Friday, July 22, 2011

Beautiful Tomorrowland, January 1960

Whoo-hoo, I am loving today's pair of photos from Tomorrowland! 1960 was a pretty good year to visit Disneyland, with all of the new additions from the previous summer. You know the ones I mean, I won't insult you by listing them here.

Check out this unusual view of the Autopia (pre-guide rail). Was this taken from the Monorail? I'm a bit discombobulated; is the rock work part of the Submarine Voyage? The kid in the purple car (purple, yeah!) is stylin' with his souvenir trilby hat.


Here's another gorgeous shot, with the Monorail framed by the Matterhorn and the beamway, and the Skyway overhead. The Alpine stream and landscaping add much to the beauty of the view.



11 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

Two unusual shots...I love them both!

If you look way off in the distance of that second pic (just above the crowd of people in the center of the photo), I think you can actually see the rock work from that first pic, as well as the wall and railing that are in the middle of the four Autopia lanes.

Nancy said...

man, you said it.....beautiful!! Tomorrowland is definitely the place to be.

that purple auto is gorgeous, and where can we get one of those hats?

as for Monorail Blue....i LOVE it!!

its been 6 very long years this week since i was at Disneyland :**) we got to be there to help celebrate the big Five-0 (all those cupcakes...yum!!) and definitely need to get back very soon.

Connie Moreno said...

These are incredible. As for the second photo, I don't remember no stinkin' Alpine stream!

Thufer said...

To excellent captures. Both have a good complexity and framing.
I am with Connie....Alpine stream; there(?) I remember the Alpine gardens, but no stream. Hummmmmm.
Really good pictures.

Major Pepperidge said...

TM!, I see what you mean, that first pic could very well be from over by the back side of the Submarine falls.

Nancy, at least you have a good excuse, being thousands of miles away.

Connie, everyone knows that Alpine streams don't stink.

Thufer, the water from the waterfalls had to go somewhere, right? Maybe nowadays the stream has been covered over or relocated.

Katella Gate said...

Beautiful pictures.

Vaughn said...

About the Alpine stream; they definitely changed the alignment of the monorail beamway. In the photo we see, above, a curve to the left, then a curve to the right then a tangent, parallel with the skyway, then a curve to the left into the station tangent.

In Google Earth today you can see they eliminated the curve to the right. Also you can see the stream and it looks like it ends before it does in your photo. Maybe they shortened it along with the beamway change to widen the path area for increasing pedestrian traffic.

I remember standing in line, on busy days, in this area and do not remember seeing the stream, perhaps the vegetation has grown too thick.

CoxPilot said...

The stream is now mostly covered. If you look at google maps, you can still see some of it near the sub lagoon (green moss kinda stuff growing over the covering). Of course, the water is re-pumped around to the beginning of the ride.

I believe they straightened out the monorail because of the people mover track that parallels it.

Katella Gate said...

My impression is that the track "fishtails" (short S turns) were installed in publicly conspicuous areas of track to show off the monorail flexing (train modeling and cinematographic tip: trains going around corners are more interesting),

I think they were removed when the longer cars were installed, which would not have gone over such tightly curved track.

JG said...

These are beautiful, thank you.

The rocks in photo 1 are the back of the submarine waterfall, also seen in the distance of photo 2. I remember that there was also a staff access ladder up to the "roof" area over the rocks from the track access area. I thought about stopping my car to climb it, but realized it would just be a ticket home.

I remember the stream as it is seen here from long ago, but I can't confirm if it follows this route today.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

Vaughn and CoxPilot, thanks for the info about the change in the Monorail beamway and the stream. I love the little details and changes from over the years.

Katella, do you think that the S curves were also a way of making the ride a little bit more interesting?

JG, it does seem like the consensus is that the area IS behind the waterfall area.