The Disneyland Monorail opened on June 14,
1959 and was such a popular attraction that there came an operational need to expand the system.
The money the ride generated in its first 3 years was enough to afford upgrades.
The first being to the Monorail barn, the storage area where the monorails were parked at night.
The first Monorail barn was simply a corrugated steel shed beyond the north berm of the park,
and was built in a spot that would later be the loading area for “it’s a small world”.
They built a larger barn further north, and it featured room for 3 new monorails.
The next upgrade came to the trains themselves, the Mark I
monorails red and blue were given upgraded hardware, and an additional passenger car,
making them a 4-car monorail with glass windows as opposed to the open-air cars they used to have.
Then Imagineering finished the project by building the third train which was painted Yellow.
While the original Mark I system broke ground as the first daily operating system in the
western hemisphere, the Mark II system which was introduced in 1961, included an expansion to the
route. Now the trains left the park and traveled across the Disneyland parking lot all the way
to the Disneyland Hotel, picking up guests for a return trip back to Tomorrowland.
Walt was proud to officially call it a mode of transit because, with two stops on the line, it was now operating
with its intended purpose. Because it had a stop at the Disneyland Hotel, that meant it had
to cross West Street twice, making it the first monorail system to cross over a municipal roadway,
and because it leaves Tomorrowland from the east, it had to travel parallel to Harbor Blvd,
making it the first monorail to travel adjacent to a major vehicle thoroughfare.
The monorail now travels a 2 ½ mile journey…it went from 104 beams to nearly 300 beams.
And the beams outside the park have a maximum span of 55 feet. Constructing monorail track is
very expensive, so much so, that in 1966 when the show building for Pirates of the Caribbean
was being built, the ride building would have to be designed into a triangular shape to squeeze
into the area, erecting the southern wall within twelve feet of the monorail beam.
There was one major flaw with the Mark II monorails, while they were an upgraded version,
they still had bugs they inherited from the Mark I design and they broke down a lot. In 1962
a monorail tractor was custom-built for performing operational tasks, by day it could tow stranded
monorails even if the power to the track was out, because the tractor was built with a v12
diesel engine…but by night, the tractors would be used to inspect the beamway and make repairs.
In 1966, The Disneyland Railroad needed a new roundhouse, a bigger one to house all four steam
trains they had. And around that time, due to the frequency of monorail breakdowns and the
increasing use of the tow tractor, it was decided the monorails would need a second tow tractor.
But they didn’t have the room for two tractors and 3 monorails at the current storage barn.
So the budget for the new Railroad roundhouse included money to build a large Monorail barn on
the second floor, and there would be four tracks, with one dedicated to storing both tow tractors.
By the year 1969, the monorail system was upgraded
again to the Mark III design. This time entirely new monorails were built…
four of them, each one with 5-cars, making the trains a total length of 137 feet long.
This meant both monorail stations would need to be lengthened to fit the extra car along the
platform. New traction motors on the Mark III’s meant that the bus bar on the beam would need to
increase its voltage from 300 volts DC to 600. The Mark III design was more economic,
each bogie had 1 drive tire instead of two, and each bogie had only 6 guide wheels instead of 8.
The fourth monorail would need to be parked with the others in the roundhouse, which meant
tractor red and tractor blue would have to be shuffled around every morning so they
could get 3 monorails out for the day. The four Mark III monorails they owned were Red,
Blue, Yellow and Green. The Mark III monorails were a successful design
and with the top-notch maintenance they received, they ran at 96% efficiency,
meaning that they almost never broke down, even until 1987 when they were finally retired.
But that wasn’t the last time we would see the Mark III…For Disneyland’s 35th anniversary in
the year 1990, the front and rear nose cones of the Mark III Monorail Red were fused together
and installed on the chassis of a stretched pickup truck, in order to become
the Mouse-o-rail. The Mouse-o-rail was made into a road-worthy float designed for the annual
Tournament of Roses Parade, and once finished with its run on the parade, was sent around the
country to promote Disneyland’s anniversary. The last we ever saw of the Mouse-o-rail was when it
was repainted in neon colors and placed into the queue of Tomorrowland’s Rocket Rods attraction.
You’d think the next Disneyland Monorail design would be the Mark IV...
and you’d be right, but the Mark IV monorails were never built for Disneyland,
instead they were built for the Walt Disney World Monorail system back in 1971.
So when Disneyland updated its system yet again, it was in the form of the Mark V.
The Mark V monorails were introduced to the system by the year 1987. They weren’t exactly
new monorails, instead, the Mark III monorails were shipped out one by one to be stripped down
to the chassis and re-engineered. The old Mark III monorail cabins had a steel body, but the Mark V’s
had a new lightweight body made of aluminum. Most of the parts from the previous design were re-used
in order to save on cost, but you wouldn’t know it because when the Mark V monorails
began appearing at the park, they had new nose cones and cockpit controls, as well as the fact
that the design was intended to emulate the modern Lear-Jet, which was seen as sleek and futuristic.
One last feature of the Mark V’s was that they included ventilation ducts in each car...
A squirrel cage fan located on both ends of the car drew air from the outside and pumped it
into the cabin to keep guests cool. Each train had a cabin capable of seating 24 passengers,
and if you include seating in the nose cones, then the total capacity of the monorail was 132.
When the Mark V’s were introduced, people noticed that instead of seeing Monorail Yellow come back,
it was instead redone into Monorail Purple. The Mark V’s had a long lifespan at Disneyland,
they started getting phased out in 2007, which was exactly 20 years after they first debuted.
Because of the success of the design, it was decided the Mark VII monorails would be a
simple re-design of the Mark V’s…keep in mind, the chassis of the Mark VII dates back to 1969.
They re-used the Mark V bodies, and re-made the cabin interiors to have island bench seating and
introduced LED lighting into the monorail. The new seating meant each cabin holds only 22 passengers at maximum.
If you include seating in the nose cones, then the total capacity of the train is 122
exactly ten less people than the previous design.
But I must note, the bench seating arrangement was more versatile with guests of different sizes,
and it allowed room for the monorail cabins to fit folded strollers.
The nose cones of the Mark VII’s were designed to be reminiscent of the Mark I monorails
...the interesting thing is that these nose cones were slightly longer and rounded corners
differently than the Mark V. Monorail Red was actually the first Mark VII Monorail introduced
at Disneyland in 2007, but when it pulled into Tomorrowland Station during testing,
the left side of the cockpit nosecone scraped against the corner of the platform,
due in part to the slight turn just before the station. Imagineers immediately brought workers
out to cut off part of the platform corner…it was a cheaper option than redesigning the nose cone.
Monorail Purple never returned to the park after the upgrades.
Disney had decided to cut maintenance costs by taking the fourth monorail out of operation.
With only 3 trains, the tow tractors wouldn’t have to shuffle around every morning.
The Mark VII monorails originally had air conditioning, small AC units were
fitted above the drive tires to supply the cabins with cool air during the hot summers.
They worked wonderfully for about 2 years, but because the AC units were originally designed for
compact cars, they were constantly running beyond capacity and the cost of maintaining them led the
park to decide to stop fixing them, instead, the windows of the cabin would be left open.
However they still let the fans on the air conditioner run, the fans at least pump fresh
air into the cabins on rainy days when the windows are shut. Interestingly…since the nose cones of
the trains have no open windows, the crews have to keep the air conditioners in working order.
To this day, the nose cones are the only place on the monorail with cool air always blowing.
In the year 2009, two monorails at Walt Disney World in Florida collided, resulting in the death
of a Monorail pilot. To prevent this from ever happening at Disneyland in California,
it was decided to seize the 3 train operations for good. Now, only two monorails are allowed
on the mainline at once, this definitely affected the efficiency of the monorail system, and due to
the way the trains were dispatched at Disneyland, it’s highly unlikely that such a tragedy could
have ever happened at Disneyland…nevertheless, the company didn’t want to take the risk.
The iridescent metallic paint job on the Mark VII’s was quite expensive and delicate.
But Disney managed to wrap the monorails with temporary decoration several times over the years.
It wasn’t until the crews were removing the Pixar Fest wraps back in 2018,
that the paint started coming off upon removing the wraps.
So it was decided to put the Pixar Fest wraps back on, and wait until the next promotion to change them out.
The damaged paint job of the monorails has been disguised by vinyl wraps continuously since 2018.
Since the Monorail opened in 1959, it has only been re-routed in two places.
The first was near the approach from Matterhorn to the Tomorrowland Monorail station.
The turn here used to feature an ‘S’ curve which was later widened into a broad curve to fit larger trains.
…The next reroute of the monorail was in 1994 for the construction of the show building
for Indiana Jones Adventure. The monorail track was pushed a few hundred feet to the
south to make ample space for the new structure.
Many people assume that when Disney’s California Adventure was constructed in the late 1990's,
that the portion of the monorail track running
through the parking lot was probably adjusted and re-routed, but actually, to save on costs,
they left the monorail track untouched and found ways to build around it.
To this day, the monorail beam passes through the theme park, a resort hotel, and even the Downtown Disney
shopping district, without ever needing to be displaced for a single structure.
If you’ve been on the monorail recently, you’d know it doesn’t reach the hotel, in fact, it stops
right in the middle of Downtown Disney…and yet the monorail beam was never re-routed in this area.
The current Monorail Station in Downtown Disney is in the same place it has always
been since the year 1961, it was in fact, the Disneyland Hotel that moved places.
The hotel used to sprawl out over this area in buildings no more than three stories tall,
but when the Bonita tower was built, it seemed the hotel guests favored the views,
and soon afterward, the Marina tower and Sierra tower followed. The last remnants of the original
buildings of the hotel were destroyed in 1999 to make way for Downtown Disney.
This included the popular Monorail Café, which was a counter service restaurant that served
hotel guests a hot breakfast just before they began their monorail journey into Disneyland.
A year after the Disneyland Monorail became the first to cross a city street,
the Seattle monorail was constructed for the 1962 Century 21 Exposition…
which was also known as the Seattle World’s Fair. Their monorail traveled several city blocks, taking
people to and from the Space Needle. The Seattle Monorail was constructed by ALWEG and they went
on to get other contracts for building monorail systems, but after much financial difficulty,
the company was taken over by a third party in 1964. Despite this, the ALWEG name wasn’t removed
from the Disneyland Monorail until the year 1970.
The Disneyland Monorail System is on the historical engineering landmarks list
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,
otherwise known as ASME. That being said, this is not a federal designation, and therefore,
the monorail is not protected from future alterations in any way.
Rumors persist that the winding track over Autopia will eventually be removed from the
route in order to make way for park expansion, which is a very real possibility.
But it's safe to say we will probably never lose our beloved monorail. And for those who wonder
about the top speed of the current monorail, the capabilities of the traction motors on the trains
means that given the right circumstances, the monorail could travel up to 75 miles per hour,
however, the trains are restricted to a maximum speed of 35 miles per hour on resort property.
The Disneyland Monorail is a wonderful sight to behold. As it gracefully glides overhead,
children stare in awe at the train in the air. Most people have never seen a monorail with their own eyes,
and the Disneyland Monorail is quite often the first one they’ve ever experienced.
It was an ambition that had always been intended for the park. And a dream that finally came to fruition
thanks to the collaboration of Walt’s Imagineers. Over 60 years after its first introduction to the park,
visitors can still share in the delight of riding aboard Walt Disney’s highway in the sky.