After some deep thought about how to create a video related to the monorail, I decided to take a step back and consider the history of the monorail, from Walt’s original concept, to him visiting Germany and seeing one first hand, and then having Bob Gurr build something…
This video is longer than I planned for….but there’s an interesting history that’s worth telling.
There are a few photos used in the video that are watermarked, and attribution is given for them. Other photos come from the web, and have unknown attribution.
Any photos or videos are included for educational purposes, to set the context for the show.
Video clips which are used to illustrate a specific part of the show include:
Monorail dedication
https://youtu.be/aYjFGwyWEI0?si=dZwE_J1XybHJ8lee
Epcot
https://youtu.be/sLCHg9mUBag?si=H6CknjwVLQYBpnTF
Bob Gurr on driving through Contemporary (audio only is used from this video)
https://youtu.be/cBoZLQyGJ9A?si=5LDtcQOtEgH5CQOR
Disney Park POV of Disneyland monorail
https://youtu.be/l-FhleKTks8?si=cVzaWD1dmKQ0mc1p
Walt Disney a Dream Come True
https://youtu.be/lQ97MYGVm0I?si=BJcpo7OiZEsUF9Tz
All other videos were taken by me.
Please note that I provide some info about attribution at 37:43
If there are concerns, please let me know! [email protected]
source
With automobiles, "Mark" indicates a generation model, such as the Lincoln Continental Mark I or the Toyota Supra MK IV. I always figured this was the same logic with the monorail.
The current monorail fleet at WDW is 15 years PAST its life expectancy. Their were wild rumors (even supported by Bob Gurr) that Disney was going to replace the fleet. Their were hopes that part of WDW 50th anniversary celebration in 2021 would showcase at least one of these new drains, but with the 2020 pandemic and Disney bleeding money, nothing eve came of it. Now, the WDW monorail system is in many ways a hot city bus, with the same amount of dirt, grime and odor.
If WDW rolls out a new fleet of trains, I have two requests: They need to retain the look of the existing trains (the white with strips is an icon of WDW, while the solid colors can stay at Disneyland), and the "Please stand clear of the doors" recording must be preserved. It's not the Monorail without it.
I drove the Mark IVs in 81. We had 4 trains on each the original beams.
I sent Disney an idea for the monorail and got attacked by their lawyers. My idea was to add a (fake) spinning wind-up key to the top of the middle car. So, this gave the monorail the look of a giant wind-up toy.