Myth Maker
Active Member
Don't give them any ideas, this might be a new up-charge opportunity... travel to Epcot like never before.
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News Monorail Red in motion with guests on board and doors open
- Thread starter ptaylor
- Start date
Don't give them any ideas, this might be a new up-charge opportunity... travel to Epcot like never before.
Randyland
Member
a door not closing completely, as being blocked by something, would result in the door reopening.... It looks to me that the 1 door did just that, but failed to alert the Pilot... Or, perhaps, this is one of the new Pilot-less operation Monorails, and the Auto Pilot simply is not set up for such a situation. Either way, it is clearly an unacceptable event, however, it is far less of a disaster then when a Monorail burned an entire car down to the melted frame while on the Epcot Rail.
msg7
Well-Known Member
Here's a small update on the monorail rumor. It's nothing much. Just posted it if any of you guys are interested.
http://www.screamscape.com/html/walt_disney_world_resort.htm#EpcotResort
http://www.screamscape.com/html/walt_disney_world_resort.htm#EpcotResort
jakeman
Well-Known Member
It just reads like a complete back peddle, that's all.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
I could just stop following Magic and read them. It is a roundup of all the rumors swirling here minus the epcomono closure.
s8film40
Well-Known Member
I would hope they would keep the same audio. There's no reason at all to change it. As for the design I would like to see something new. The retro style of the Mark VII's is a good fit for being in Tomorrowland, but I would rather see something like the Innovia 200 design but perhaps with the nose extended out a little to keep some of the original Disney style.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
I didn't say news, the rumors they repost are speculation in most cases.
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
Yeah. I remember the time they said giving full animatronic and special effect updates to Snow White, Pinocchio and Mr. Toad at Disneyland for the 60th. That TOTALLY happened
“There are no plans to end the (monorail) system.” -Walt Disney World Communications Dept.
That's all I needed to hear!
That's all I needed to hear!
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EPICOT
Well-Known Member
And all the monorails stations are in hidden locations around the park!
c-one
Well-Known Member
So all we've learned here is that the Epcot Monorail will not last as long as the Acropolis. Got it.
Disone
Well-Known Member
That reads like WDW communications reached out to screamscape, unsolicited, to correct the information, "We (WDW) wanted to reach out to you (Screamscape) to let you know this is not true".
If so that speaks volumes. They could have just continued to say nothing or when asked, reply with the standard "At this time we have nothing to announce.... " Kind of like with TOT to Guardians. But to reach out to a rumor site to correct it.... wow.
So great, I am excited they are keeping the system, now if they could just get new trains.
ChrisFL
Premium Member
I'm not a fan of the exteriors, however they do definitely fit the "kawaii" aesthetic in Japan I think
Rob562
Well-Known Member
Since we're offering "blue sky" ideas in this thread now, here's mine (which I remember discussing with a few friends, but don't think I ever posted on here).
So we know at the very least the monorail *trains* really need to be replaced. For the moment let's assume the monorail beams themselves are in good enough shape to last for the foreseeable future. Now what if we take those existing beams and do something a little different with them? The new gondola system and its crawl-through-the-station-and-individual-car-dispatch setup got me wondering if they'd be able to take that general idea and adapt it to the monorails.
(I'll admit up-front that my idea might need a little tweaking on the resort line where they have to enter and exit the same side, my overall concept is more toward the dual-sided traffic flow of the Express and Epcot lines)
My idea is to have a fleet of individual monorail-like cars that can drive along the existing beams. These won't be small 4-person cars from the past PRT discussions, or the 8-10 person gondolas, but rather something the size of a single monorail car now, or one car of the automated trams at MCO. The platforms would be outfitted with wide, slow moving conveyors.
As they approach the station, the cars form a chain of cars that slowly crawl through the station similar to the Peoplemover. The doors on the exit side open first, and Guests exit out onto the belt on that side and eventually off of it and onto the solid platform. Then, perhaps 1/4 of the way through the station, the entrance doors open and a CM at the front of the queue starts ushering people onto the moving walkway. A CM stands on the belt at the car to direct people into the car. When everyone's inside, he walks up the belt to the next car. A final CM walks the belt around the area where the doors close. The doors close, and as the car reaches the end of the platform it speeds up and heads on its way.
Just like the gondolas, you have a vehicles departing relatively quickly, but because you have multiple cars moving through the station at one time you have the entire length of the platform to get people into a car. If one car dispatched every 30 seconds, that'd be 6 cars every three minutes. If a single car was the same capacity as a monorail car, you'd need a monorail train leaving the station every 3 minutes to match that capacity.
Originally I thought perhaps the moving belts might be overkill, but then I realized that the cars could be built with self-deploying wheelchair ramps that are designed with the moving walkway in mind. As the car enters the station, the CM presses a button to tell the car that there's a wheelchair for that car. Perhaps on the Resort line they can also indicate what stop the wheelchair will be going to. At the next station, the car knows to deploy the exit ramp automatically.
I realize that breakdowns are one place where this system might be a bit more vulnerable over the current monorail train setup. If one train breaks down and they need to bring out a tractor for a tow, the other trains can generally be shuffled around to make way for the tractor to get to the disabled train. It's a bit difficult if you have a lot of single cars out on the beams. They'd have to look into something where the car behind a disabled car can crawl up behind it, come in contact with it (obviously designed to do that) and give it a push to the next station.
Thoughts?
-Rob
So we know at the very least the monorail *trains* really need to be replaced. For the moment let's assume the monorail beams themselves are in good enough shape to last for the foreseeable future. Now what if we take those existing beams and do something a little different with them? The new gondola system and its crawl-through-the-station-and-individual-car-dispatch setup got me wondering if they'd be able to take that general idea and adapt it to the monorails.
(I'll admit up-front that my idea might need a little tweaking on the resort line where they have to enter and exit the same side, my overall concept is more toward the dual-sided traffic flow of the Express and Epcot lines)
My idea is to have a fleet of individual monorail-like cars that can drive along the existing beams. These won't be small 4-person cars from the past PRT discussions, or the 8-10 person gondolas, but rather something the size of a single monorail car now, or one car of the automated trams at MCO. The platforms would be outfitted with wide, slow moving conveyors.
As they approach the station, the cars form a chain of cars that slowly crawl through the station similar to the Peoplemover. The doors on the exit side open first, and Guests exit out onto the belt on that side and eventually off of it and onto the solid platform. Then, perhaps 1/4 of the way through the station, the entrance doors open and a CM at the front of the queue starts ushering people onto the moving walkway. A CM stands on the belt at the car to direct people into the car. When everyone's inside, he walks up the belt to the next car. A final CM walks the belt around the area where the doors close. The doors close, and as the car reaches the end of the platform it speeds up and heads on its way.
Just like the gondolas, you have a vehicles departing relatively quickly, but because you have multiple cars moving through the station at one time you have the entire length of the platform to get people into a car. If one car dispatched every 30 seconds, that'd be 6 cars every three minutes. If a single car was the same capacity as a monorail car, you'd need a monorail train leaving the station every 3 minutes to match that capacity.
Originally I thought perhaps the moving belts might be overkill, but then I realized that the cars could be built with self-deploying wheelchair ramps that are designed with the moving walkway in mind. As the car enters the station, the CM presses a button to tell the car that there's a wheelchair for that car. Perhaps on the Resort line they can also indicate what stop the wheelchair will be going to. At the next station, the car knows to deploy the exit ramp automatically.
I realize that breakdowns are one place where this system might be a bit more vulnerable over the current monorail train setup. If one train breaks down and they need to bring out a tractor for a tow, the other trains can generally be shuffled around to make way for the tractor to get to the disabled train. It's a bit difficult if you have a lot of single cars out on the beams. They'd have to look into something where the car behind a disabled car can crawl up behind it, come in contact with it (obviously designed to do that) and give it a push to the next station.
Thoughts?
-Rob
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RollerCoaster
Well-Known Member
Screamscape is entertaining, but the accuracy of the content varies greatly. Usually when there is editorial it is absolutely wrong.
esskay
Well-Known Member
They are also compatible with the WDW beams, although I *think* the power setup is a bit different. They are based on the Disney-designed trains (they bought the IP from Disney years ago).
s8film40
Well-Known Member
The 200's use the same beam dimensions. In fact some of the Vegas beam way is still the same beam way they used for the old Mark IV trains from Disney (Lime & Coral). The 300's use a larger beam.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
The INNOVIA 300 beam is slightly larger than the Walt Disney World beams.
http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/TPBeams.html