Saturday, June 13, 2009

Undated BW Set: Monorail



Two Monorail shots from this batch of bw images. The first shot shows a lotta’ layering: The Monorail, The Submarine Voyage, and even a glimpse of the Tomorrowland Autopia.



On my most recent trip to the park, I got a shot of the Orange Monorail at the station, getting ready for another test run:



And glimpsed the Blue Monorail in action from the vantage of the Tomorrowland Train Depot:



I love the sleek new look, and truly hope that Disneyland is able to fix the ongoing cluster-bleep that has plagued this new batch of Monorails. Walt had it right when he saw the transportation potential for the Monorail. Interestingly enough, I recently read that the plans for the Vegas to Anaheim train/Monorail have been scrapped. See more Disneyland Monorail photos at my website.

5 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Love that orange Monorail; ordinarily I wouldn't want an orange vehicle, but I think that it's my favorite among all the Monorails!

TokyoMagic! said...

I heard about them scrapping those plans too, Dave. But they also said something about how they are considering some sort of train (not mag lev) from Victorville to Vegas. What's the point of that?

Chiana said...

Sometimes it seems like if there's a bad turn, that's the way it's going to take these days. Not that I feel bad about a scrapped monorail plan when our (CA) state is planning on cutting off essential help for many of its citizens least able to fend for themselves... was talking to an elderly lady today about how her care's at risk... if it's cut she'll have no help and something serious is almost certain to happen to her. Inexcusable. So I feel kind of silly complaining about this at the moment I hope you'll understand, it's just grousing.

But gee the monorail's been successfully transporting, what, millions maybe, for 60 years this year. Mass transit's still a bad joke in my area. Can't we have some progress yet. I spose even the SF/LA "high speed" train is still off, and that's an attempt to catch up to a transit many other major countries had what, 30 years ago? Instead... sigh.

Daveland said...

Chiana - I feel your pain! The sad fact is that it takes so long for things to get done today between legislation, right-of-ways, and funding, that by the time a government project gets started, it's pretty much already passé. It really is a shame.

Chiana said...

Thanks Dave for understanding. It's in-home health services that's at risk, it shouldn't be in this country, if you know any arms to twist or ears to fill... Gah. I guess after worrying for her, not even getting to the related jobs, and then this reminding me of decades of warnings of government bureaucracy bloat or what have you lagging transit projects to infinity or irrelevance... it's so frustrating. Shoulda been more specific or better yet keep my gripes to myself y'know? *bops my head on desk*

Crawling back on topic then! The 2nd pic is real neat to me. Layering, like you say. I like how they made the most of space limitations in the area and made it more interesting by going through the extra efforts of elevation changes and curves in the track, plus crossing the lagoon. A straight track lining access ways would've been so much cheaper but it shows they really wanted to make a good show of the monorail. Time's proven how well they succeeded too. The new monorails look great, I think, and I also hope they keep plugging at them to get 'em right. It's good to see the freshening up as the monorail's well worth it.