Monorail Yellow Emergency Hatch and Space Mountain Issues

[beachclubbasics]

True. True. I guess one of the other surprising things is how dirty the hatch looked. You would think that they would at least maintain it since it seems very easy to get them opened and from what I assume by the look of the CM's something that happens often.

Who am I kidding they haven't really been taking care of the insides of the cabin let alone the inside of an escape hatch. The train I was on this morning was dirty and it was only 8:30AM!

There sems to be a lot of monorail problems lately. A week ago I saw two monorials pulled from service due to breakdowns within an hour of each other and recently the timing seems to be off....lots of holding patterns going on waiting for the train in front to leave the station.

They seem to be overfilling the cars as well. Several times we were standing room only to the point where people were in danger of falling out if the doors opened. I took to driving from park to park by week's end...faster and less crowded.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Are there any new Monorail trains or new model in the works? If the current trains have been in service as long as their predecessor, one would think that they'd be planning for new models. Then again, not for me to decide or find the logic. :shrug:

 

[BSikor]

Are there any new Monorail trains or new model in the works? If the current trains have been in service as long as their predecessor, one would think that they'd be planning for new models. Then again, not for me to decide or find the logic. :shrug:

I heard that there was a new design in the works for Disneyland in Californina and that there might also be one coming for us here in Florida but I will believe it when I see it.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Yep yep yep. I can't even begin to fathom the cost of replacing those Monorail trains. Wowzers!

 

[JML42691]

I heard that there was a new design in the works for Disneyland in Californina and that there might also be one coming for us here in Florida but I will believe it when I see it.

If I had to guess (even though I am probably completely wrong), then I would guess that Disney is going to test out and see how the like the Mack VII models or whatever they are going to be called in DisneyLand. If Disney is satisfied with the ones in California then I would expect to see the new models in Florida soon after.

I wouldn't mind seeing the system upgraded to be (nearly) fully automatic like the ones in Vegas.

 

[majortom1981]

hmmq

In regards to space mountain.

This ride really needs a refurb.

When i was at disney world in july i got stuck on space mountain. When I mean stuck I mean stuck. The bar in the car would not come up again at the end of the ride. The ride op stated he has never seen that before. I was tuck in the back stage area in the car for about a half an hour. They actually had to pry me out with a crow bar. I was given 12 anytime fastpasses for my troubles.They are lucky that a coaster enthusiast got stuck. i didnt say anything because I liked seeing the maintanance portion of space mountain. (the mickjeey thing with all the pennies was cool)

This ride needs a refurb. I dont care if they dont change it but they need to do some major maitnanance to the ride

 

[lilredfoxie]

Last year when I was there, the monorail had a similar issue with those ceiling panels dropping down, they also had water leaking onto the carpet behind the seats in one of them when I was there last year.

 

[minnie2000]

I've often wondered, if there was a fire on the monorail, how would they evacuate everyone quickly? Its too high to just jump out - so what would happen? And has it ever happened?

 

[uno rail]

I believe that everyone evacuates through the roof, walks to the front/back of the train, and the driver attaches a rope from the roof down the nose to the track and everyone walks down the windshield while holding onto the rope and onto the track, where they walk away from the train. (run on sentence?)

 

[daverube]

Thanks for the lingo info, everyone!!

dave

 

[Slowjack]

I've often wondered, if there was a fire on the monorail, how would they evacuate everyone quickly? Its too high to just jump out - so what would happen? And has it ever happened?

As someone else said, you get on the roof, repel down the front windshield, and walk the beam. The obvious glitch in this are guests who are unable to walk.

Yes, a monorail has caught fire--Monorail Silver in 1985, on the Epcot beam. No one was seriously injured, and I don't actually know if the emergency evac procedure had to be used, or whether the fire spread slowly enough that people were evacuated using cranes.

That fire started in a wheel well on a Mark IV; note that the current Mark VI trains have heat detectors by the wheels.

 

[BSikor]

In regards to space mountain.

This ride really needs a refurb.

When i was at disney world in july i got stuck on space mountain. When I mean stuck I mean stuck. The bar in the car would not come up again at the end of the ride.

This happened to me. It took them a few moments to get the bar up but they did without sending the car back to the maint. bay. They had to pull and jimmy it for it to open.

I believe that everyone evacuates through the roof, walks to the front/back of the train, and the driver attaches a rope from the roof down the nose to the track and everyone walks down the windshield while holding onto the rope and onto the track, where they walk away from the train. (run on sentence?)

I have never heard that. I know everone ends up on the roof but I have never heard about the rope. Can we get confirmation on this?

 

[JML42691]

I believe that everyone evacuates through the roof, walks to the front/back of the train, and the driver attaches a rope from the roof down the nose to the track and everyone walks down the windshield while holding onto the rope and onto the track, where they walk away from the train. (run on sentence?)

You've hit the nail to the head on this one. In a monorail evacuation, people climb out the roof hatches onto the roof where they proceed to the end of the train where the driver is (unless if that is where the situation is) where they scale the windshield of the train down to the track where they walk/crawl down the track away from the train where they wait to be rescued or go to the nearest station if it is close by. This would only be done as a last measure (major fire; not a contained fire in a single cab like in 1985).

I would hope that Disney would be able to install an evac platform between the rails (like in Vegas) as you couldn't pay me enough to walk down a track several dozen feet high with two potentially live electricity lines next to me.

 

[JustPlainBill]

I would hope that Disney would be able to install an evac platform between the rails (like in Vegas) as you couldn't pay me enough to walk down a track several dozen feet high with two potentially live electricity lines next to me.

Exactly...how would people juggling babies and small children and the elderly even hope to accomplish this? If the fall doesn't kill you, the jolt of high voltage most certainly would, maybe they turn off the electricity? When I was going to the MK last June I noticed the deterioration of the monorail cars as well, air conditioning not working, water leaking inside from the ceiling, carpet and upholstry dirty and/or torn. This problem was compounded by people leaving their trash behind. At least twice we had to exit the train to take another because the one we were riding was being taken out of service, monorail pink was the worst of them. I much felt like was was back riding the subway in Chicago. Before this, I last rode the monorail in 1990 when they were phasing in the new model, the difference between then and now is amazing.

 

[jasondiff]

I would think in a fire situation the first thing they would do is cut the electricity, in case it is an electrical fire. But if I were to fall, I think I might rather have the jolt kill me on the way down than to wait till I hit!

 

[Champion]

I would think in a fire situation the first thing they would do is cut the electricity, in case it is an electrical fire. But if I were to fall, I think I might rather have the jolt kill me on the way down than to wait till I hit!

The 30ish feet from the monorail track at its highest point isn't a fatal fall.

 

[JML42691]

The 20 some odd feet from the monorail track at its highest point isn't a fatal fall.

The track right outside the Contemparary is a lot taller than 20 feet.(see below)

An if you landed on your head from 20 feet it could be fatal.

 

[wdwmomof3]

The track right outside the Contemparary is a lot taller than 20 feet.(see below)

An if you landed on your head from 20 feet it could be fatal.

That looks higher than 20 feet to me. I would freak out!

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

^ yep - the MK IV to VI handover was a long and sometimes painful experience; even after they sorted out the platforms, power supply and hurricane doors. There was something like an 18 month transition period where both versions were running. It was strange being at the T&TC and seeing a MK IV coming in on the express line, with a MK VI waiting on the EPCOT line.

Do you have a pic of that?I woudl love to see it.

 

[Teddi]

Hey Jheyman, I was in line for Splash Mountain on the 9th and right before I stepped on to the ride, something happened and they shut the whole thing down. They gave us all Fastpasses good for anything in the Magic Kingdom. When we got out front, we could still see the cast members rescuing people from the boats that had been stopped. That must be the same power outage you were speaking of!