Saturday, January 26, 2008

Monorail, December 1960

It's Monorail time! Didn't you get the memo? Oh well, you can still do the Monorail Dance at lunch. Meanwhile, I hope that these photos provide inspiration.

Here's a nice picture taken not long before nightfall. The last remaining sunlight is still glinting off of the train, though. Those two guys in suits seem kind of out of place, I wonder if they worked for Disney in some capacity? The Skyway is operational, but it appears that the Matterhorn was down, or at least this particular load area wasn't in use.


Bubble dome! Bubble dome! Oh, if only I had been able to ride in that seat. The mere fact that it was even designed into the thing makes me smile, since it would have been cheaper and easier to leave it out. But that's another example of the "plussing" that Walt was so willing to do. The amber emergency light was another interesting touch...completely unnecessary, but it added a dash of coolness (particularly at night).

7 comments:

The Viewliner Limited said...

The Santa Fe Railroad logo was always the coolest part for me. Baeutiful pictures Major, thanks.

The Viewliner Limited said...

Major, first of all I hope I am not out of line with this request but I couldn't sleep last night thinking about the 1st picture of the world clock you posted on Friday. As I stated before "This is the best picture of the World Clock I have ever seen". I know you pay good money for your slides and photos, but is it possible that you could send me a raw scan of the 1st world clock picture at, at least 300dpi. I have a 1680 x 1050 flat screen monitor and I would like to use this picture on my desktop. This picture means everything to me as far as my early visits to Disneyland as a kid. I was all about Tomorrowland during those days. I will understand if you can not do this, but just incase my email is viewliner@gmail.com Thank you very much, Richard.

Chris Merritt said...

Yeah - the bubble dome is unbelievable!

Major Pepperidge said...

Viewliner, thanks for the nice comments...please check your email!

Smee said...

Major - I know it's been said before, but THANK YOU for sharing your pix

Major Pepperidge said...

My pleasure, Smee...half the fun is knowing that people enjoy them!

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid I got to ride in the bubble dome. I remember it pretty well. I was getting in the front car of the ride and the monorail pilot just asked me if I wanted to ride in the dome! The seat was next to and slightly lower (if I remember correctly) than the pilot seat. It was great! I could see the monorail controls and watch the pilot do all his monorail stuff! One of my great childhood memories.