Friday, September 02, 2011

Das Monorail, January 1960

The fabulous Monorail was less than a year old in today's photos. I particularly love this first picture; the photographer managed to keep the front of the futuristic train in perfect focus, while the rest of the picture is motion-blurred. (This is the same genius to took this picture). Notice the kid waving at us!


Now we're looking down on the Monorail station from the Skyway. This unusual angle shows that the track was not completely level; instead it went up and down gentle gradients, which helped it avoid meteorites. The cast member on the platform looks very cool and official in his uniform!


15 comments:

Jason Schultz said...

That first photo is amazing! And boy does it look delicious. :)

TokyoMagic! said...

Wow, this person took some pretty amazing pics. And it looks like the girl/lady in the nose of the Monorail knew her picture was being taken as she waved to the photographer. Did she know the person taking the photo or was she just super happy to be riding aboard the transportation of the future?

Daveland said...

Yup - it's a classic! What a great Monorail shot!

LauraJ953 said...

Both shots are great - but that first one is amazing! Just think of all the phone apps we download now to try and get shots like that. No tilt shift app or Photo Shopping tricks here - this one's the genuine real deal!

The DL monorail, even in today's incarnation, is just so much more "Tomorrow Land" than WDW's.

Thufer said...

Those are both wonderful. I like the camera guy at the bottom right of the bottom photo. Ready to get the family upon exit.
Excellent pictures.

HBG2 said...

Dare we hope for more from this photog, waiting in the wings?

The Viewliner Limited said...

Das very Good!

Major Pepperidge said...

Progressland and Daveland, I'm glad you liked these!

TokyouMagic, my guess is that the photographer just got lucky catching the waving girl. The only child he/she took pictures of is the little blond girl on the Carousel from a week (or so) ago.

LauraJ953, you're right, it must have been very difficult to get a tricky shot like this back in those days.

Thufer, thanks for pointing out the dad with the camera. Maybe it's a movie camera??

HBG2, there are still a few photos to come from this photographer, although I think the best have now been posted. Still a couple of nice ones, however.

Danke, Viewliner!

Orange Co Native said...

Pretty pictures Major.

Connie Moreno said...

Yeowza! These are SO COOL!

"...which helped it avoid meteorites..." How do you come up with this stuff???????? I'm going to sue you for making me choke on my iced tea, LOL!!! But I'll excuse you if you continue listening to the Gazette podcast!

Chiana_Chat said...

*blinks* *dazzled*

Maj, you just posted my 2 fav Monorail pics. =)

SundayNight said...

Wow. If I was going to do a book on vintage Disneyland I would put photo number 1 on the cover.

Nancy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nancy said...

I love blue....

JG said...

Straight to the screen backdrops. Pics like these are why I wear this helmet.

JG