Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Wednesday WOW: The Viewliner



It’s sleek, it’s silver, and it’s shortlived! Yes folks, it’s Disneyland’s Viewliner, originally the transportation of tomorrow, it was quickly switched out for the much larger (and sexier!) Monorail. You’ll note in this closeup that the lettering on the side says "Santa Fe and Disneyland RY." Anyone know what the RY stands for?



Here’s a 1957 photo of its inspiration, the Aerotrain, which was also short-lived:



On another note, saw the "new" Pee Wee Herman show the other night at Club Nokia—it was out of this world, Globey! For the full write-up, go to my Pee Wee Herman web page.



See more Disneyland Viewliner photos at my website.

8 comments:

Katella Gate said...

RY is a rather old fashioned abbreviation for Railway.

The things you learn on the internet. I never knew that the Viewliner had a real-life predecessor.

William Bezek said...

That train looks vaguely like an old refrigerator I once had.

Thufer said...

great shots....ty dave

The Viewliner Limited said...

What can I say Dave. WOW! WOW! WOW! Great picture of my name-sake.

And PEE-WEE Rules.

Chiana_Chat said...

It sure bears a resemblance to its inspiration - and the original Monorail cars to come. Neat-o Dave.

walterworld said...

Best picture I've ever seen of the Viewliner.

Nice work :)

Major Pepperidge said...

Saw Pee Wee last week, and might get to go again... it was awesome! David Hasselhoff sat about 10 seats from us, so I guess we had pretty good seats!

Anonymous said...

I remember riding this at the Magic Kingdom about 1958. A couple of years ago a Disneyland employee told me that this train is still in storage at Disneyland and several workers had considered a restoration project.