New monorail arrives at Disneyland
A 75-foot-tall crane hoisted the first of the new Mark VII monorails from a flatbed truck onto the beam way track this morning at Disneyland.
The five-car burnt-burgundy train is the first of three new monorails expected to go online at the Anaheim theme park starting in February 2008.
Three years in the making, the all-new bullet-nosed monorails were designed by Disney, built in Rhode Island and assembled in Vancouver, Canada.
Lead Disney Imagineer Scot Drake said the Mark VII design represents a “streamline optimistic vision” of a “fantasy future that never was.”
The sleek iconic exterior features color-shifting paint with gray pinstriping that evokes the stainless-steel side panels of the 1959 original designed by Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr.
The interior features an under-lighted central island seating arrangement that offers every visitor a view through color-tinted windows.
The other two trains in the monorail fleet should be delivered in spring and summer 2008.
To view a photographic history of the Disneyland Monorail, check out Yesterland (one of my favorite Internet destinations).
— Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
[Image: Disney]
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December 20th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
MiceAge columnist David “Darkbeer” Michael posted a 100-photo gallery of the new monorail’s arrival.
MousePlanet staff writer Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix posted about a dozen Mark VII shots from a different vantage point.
My friend Sarah Tully at the Orange County Register offers her Monorail report and a photo slideshow.
— Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer + Theme Park Blogger
December 27th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
any vacation deals
January 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
MiceAge’s Andy Castro features interior pictures of the Mark VII Monorail in his Dateline Disneyland column.
— Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer + Theme Park Blogger
March 11th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Just had a centre section of the red monorail go past me on a flatbed truck as it left a plant here in Port Coquitlam British Columbia.Basic shell only
March 11th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Mark VII Red has been testing after closing for the past week. MintCrocodile, a user at MouseInfo, posted a video last Thursday showing the train gliding past the Golden Gate Bridge DCA display as well as the entrance to the Magic Kindgom. While the physical problem with the train seems to be fixed, the extended park hours coming up for spring break will apparently hamper the length to which testing can take place thus still putting the monorail’s debut to a few more weeks from now.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
[...] Disneyland has been conducting regular after-hours tests of Monorail Red, putting to rest persistent Internet chat room rumors that the new Mach VII would have to be sent back to the assembly plant for major modifications.Disney officials said that the new monorail has been cycling around the beamway under its own power and that sending the futuristic bullet-nosed train back to the Vancouver, Canada, assembly plant was “never considered.” [...]