At first glance, I thought this was just another Skyway at Disneyland shot. Just as I was about to click away, I noticed that BOTH the original round buckets and the "new" square bucket design were functioning all at the same time! What a find! The excitement is almost palpable as old bucket #2 floats by "new" bucket #10.
I had always assumed that the buckets were switched out all at once, but these two shots say otherwise.
Here's the next consecutive image in this photographer's shots for this day in 1965:
Just when I think there's nothing new…
Want more Skyway? Float on over to Daveland to see my collection of vintage Skyway photos.
Every once in a while you post something about vintage Disneyland that blows me away. Today is one of those posts. What an incredible find. Thanks, Dave.
ReplyDeleteAmazing. Who knew? And the photographer did an excellent job of capturing the situation.
ReplyDeleteWeird. Yeah, you would think it would be an all-or-nothing sort of thing. I hate to ask the obvious but does anyone know what the advantage was of going from old to new? I'm not seeing any way that the rectangles load faster than the round, that they would travel different, arrive/department any more efficiently, etc.
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ReplyDeleteWell my first thought on going from old to new was higher capacity, i.e. the new gondolas could seat four. It sure looks like there's at least three, if not four, in the red unit in the second picture. Who knows? My brother was a CM at the Skyways for a while. I guess I have to ask him.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering, too, what is on the right-hand side of the pictures? It'd be just to the left of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. But what's with the signal flags and nautical-looking support?
Very cool shots, Dave.
ReplyDeleteWell my first thought regarding going from old to new was higher capacity, i.e. the new gondolas could seat four. It sure looks like there's at least three, if not four, in the red unit in the second picture. Who knows? My brother was a CM at the Skyways for a while. I guess I have to ask him.
I was wondering, too, what is on the right-hand side of the pictures? It'd be just to the left of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. But what's with the signal flags and nautical-looking support?
Hi Patrick - Here's a wider shot of the signal flags to give you some context:
ReplyDeletehttp://davelandweb.com/mrtoad/images/KTPBKYC_8_60_N18R2.jpg
and a detail shot:
http://davelandweb.com/mrtoad/images/KTPBKYC_8_60_N18R2_d1.jpg
Thanks Dave,
ReplyDeleteWith those other shots it looks one of the ubiquitous little information booths with its blue striped, peaked roof.
Now where's my time machine...
Round or square, the Skyway was always one of my favorite Disneyland rides. I *still* miss it!
ReplyDeleteWell I spoke with my borhter Mike, the former CM, and he said the new buckets were, in fact, capable of carrying four guests at a time. When the park reached a certain occupancy or the line was long enough supervision would call the crew to start loading fours whenever possible. My brother would, however, decline to load two groups of two together. He figured that you'd waited in line and deserved to not have your noses a foot away from some stranger's noses.
ReplyDeleteHe got a couple of write-ups but was putting show above capacity, just like you're supposed to.