Disney world Florida, said to be the happiest place on earth, as long as you ignore the
more unpalatable aspects of the company, you know the sweatshops they use in China and
Bangladesh, amongst others, that use child labour.
Their less than nice working conditions for cast members in the theme parks and the fact
they laid off thousands of staff during the recent pandemic, i.e. the worst time to be
made unemployed in recent history….. especially for service industry workers.
But kids love their tv shows and films, hell even my own offspring love Disney products,
it’s like eating doughnuts.
We all know they are bad for you but damn they taste so good.
(Show doughnuts)
I think I’ve gotten a little side tracked here, excuse the pun, well personally one
of my favourite parts of Disney world when I went there in the early 2000’s was the
monorail.
Such a futuristic mode of transport, and to a very young plainly John I thought this must
be the future of passenger travel.
But I was a child and thus an idiot.
There are massive inherent downsides to such a method of transport and they didn’t even
throw an elephant off their new age method of transport.
There are much better videos on YouTube explaining this.
But you might ask, why am I going on a tirade about Disney and monorails?
This is a channel devoted to the folly of mankind in the form of its bugger ups.
Well my captive slice of youtube audience, the happiest place on earth hasn’t escaped
its fair share of disasters, and one such happened in 2009 on the same thing that a
young plainly john admired so much.
When I went to Disney world I wanted so much to ride in the front cab but sadly every time
I got there someone, else had beat me to it, but in hindsight maybe this was a good thing…
Well that’s my Introduction let’s get started.
I'm John and you are watching Plainly difficult.
Background
It is the 1960s and a new Disney theme park is being planned, the project had started
in 1959 initially as an extension to the already established Anaheim resort in California.
Quickly it became apparent that maybe a completely blank slate would offer a unique opportunity
to have full control over the area surrounding a park, the original Disneyland had become
a bit hemmed in by local businesses which were trading off the popularity of resort.
Market research has shown somewhere closer to the east coast would serve the company
well and after searching a site in Florida was settled upon.
Now I’m going to speed past the land acquisition part of Disney world but it is very interesting
and worth looking up as Disney were very sneaky in how they bought up all the required space.
Walt Disney was a bit of a transport fan to put it lightly, and as such when the Anaheim
park was built he managed to incorporate several methods of transport.
One of which was the monorail, and was a pet project of Disney’s.
as such the new Florida park would get a similar treatment.
Originally the Florida site was intended to showcase a future city concept with futuristic
rapid transit at the forefront; this was called the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow"
or Epcot.
This would change after Walt Disney’s death in 1966 but Epcot would open but to a much
more watered down version to the actual living working city envisioned in the parks early
concept stages.
But even though not a futurist experiment the park still needed transportation to connect
up hotels, car parks and the park itself.
This was done by an intricate fleet of trackless trams, buses and the monorail system.
When Disney world opened in October 1971, the monorail system had 4 stops, this was
expanded in October 1982 when EPCOT was opened, the.
The Network's final addition was in 1988 with Grand Floridian station.
The system was electrified via the beam which provided 600v via a bus bar.
The monorail has a track length of 14.7 miles consisting of two routes in which 3 services
operate, to connect the routes switching beams are used and a spur line is employed for access
to the Maintenance depot in the magic kingdom.
The trains used on the network were called mark 6 and Measured in at 62m/203ft6in in
length at 42 metric tons each Mark VI and can carry up to 360 passengers.
Now with a fairly complex network that encompasses stopping and express services, effective train
control is required and this is my favorite part of one of these videos.
Signalling my Geeky Guilty pleasure
The monorail has actually quite a sophisticated form of proprietary kind of moving block signaling
system called MAPO.
The design of the system was paid for from royalties from mary poppins hence ma -po.
Even though the dumb name it’s no Mickey mouse signaling system.
The track or beam is split up into multiple sections approximately 7-10 supporting pilons
apart which is about 500 ft.
These form a block section, and transmitters on the beam transmit frequencies to a train,
this will tell it the state of the track ahead.
This is displayed to the driver or pilot as Disney calls them on a display as either a
Green signal which means at least 3 blocks are clear a yellow 2 blocks are clear and
red the next block is occupied.
If the train goes past a red the emergency brakes are applied, requiring the driver to
use an override button.
In the UK railway talk, proceed, caution and stop.
The system when used like this works pretty well if a driver gets a red more than twice
in 2 years then they are taken off of driver duties, and is thus fairly well managed.
But the system does need to be overridden during operation some Times, for example to
go onto the spur to the maintenance building, signal failure and for reversing movements.
The latter of these operations was a common form of working at the start and end of the
working day.
This is to work the trains to and from the maintenance facility which is accessed via
the express beam.
This is fairly straightforward for the trains already on this beam, but what about the trains
on the separate epcot beam, well there is a switching beam provided requiring trains
to proceed past the ticket and transport center station and continue so that the rear of the
train is clear of switch 9.
The move is given under the authority of The monorail central coordinator, via radio stating
the following: “Normal visual to pylon 30, hold and notify.”
Because each pylon is numbered and identifiable, trains can be moved under degraded working
bypassing Mapo.
Although the initial movement to the pylon clear of the switch was done under the full
protection of the signaling system, any following train would have to override the mapo system
as a train standing at pylon 30 would still be occupying the block section.
Which to me seems like a very dangerous situation.
And this was the situation that was about to unfold in the early hours of July 5, 2009.
The disaster a simple mistake deadly results
It's the end of a long day of operation for the Disneyworld monorail system, the parks
stay open to roughly 11pm, as restaurants evening events provide entertainment for the
park's guests.
Like with any other transit system in the world, operation continues well into the evening
and early morning as guests make their way back to their cars, hotels or onto other public
transport.
As such monorails Pink, Purple, Silver, Red, and Coral were working on the system, as the
numbers of passengers dwindled, the system gradually began to shut down for the night.
The express beam runs roughly an hour after park closure, but the epcot beam continues
for around 2, this allows the express and resort monorails to be worked to stabling
points, before the epcot trains need to undertake their reversing moves.
At around 01:53 am the central coordinator gave the authority for Pink monorail to maneuver
itself to pylon 30 for its reversing move.
Usually the coordinator worked from a building on the Epcot line side of the ticket center,
there they had switch position indicators and a cctv feed.
But due to staffing issues the role was being filled by a manager who had set up in a nearby
restraint using his phone for communication and thus had no access to the control room
equipment.
Behind it were Purple, and Coral monorails still running on the epcot beam.
Purple had approximately 6 passengers on board and was making its way to the ticket and transportation
center.
Because pink was in the block section ahead purple was instructed to override the mapo
system to enter the station.
Once pink had cleared the switch beam, the driver informed the central controller that
he was clear and awaiting further instructions.
The controller then contacted the shop panel operator, this person was responsible for
power distribution and switch operation.
The actions in orde the operator needs to take consist of Select the switch beam on
the control panel Cut power to the beam Order the change of alignment and the Confirm command
and re-establish power once the track is in the correct position.
If these actions aren’t undertaken in quick succession the system times out meaning the
operator would have to restart the process.
But this time out would also cause the panels screen to change windows and revert back to
its normal window.
The operator was in the process of setting up the switch for monorail pink when he received
a radio call from monorail silver, the driver was reporting an issue with his train as it
entered the workshop.
This led the operator to move away from the control panel to make a note of this in his
log book.
Again another radio call distracted the operator this time from monorail red as it was approaching
the Maintenance facility and was requesting further instructions.
The operator replied hold outside the facility.
This was at roughly 0156, the operator returned to the panel which had now timed out, thus
returning the screen window to the main display.
The operator assumed that he had completed the switch alignment, restored traction current
and then radioed to central control that he had set up the route for monorail pink.
He was provided a cctv feed to see the switch but he failed to check.
The switch had not actually been moved and any reversing move of monorail pink would
send it back the way it came, the station concourse.
The same that purple was pulling into.
Sometimes Reversing moves, undertaken on the monorail, weren’t requested by the central
coordinator for the driver to change ends or have a member of staff in the rear cab,
as such when pink was given the authority to reverse the driver wouldn’t have had
a visual on the state of the switch.
Pink moved backwards as purple entered the station, seeing the imminent collision the
driver of purple attempted to reverse but pink's rear cab slammed into purple's leading
end crushing the two together.
The impact pushed both trains now crushed together down the platform.
The driver of the pink monorail felt and heard the collision, he stopped moving and upon
realising that he was not on the spur line, knew it was another train that was the source
of the bump and noise.
Staff on the station evacuated the passengers off of the purple monorail and attempted to
rescue the driver, but no sign of life could be seen.
Not long after, the first emergency responders were on the scene and the driver of purple
was found to be dead.
Unsurprising when you compare the before and after pictures, and also all too common on
all train types the cab was beyond the chassis, essentially making it the trans crumple zone.
The passengers and the driver of the pink monorail weren’t injured.
The cost was thought to be upwards of $24 million in damages.
Aftermath.
Even though the system resides on privately owned disney property, investigations of any
accident on the monorail comes under the purview of the NTSB.
As such an investigation was launched, and they would find some worrying operational
norms for the Disney monorail.
In the subsequent report into the accident, the NTSb discovered that:
“Walt Disney World Resort’s procedures for the central coordinator did not specify
that the central coordinator should observe the display at the Concourse Tower when directing
the monorail movements.
Procedures also did not require that the central coordinator be in the Concourse Tower when
directing monorail movements.”
It was also found that it was down to the coordinators discretion if the train driver
needed to change ends before a reversing movement.
Which wasn't often requested because it was quicker to just back the train up.
As well as observing the switch movement on the CCTV the panel operator was not compulsory
apart from making sure it is clear of a train before moving the switch.
The operator even said in an interview.
“They said just make sure that there’s no train on that switch before you move it.”
The blame for the accident was due to 3 factors, 1 the coordinator not observing the movement
and authorizing the driver of pink to back up the train without changing ends, 2 the
panel operator not actually moving the switch and not checking on the cctv, and finally
walt disney world itself, for its terrible safety practices that allowed all of these
awful operating decisions to become the standard way of working.
The operator of pink monorail was absolved of all blame due to the movement of the train
into the station concourse and the spur were virtually identical, and that he was concentrating
on not going above 15mph, which would be a safety violation when overriding the MAPO
signaling system.
Disney world enacted post accident multiple changes to ensure that everyone is where they
should be in the case of switching beams, the driver in the correct cab, coordinator
in the control room, and the panel operator to confirm the switch movement.
This accident was the reason why you can’t go in the driver's cab anymore.
Oh and I think sadly the system was made fully automatic in 2014, drivers remain in the cab
but the train start control is now handled by platform staff.
Now where would you rate this on my disaster and legacy scales, i'm going to say 4 and
5 but also maybe a 4 if you're not bothered about riding in the drivers cab.
All videos on the channel are creative commons Attribution-ShareAlike.
Plainly difficult videos are produced by me John, in a suburban
Southeast corner of London, uk.
This channel is made possible by my patrons, youtube members, who all get early access
to my videos.
I'd also like to thank my paypal donors.
Help the channel grow by liking commenting and subscribing!
Check out my twitter for all sorts of photos and odd and sods, as well as hints on future
videos!
All that's left to say is thank you for watching!
https://mx-schroeder.medium.com/unhappiest-place-on-earth-the-2009-walt-disney-world-resort-monorail-collision-f4b2b5758f5c https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RAB1107.pdf