Monorail accident

mrsmith9 · Oct 12, 2015

DVC Mike said:
I wonder when they're going to replace the Mark VI monorails. Haven't they been in service since 1989?

That's 26 years.

lockedoutlogic said:
Transportation Systems are just like any other machines, cars, computers, etc...
You can replace every single part individually 10x over...but the machine will fail at some point...it's never as solid as when it's built as a whole...
So yeah...Disneyland is on set 4 in 60 years and the "ugly little brother" is on 2 nearing 45....
Can't reinvent physics, gravity, the weather, and electrical engineering

The Seattle Monorail has been in continuous service since 1962.

And at Disneyland, the trains you see today are all the 1969 Mark III chassis that have simply had new bodies attached.

The trains do not need to be replaced, they simply need to be maintained.

rteetz · Oct 12, 2015

mrsmith9 said:
The trains do not need to be replaced, they simply need to be maintained.

Bingo!

cranbiz · Oct 12, 2015

It's a regular ladder truck (my mistake on it being a tower), made by E-One.

Reedy Creek Fire Rescue truck 31

lockedoutlogic · Oct 12, 2015

mrsmith9 said:
The Seattle Monorail has been in continuous service since 1962.

And at Disneyland, the trains you see today are all the 1969 Mark III chassis that have simply had new bodies attached.

The trains do not need to be replaced, they simply need to be maintained.

You're thoughts on the effects of the climate?

rteetz · Oct 12, 2015

lockedoutlogic said:
You're thoughts on the effects of the climate?

The climate I'm Florida definitely has its toll on these trains but if they were maintained better they at least wouldn't have problems as often.

WDW Fan from TPA · Oct 12, 2015

I was at MK yesterday with my kids and we took the monorail to the ticketing center around 8:15pm. So they had them up and running again pretty quickly. edit: Whoops, thought this happened this past Sunday.

marinejjh · Oct 12, 2015

Is the Fire Dept a full time dept. or volunteer on call. 2 to 3 hours seems like a long time for a simple evacuation operation.

rteetz · Oct 12, 2015

marinejjh said:
Is the Fire Dept a full time dept. or volunteer on call. 2 to 3 hours seems like a long time for a simple evacuation operation.

Fairly positive they are full time. They were on seen right away it didn't take 2-3 hours for them to get there. They tried towing the monorail first but that didn't work.

KYMickey · Oct 12, 2015

marinejjh said:
Is the Fire Dept a full time dept. or volunteer on call. 2 to 3 hours seems like a long time for a simple evacuation operation.

There Are 100% paid full-time. If you look at the website they have a total complement of 194 members including officers, FF, medics, inspectors, etc. They staff 4 stations.

If you go look at the video about them at Station 1 it looks like they have a all-wheel-drive scissors lift truck in that station which I'm assuming is used for monorail evacuations also.

marinejjh · Oct 12, 2015

I'm sure they are full time, it just seems like they would've had a plan in place with the age of the system. I work for a fire dept. and we train quite a bit so we dont have to think about things when they happen.

rteetz · Oct 12, 2015

marinejjh said:
I'm sure they are full time, it just seems like they would've had a plan in place with the age of the system. I work for a fire dept. and we train quite a bit so we dont have to think about things when they happen.

They do have a plan and like its been said they were in seen right away however it was not an emergency situation no one was in danger, injured, and there was no fire. They tried towing the monorail but the brakes were locked. They then moved onto evacuation via the scissor lift. They have to do it one car at a time so it can take a while.

marinejjh · Oct 12, 2015

I figured they had a plan, too many people there every day not to.

DisneyDude71 · Oct 13, 2015

They do have a scissor lift truck. A good sized one. It seems it was pretty smooth someone posted a video (it's on a site I don't know if i can name) from Saturday while they where in the monorail, as this apparatus was evacuating that car or the car in front of them and is seemed rather calm from the background noise.

middlechild · Oct 13, 2015

There is a web site, https://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/ that tracks improvements and transportation blue sky type projects. Replace the monorail with a pod car system that allows guests to swap magic band and go to MK, or DS would be awesome.

7series · Oct 13, 2015

DisneyDude71 said:
I agree a stair truck would not be able to get everywhere.

They could mount a stairway on something like a Ram 3500 4x4 and it would be able to get almost anywhere. They could even pick up a 6x6 deuce-and-a-half from the government for cheap and refurb it with a stairway or scissor lift. There are options.

Gaston+Bell · Oct 13, 2015

would they be able to get the people out if they were out over one of the bodies of water?

BagOLaughs · Oct 13, 2015

I'm kinda surprised they don't have a little tug for this sort of thing. You could crane it onto the beam as close as you can either side of the stalled monorail and tow it to a station. I'm just speculating but surely that would be easier than getting everyone out via ladder truck.

It probably wouldn't alleviate the wait time the passengers had to endure though. 3 hours in a monorail would not be fun at all!

BagOLaughs · Oct 13, 2015

rteetz said:
towing the monorail but the brakes were locked

Haha, so you can ignore my previous post... I missed the answer on my read through.

JoWiJo · Oct 13, 2015

middlechild said:
There is a web site, https://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/ that tracks improvements and transportation blue sky type projects. Replace the monorail with a pod car system that allows guests to swap magic band and go to MK, or DS would be awesome.

I don't even want to think about the suspended system. It shares many of the same weaknesses of a monorail plus is even more impractical in terms of evacuation.

I do believe the day will eventually come where they need to reconsider having the monorail. Those beams and their supports may have been built with longevity in mind, but that doesn't mean they will last forever. They will eventually need to replace a section of track somewhere to keep the trains operational, then another, and Disney will then soon be stuck with the choices of slowly replacing the sections one by one with long downtime for track repair, tearing down the whole classic WDW icon and rely on busses as the transportation of the future, or split the difference and simply rebuild the system.

On that third option, that would be the time to consider other systems. Your post reminded me of my April 1 post where I joked that they would be replaced in a few years with a maglev pod system tied to MB's. Honestly, I don't see that happening. But I can see a maglev pod system with pods the size of vans or small busses with predetermined round-trip destination points. And with a rebuild of that sort, Disney could build an evacuation sidewalk at the same time, substantially easing situations like this.

But how long it will be before Disney will ever consider replacing what they now have is anyone's guess. That could be another decade or three. Or more.

DisneyDude71 · Oct 13, 2015

There's your tug.

Monorail accident

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