Wow! Monorail Orange.

Biff215

Biff215

Well-Known Member
We've been on 4 monorails in the past 2 days, and 2 had to be shut down and have the computer rebooted. Is this now common while they work the kinks out?
 
C

COProgressFan

Well-Known Member
Biff215 said:
We've been on 4 monorails in the past 2 days, and 2 had to be shut down and have the computer rebooted. Is this now common while they work the kinks out?
Click to expand...

Happened to us last week too a few times. It resulted in a 2 or 3 minute delay at the station.

Bigger issue for me was the two rides (I forgot which color trains) which had non-functional a/c (which has been addressed in this thread and elsewhere). For those who are doubting this situation, and have argued that the reason it was hot was because of the weather, or the fact that doors were open too long, I can attest those arguments are not valid. I'm tall, and standing on the monorail can feel the air blowing from the vents in the center ceiling area. On every other train, the air blows out nice and cold. On those two trains/cars, the air was warm recirculated air. The a/c condenser unit was clearly not working.
 
larryz

larryz

I'm Just A Tourist!
Premium Member
Goofyernmost said:
It sure seems like people are expecting perfection and cannot accept that A/C is a mechanical function, that might have broken just before you got on the monorail OR those trains, especially the hotel monorails, stop often with both doors open in the middle of summer in Florida, then load on a huge number of bodies all functioning at 98.6 degrees F only to do it all over again in just a couple of minutes. How fast or how powerful do we expect the AC to be to keep up with it. It's not all the time anyway, but, during high ridership times (opening/closing) I don't think god could keep it cool in those things. So many times the diagnosis if A/C broken is just nature against man situations. Nature usually wins.

Second point... in line with what was just mentioned... Florida, July, High Heat, thousands and thousands of sweaty, smelly people get on an off the monorail constantly, yet you expect it to smell like a rose. Also to repeat something I point out often. The smell that is being mistaken for urine or some other disgusting thing is the way those trains have been smelling since the first one ran. Whether it's the carpeting, or more likely the disinfecting chemical that is used daily to keep you whiners healthy is not really relevant, but, people are not generally peeing in the corner of the inside of a train car, in fact there are hardly any corners there to begin with.

Third point... can we get of the ridiculous notion that nothing ever goes wrong with mechanical things, not every thing is a lack of newness or lack of maintenance and not every thing can be predictable. One piece of a monorail, which appeared to catch on something, was torn off and fell to the ground and all of a sudden it's OMG the sky is falling. Get a grip folks. Those trains would never have run for thirty years without intensive maintenance, in fact it is likely that every part of them, with the exception of the passenger compartments have been replaced multiple times during that 30 year span. They are probably as new as one off the showroom floor in many areas.

Forth point... The monorails at WDW are nothing more then mass transit. They are multi-tasking as an attraction as a double benefit, but, never lose sight of the fact that are to take you from TTC, the MK hotels to MK and to and from Epcot. Just a fun way to do it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we expect A/C to work. There are 12 trains. If A/C breaks down on one, take it offline and get a working unit into the circuit.
And the smell is why God made Febreze...
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
larryz said:
Yeah, we expect A/C to work. There are 12 trains. If A/C breaks down on one, take it offline and get a working unit into the circuit.
And the smell is why God made Febreze...
Click to expand...
And unless you stayed on it all day, you do not know if they did that or they didn't or if the other trains are available that day or that moment. The smell is also why God made personal hygiene and Right Guard!
 
Figment2005

Figment2005

Well-Known Member
COProgressFan said:
Happened to us last week too a few times. It resulted in a 2 or 3 minute delay at the station.

Bigger issue for me was the two rides (I forgot which color trains) which had non-functional a/c (which has been addressed in this thread and elsewhere). For those who are doubting this situation, and have argued that the reason it was hot was because of the weather, or the fact that doors were open too long, I can attest those arguments are not valid. I'm tall, and standing on the monorail can feel the air blowing from the vents in the center ceiling area. On every other train, the air blows out nice and cold. On those two trains/cars, the air was warm recirculated air. The a/c condenser unit was clearly not working.
Click to expand...
Each car has 2 ac units. If both units are working then the car should be able to keep up even with the doors open, key word is should. However, if one unit goes down but the other is still cooling it can be kept cold as long as the doors don't remain open for too long. The problem occurs primarily on the resort loop since the doors are open almost as long as they are closed. Its very noticable if you are on the side without the working unit, but the other side is indeed still sending out cold air. It comes from the vents on the two ends of the car and not the middle.

If someone reports a warm car the cast members will check both ends to see if one of the units or none of the units are cooling. If they are both warm the car will be emptied until further notice. Unfortunately a car with no ac is not enough to send it back to shop unless it's an operating cab ac. I know this may seem unfair to the guests, but while a guest may average 10 minutes in a car, the pilot can be in there for hours. Their ac takes priority since it then becomes a true safety concern.
 
monothingie

monothingie

Nakatomi Plaza Christmas Eve 1988. Never Forget.
Premium Member
IMG_4666.JPG
Biff215 said:
We've been on 4 monorails in the past 2 days, and 2 had to be shut down and have the computer rebooted. Is this now common while they work the kinks out?
Click to expand...

We had it happen to us yesterday. Disney Transportation had it covered.
 
Bender123

Bender123

Well-Known Member
jbolen2 said:
Do they physically have a hour or mile meter on them? I figured they had several million miles on them considering the laps they make each day 365 a year.
Click to expand...

28 years (over 10,000 days). That would be an average of over 100 miles a day. The system has millions upon millions of miles on it, but the individual trains are likely getting near that number if not over it.
 
D

Driver

Well-Known Member
CM's call them trains because that's what they are. To get one back to the round house is an intense multi step operation that typically requires them to change to a different beam. This is normally done way up world drive past Space Mtn. (opposite side of the road). To swap one out just to change a light bulb during busy times is just not feasible. As already mentioned it is a mechanical device. Things do break unexpectedly even with good maintenance. If you drive by the round house there are typically a few trains in there at any given time being serviced , cleaned etc. They all go thru multi checks everyday before they go into service. Same with busses the difference is with a bus if there is a failure it can be emptied and swapped out way easier and no one is the wiser. If one bus is down no one will notice. If a train is down it's a mess. In the end busses are the unsung heroes because when the doo doo hits the fan the busses p/u the slack. Even though people like to complain about them they are the muscle that keep people moving.
 

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