happened. It was noticed, shut down, fixed, and reopened so that nothing bad WOULD happen. This WAS proactive.

Be interesting to see what the problem was and how they found it.

 

[ford91exploder]

And do you have access to their inspection records, procedures, etc? I'd say the State of Florida probably has rules and regs for inspection like they do for any attraction and ride system for parks.



Unless the pickup shoe snagged it and caused the break.



Pretty confident the entire system is not one block/circuit. That'd be ridiculously stupid.

Armchair electricians and engineers. Yay.

Some of us actually ARE engineers and we do this kind of stuff for a living so been there done that and got the T-shirt and scars. (not to mention 'The Stamp')

 

[ford91exploder]

I would have thought the beam would be AC then rectify at the motors.

If it were designed NOW it would be all AC, When the monorail was designed DC motors and controls were the best available technology in 1971 which is why Diesel locomotives from that era also were equipped with DC traction motors.

Fast forward to now and you have variable frequency drives and high power solid state components for use in AC circuits which is why new Diesel locomotives are now AC powered instead of DC better control and efficiency for the entire system.

http://www.republiclocomotive.com/ac_traction_vs_dc_traction.html

 

[skyphotographer]

it would not, FAA controls airspace above 1200 feet, below that is considered class 'G' or unregulated...
https://gigaom.com/2013/12/08/so-you-want-to-fly-drones-heres-what-the-law-says/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/11/16/no-fly-zone-rules-bent-for-disney/

 

[DisneyGentleman]

Just an FYI for everyone. The problem that closed the system down was not found because something bad happened. It was noticed, shut down, fixed, and reopened so that nothing bad WOULD happen. This WAS proactive.

Facts take all the fun out of uneducated, non-factual opinions.

Keep them coming!