Monorails: New or Used?

[lazyboy97O]

Something else unavailable next June will be the new Disneyland monorails. The first of the refurbished trains now isn't expected to be delivered to Anaheim until September 2007, and it may not enter passenger service until the Christmas season. And that's just the first of the three new trains. The second and third train won't arrive until later in 2008, and it won't be until early 2009 before all three of the new monorails will be in service.

The fourth monorail in Disneyland's fleet will remain in mothballs off property, as the budget to refurbish it into the new body style was never approved.

This is from Al's latest article and has me a bit puzzled. Does this mean the "new" Mark VII monorails will really just be new bodies on the Mark Vs just as the Mark Vs are new bodies on the Mark IIIs?

[Austinnightwolf]

They might be using the original steel undercarriage from 1968, in 1986 they took everything off the monorail trains and just attached it to the steel under carriage. I am all for throwing away the whole thing and building a new ones from scratch. But if they rebuild all the parts on the undercarriage and put on a new body, the monorail will be fine.

[Athlonacon]

I remember reading that they were reverse engineering one of the existing monorails, taking it apart piece by piece. I read Al's article to mean that 3 were new and one of them would've been an updated one. But this is an excellent point, I never thought about it like that.

[barfownz]

Wasnt the monorail in 1959 on a train track?

Or was that just the station?

[tloolgb]

/\ That was the viewliner. The monorail has always been on the current track. However the first monorails were made on modified bus chasis.

[Austinnightwolf]

The 1968 monorails were made by WED in Glendale, they made these with the Disney construction workers already on the payroll. The monorail is pretty easy to make, probably a high school shop class could make one if they were given the prefabricated parts. The biggest part of the car is the body which is one unit of steel. W.D.I. might be trying to save some money and will just reuse the steel body from the 1968 trains. Monorail Orange which was chopped up and studied in Glendale, still had the steel body intact, so it would be no problem to re-use it for the first "new" monorail coming in 2007.

[FormerDiz]

I had heard that these were going to be built new from the ground up. The Mark V's were always heavier than WDI wanted so I can imagine they'd build a new stronger, lighter frame.

Besides, Orange was run pretty hard through the park on one occasion and from what I understand the frame had some stress problems. I'd imagine they'd just start from scratch to eliminate any metal fatigue.

[chadb14]

If the current train frames truly are from the 1960's maybe it's time to upgrade them to a newer/lighter/stronger frame. It all boils down to saftey. I'm sure they wouldn't use the old train frames if they thought that it would be an issue.

[PirateMickey]

I thought that they were going to use a couple "refurbished" ones to hold over while the "new" ones (next generation) were being built???

[SusieP.]

I say buy used if you can get a good deal. That's the thing with the new monorails, they start depreciating in value as soon as you drive them off the lot.

Whoa, I think I just channeled my dad there for a second. Weird!

Carry on!

[AEGuy42]

^Unless Disney is going to sell them, what's the point about worrying about depreciation?

The biggest part of the car is the body which is one unit of steel. W.D.I. might be trying to save some money and will just reuse the steel body from the 1968 trains.

The problem with using the old steel bodies (and why they were removed) is the weight. The Mk. V's used fiberglass bodies to reduce train weight, and increase passenger load. Also, I'd be surprised if the steel bodies are still around and, if they are, if they're in a useable state.

If you're thinking chassis (what the body sits on) then yes, the current monorails are running on their 1968 chassis, however, it sounds like they're not doing so well. Shuttle mode is especially hard on them, and it sounds like maintence can hardly keep up with the problems.

Monorail Orange which was chopped up and studied in Glendale, still had the steel body intact, so it would be no problem to re-use it for the first "new" monorail coming in 2007.

Monorail Orange had a fiberglass body like all the other Mk. V's, and it wasn't just chopped up, it was dissected bit-by-bit. Even before it was taken apart, it was in no condition to run, and there's no way it could be made to run now. I did see some pictures of Monorail Orange sitting in a yard in pieces, as in straight vertical cuts from top to bottom. I'll try to find them again and provide a link. (EDIT: link, http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=dl040628xx)

Everything I've read up until now has said that these would be brand new monorails from the ground up. That would be great if that were the case as they could carry more, be more reliable, etc. Also, they could be built with shuttle mode in mind, something the current 1968 machinery was NOT designed for. Hopefully we can find some concrete evidence to see what exactly is going on.

[lazyboy97O]

I thought that they were going to use a couple "refurbished" ones to hold over while the "new" ones (next generation) were being built???

This is exactly what I thought too. That the curent two (I think the third is being used for parts) would run for a little bit longer along with the new Mark VII. Then when another Mark VII was available only one Mark V would be left until a third Mark VII was delivered. Operation would then continue with three Mark VIIs, as they were to be brand new and operations problems fixed with the staggered launch. Eventually later on a fourth Mark VII would then be brought online as refurbs would begin to be needed for the other Mark VIIs.

[AEGuy42]

^That's how they rolled out the Mk. V's and Mk. VI's, and if they upgrade the current fleet or start from scratch, this is probably how they will come online.

[Uzmati]

.

[akfandisney]

I remember reading that they were reverse engineering one of the existing monorails, taking it apart piece by piece. I read Al's article to mean that 3 were new and one of them would've been an updated one. But this is an excellent point, I never thought about it like that.

I think disney is Reverse engineering on monrail orange. that why you have not see monorail orange