Say! Why don't we take a look at some scans from the wonderful New York World's Fair? All of these are from the second season (1965).
The Fair was chock-full of interesting and impressive buildings, each one trying to lure guests in their direction, but come on... that giant Uniroyal tire Ferris Wheel is about as great as can be. Whoever thought of it should have been given the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Pillsbury Bake-off Prize. We also see the swoopy SKF "parasol", shooting up 82 feet into the air, like a rocket trail made solid. That's apparently where guests would get sample ball bearings which they later threw at Mr. Lincoln to see if he flinched. There's also the green cheese moon dome from the Travel and Transportation pavilion.
From the undulating Moon Deck of the Eastman Kodak pavilion we get a nice view of the Tower of the Four Winds, beloved by many, but disliked by the man who actually designed it (Rolly Crump, as you know). It lacked the delicacy that he'd hoped for, basically. Hey, it looks great to me. It was part of the Pepsi Cola pavilion, where guests could see "It's a Small World". Behind the Tower of the Four Winds is the Better Living Center.
We are all familiar with Disney's various Monorails, which ride on top of their elevated tracks, but for many years the idea of monorails had them suspended from an overhead track. And you know what? It's not bad! Two-car trains circle the Lake Amusement Area 40 feet in the air in the latest refinement of a concept that has been called the transportation idea of the future. On the World's Fair monorail, built by American Machine & Foundry Company, trains ride below the track, suspended from overhead power units with rubber tires. The route is a loop 4,000 feet long, with three trains traveling in one direction while four others travel in the opposite direction on a parallel track.
And here's a great view of the Avis Antique Car Ride, from Arrow Development. Open-topped antique cars, reproduced to five-eighths scale, provide a pleasant ride through an old-fashioned country setting. Each car seats up to five, and anyone 10 years or over can drive. A single pedal - accelerator and brake combined - controls the one-cylinder engine that pushes the cars along at a top speed of four miles an hour; the ride takes four minutes. Avis also operates a rental service for automobiles and power boats at the Marina landing.
Here's the backside of the Belgian Village, as seen from the Meadow Lake Bridge that crossed over the Long Island Expressway to the Amusement Zone. Imagine seeing this unusual sight as you commuted to work every day! It seems inconceivable that any New Yorker could resist at least one visit to the Fair.
Never fear, I have lots more NYWF slides for you!
What a great bunch of 1964 Fair photos! I want to go to the Carnival a Go-Go Discotheque!
ReplyDeleteIn #1: What is that sci-fi-looking spaceship thingy between the Uniroyal Wheel and the SKF tower? Looks sort of like a craft from the movie Tron.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great photo... so I kept it!
#2: Somebody should tell Rolly Crump that his Tower would look too flimsy and out of proportion if those main arches and masts were thinner. That's how it would seem to me, anyway. I think he's still with us, yes? Maybe he reads GDB and he'll see this.
#3: (I saved this one, too!) Yes, it does look cool. But it also gives me the willies. If a Disney-style (above the tracks) Monorail has a serious mechanical breakdown, it would still be up there on the track. If this Monorail has a catastrophic breakdown, like metal fatigue in the overhead couplings... That's all I'll say about it.
#4: Hmm, "Each car seats up to five", they must be thinking of five kids. Because it doesn't look like five adults could possibly fit in those cars. Unless the adults were five-eighths scale.
#5: Hank, upon seeing the Belgian Village from the Long Island Expressway: "Geez, Martha. The Staten Island Ferry musta crossed the dadburned Atlantic Ocean! Looky over there... We're in Belgia!"
Martha replies: "Don't be silly, dear... Where is Belgia, anyway?"
Hank: "Not sure... Australia, I think."
Tokyo!, haha, I was gonna say that as well! I'm kinda surprised that "discotheque" was a thing in '65; seems like that word came a couple of years later, '68 maybe... guess not!
Major, thanks again for taking all of us to the NY Fair.
The monorail picture is fantastic! I love how the riders are silhouettes. The super-cool Sky Hook ride is peeping through between the train and a support column, and we can see one of the log flumes in the background. You can also still ride that carousel in Flushing Meadows today. Thanks, Major.
ReplyDeleteIn the first photo, directly below the tire Ferris wheel you can see a woman walking away from us wearing a denim skirt. I guess those have been around a long time - think singing cowboy movies, for example - but I tend to associate them with a later era than this for some reason. I don’t seem to recall ever seeing one in a vintage slide before. I guess I’m just not very observant.
ReplyDeleteSame photo, farther right - three uniformed Boy Scouts sitting along the edge of the water. One of them is pointing at us. You can just make out a red disk on his buddy’s right sleeve, which was the old color scheme for patrol patches (each troop is divided into smaller patrols) until around 1970ish. The placement of those lines of seats looks a bit awkward - you’d have to squeeze past a lot of people to get to one of the middle seats. I guess there’s more room than the camera angle lets on - the Scout on the far right can just barely touch the concrete “shore” - but it still looks a bit odd to me.
One of the towers of the New York State Pavilion is peeking out from behind the Ferris wheel.
With all of the amazing goodness on display in the next photo, my eyes are drawn to the ball-shaped Pepsi sign to the left of the Tower of the Four Winds. It reminds me of a 76 gas station sign. I wonder if it rotated? Or possibly squirted hydrochloric acid?
Thanks for pointing out the log flume, Andrew. I found a POV film On YouTube that’s kind of fun to watch. Interesting to note that the flume cost 95¢ in 1964, but the price had dropped to 75¢ for adults and 50¢ For children by the 1965 season. Both the log flume and the aerial tower ride were sold to Pirate World, which opened between Miami and Fort Lauderdale in 1967 and closed in 1973 after WDW opened and changed Florida tourism forever.
For hardened New Yorkers who were dead set against ever visiting the fair, that sight of the Belgian Village from the Long Island Expressway must have surely made them waffle a bit.
1. This is a nice pic. I'm glad they had a "Sack Bar" there for all those thirsty sacks.
ReplyDelete2. Rolly, quit grousing. It's perfect and you know it! You're just looking for compliments, for Pete's sake!
3.Everything with "A-Go-Go" added to it is cooler! Try it! Gas Station A-Go-Go! Grocery Store A-Go-Go! Funeral Home A-Go-Go! See?
4. JB, Hank should know it's not Australia. Not one of those buildings is upside down!
The first pic is my favorite. So much going on. The mid-century design chairs are so cool.
ReplyDeleteSecond favorite photo is the hanging monorail. It looks almost like an artist rendition with passenger silhouettes added for effect.
Suspended monorail style trains date back to 1901 when this one went into operation in Wuppertaler, Germany.
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/wuppertaler-schwebebahn-oldest-electric-elevated-railway-1913/
Thanks for the Saturday morning trip to the Fair Major!
Grant, thanks for that link. After reading that article, I checked out Wikipedia for more information about that suspended monorail. Now I want to take a trip to that town and ride it! But if I do, I'll make sure that there aren't any baby elephants on board, like there was in 1950:
ReplyDeletehttps://media0.faz.net/ppmedia/aktuell/politik/1294575073/1.3714078/default-retina/weil-die-mitgereisten-reporter.jpg
Rolly Crump is right. The finished product does lack the delicacy seen in the original artwork/drawings. Still, it's a nice whimsical structure, but reality dictated it be built more solid. I always wished they had saved the Tower of the Four Winds structure and shipped it to Disneyland. It would've looked cool at the Disneyland Hotel.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Major.
Wow, that first photo is surreal. This whole set is pretty amazing, comprehensive views that really put the fair in perspective for me. I’m not at all familiar with the Fair, so these help a lot. Thanks Major!
ReplyDeleteYes, the tire Ferris wheel is a bomb idea, and I want to see that award ceremony. The runner up has to be the tire hot wheels case from Mattel though.
I’m puzzled that the vision of the future included an antique car ride, but whatever. I’m all for monorails-ago-go however. Bob Gurr takes the prize in this category, however.
Mr. Crumps complaint is a common one from designers. Structural safety overrules proportion and that’s just physics. I’ve read theories of design that claim a structure like a bridge, with a properly designed structural system will be naturally proportional and pleasing to the eye because the viewer will instinctively understand the forces on the structure and appreciate their resolution. We may be seeing some of that here. Or he is like Aunt Polly who fusses about her biscuits so guests will say they are perfect.
Imagine seeing the back side of Belgium every day. The mind boggles.
JG
TM!, Thanks for your link. That's quite a photo. Good Wiki page about the train too.
ReplyDeleteQ: How do you teach an elephant to fly?
A: Push it out of an elevated train. :P
If that pointy SKF building tips over, it’ll puncture the giant tire!
ReplyDeleteThe Uniroyal tire ferris wheel from the first picture eventually became a permanent landmark along I-94 in Allen Park, Michigan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniroyal_Giant_Tire
ReplyDeleteHow cool it would be if the giant Uniroyal Tire broke loose and rolled down and across the highway/expressway behind it. Wheeeeeeee!
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, I live to dance at the discoteque!
ReplyDeleteJB, that is a sculpture, but I forget its name at the moment. “The Spirit of Flight” or something along those lines. Yes, Rolly is still with us! I do wonder if the Tower of the Four Winds had been built to his liking, would have been structurally strong enough? I can only assume that they had some way of evacuating people from that Monorail… maybe they could somehow transfer to another Monorail car going the other direction. Yeah, probably not. And yes, they must mean five SMALL children for the Antique Autos. I’ll bet that the word “discoteque” is a lot older than we think!
Andrew, I’m sure you would have so much fun if you could somehow step back in time and go to the Fair’s Amusement Zone! That log flume is so tiny, but it was one of the very first.
Chuck, I’m just glad that nobody is wearing “jorts” (jeans/shorts), especially with the pockets hanging out. No bueno. You make a good point about the awkwardness of those benches, maybe there was more room in front of them than it appears. I do love their ultra-modern design though. I think Scouts must have been at the Fair a lot, since they had their very own pavilion. I love that ball-shaped Pepsi sign too, there’s just something about a spherical sign. I love the Union 76 gas station signs, and the Norge Village signs too. You’d think that Pirate World wouldn’t buy anything, they’d just come and take it. I guess those were “nice pirates”. It does amaze me to think that there were probably many New Yorkers who drove past the Fair site for so long, with no intention of ever actually going. (Yes, I got your pun!).
Stu29573, don’t be silly, it was a SLACK bar. You could buy all kinds of slacks, including Sansa-belt slacks. Considering that Rolly apparently told Walt - to his face - that he hated the Tower of the Four Winds, he must have felt pretty strongly about it. As much as I love the Disneyland-style Monorail that was astride the track, it’s hard to dislike the hanging variety. I’ve seen that amazing Wuppertal monorail, what a treasure!
TokyoMagic!, be sure to watch this incredible 1902 footage taken from the Wuppertal Monorail, it really is incredible.
K. Martinez, I know that Rolly had a vision for how he wanted the Tower to look, but to everyone else, it still appeared to be pretty neat! I’m with you, the stories of the tower being cut up and dumped into the East River are painful. Would it REALLY have cost that much to ship the pieces via train to California??
JG, I sometimes think about what I would want to do if I could somehow zap back to 1964 to the World’s Fair. There was SO much amazing stuff! Of course I’d want to see the Disney exhibits, and definitely General Motors’ “Futurama”, and the IBM pavilion, and the Chevrolet pavilion, and… and…! Oh man, my brother used to have one of those tire-shaped Hot Wheels cases, I was always so jealous. I kept my cars in a shoe box, which I still have! But the cars are in rough shape, we played with those things HARD. As I said to Stu, I wonder if the thin Tower supports could have stood up to strong winter gales; maybe so, but they couldn’t risk the thing crashing down.
Grant, check out the video link that gave to TokyoMagic!
Melissa, where will they ever get a pump large enough to re-inflate the tire??
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I’m glad that the tire still exists, though it’s too bad that it is a static prop now. I need to ride a giant tire Ferris Wheel!
K. Martinez, sounds like something from a movie. I could see it happening in a Tim Burton film!
Mike, missed a lot yesterday but wanted to say glad you got that fixed and hope you are well, healthy and stay that way.
ReplyDeleteLots to comment about today! I wish I would have experienced this experience. I suppose we were trying to get settled on the West Coast, but we might have been in Norway that year...for another time....The Monorail is super cool. It would be even more super cool if it was designed like the invisible plane in Wonder Woman...so it would appear as if you were flying. It still amazes me that this was all built to be torn down. I totally understand the hate behind Tower of the four winds at this angle. As a designer I can see loads of argument between concept and execution. From other angles it's totally cool. If the blueprints exist: recreate it. Would love to see this in motion if anyone has a video. The Pepsi building definitely needed a TOT4W. I don't think Mr. Disney had too much to do with that one if I heard the story correctly. Looks like an office building. The Belgian Village is way cool. Totally amazing. Even the dirt on the building is amazing. Way better than Alpine Village in Torrance CA. (look it up). Rathskeller reminded me of Bratskeller...a restaurant in Westwood Village CA. Westwood was uber-cool in the day. Perhaps it still is (?) There are Rathskellers all over actually. And it's German (?) Perhaps it's Belgian too. As a chocolate afficiando, I do find the complexity of Belgian chocolate superior to all chocolates. Just my .02. Swiss is the most refined. English is my favorite. Norweigan: a close second. Hershey unfortunately doesn't rank. I'm spoiled and a snob. My friend Russel Bacarella had that Hot Wheels box that was in the same design as the giant tire. I was also jealous. Russel was an only child. He got everything. His dad owned a dress factory. My mom was very pleased with my friendship with Russel. She got dresses for pennies. My brother got Hot Wheels. I got Spirograph and art toys. All makes sense. Back to the fair: Very much enjoy the antique cars. There was a Partridge Family where Keith hates roller coasters but is content with driving a car like this in Kings Island- home of the Banana Splits...and the Brady Bunch. Just don't lose your architect drawings! Perhaps Arrow made those Kings Island cars too? I'm sure someone on here knows. It would be great if a multi billionaire, just for fun, would recreate the Worlds Fair instead of building spaceships to go to the moon. Then more mortals could enjoy the experience. $55 Million for a space ride? I have no desire to go to a space station unless there was a Peoplemover or Adventure Through Inner Space there. Then everything was torn down. Talk about ruining everything.
ReplyDeleteChuck, your waffle 'joke'... wah(ffle), wahhh(ffle).
ReplyDeleteStu, yeah. You'd think Hank would know that, right?
Grant, that Wuppertaler monorail looks pretty cool. Imagine how futuristic it seemed back in the early 1900s!
JG, I think that theory on proportional structure is correct. At least, that's why I think Rolly Crump's Tower looks OK the way it is/was.
Major, I was thinking more along the lines of the monorail car/train falling to the ground if something broke away. That most likely wouldn't happen with an above-track monorail. Either way, it's not something I worry about daily. ;-)
That 1902 monorail footage is amazing!
K. Martinez and Major, the Tire rolling down the expressway reminds me of the scene from "1941" where the ferris wheel rolls down the pier.
Bu, I'm with you on going into space. Unless there is a "2001"-style space station/hotel to go to (and a Pan-Am rocket plane to get there), it would be too much like roughing-it. I wouldn't want to spend much time in the International Space Station; too unpleasant.
I saw an evacuation of the AMF Monorail. They took people down with ladders on Fire Department trucks. Those poor people were stuck up there for hours. I'm glad we rode the Monorail on our previous trip. The Transportation Area in the first picture was the best part of the Fair, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Sinclair, etc. As a kid I thought it was the best area in the Fair. I'm sure a lot of adults thought the same thing. Dennis
ReplyDeleteLevittown NY
Hey everyone: thank you for the well wishes . My heart valve surgery was in 2018 ….. it and me are fine! My cardiologist says he is amazed at how well I’m doing and how quickly I recovered. Interestingly my dad had almost the exact same surgery in the early 1990’s …. He had to have a artificial valve replacement and he had chest scars that looked like a Frankenstein skin stitching. In 2018 I was lucky to benefit from a great deal of technical advancement . Including a valve repair and a 2 1/2 inch red/pink line scar … and I had no stitching- my chest was “glued” back together with a surgical glue called Dermabond. Another interesting thing is that most hospitals have been doing studies and that patients have better experiences and seem to recover better when patients see the staff in organized uniforms … doctors in specific uniforms , nurses in other uniforms , orderly’s in others….. except the doctors which feature a lab type coat the other positions are mostly designated by a similar uniform with color differences for the position. And the uniforms are color Coordinated to blend with the interior …… sounds like the way Tomorrowland costumes were developed . In fact the hospital staff feels very STAR TREK or EPCOT HORIZONS!!! Eventually most hospitals are doing away with the sloppy , dumpy pajama “scrubs” some hospital staff used to wear.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Tower of the Four Winds: Walt was never that pleased with how quickly the whole exterior for the fair version of SMALL WORLD was. Walt wanted something more impressive for Disneyland. The story of “the tower was to expensive to have freighted back to california …” is one of those explanations you give to people who don’t understand the design process or if the real reason is too Convoluted. The real issues the tower didn’t come to Disneyland is that it was really TOO big in size and girth for Anaheim. Another issue John Hench and others mentioned was that it was incredibly noisy when all the elements were spinning. If you’ve ever heard a farm windmill or a Aerometer going in a strong wind …. You can probably imagine how noisy it could have been. John Hench mentioned one time while discussing the noise the tower made a fair worker said did they try butter milk??? And that his grandpa said buttermilk worked better than any of the pot grease suggested by the windmill manufactures …
Several years ago at Disneyland the entrance marquee for It’s A Small World had shape elements of the Tower of The Four Winds added to the new design and is still used today.
So glad to hear the ticker's ticking along well, Mike! The advances made in surgery over the last few decades really are amazing. I loved the bright red scrubs they wore on Star Trek: TNG - great for not showing the blood.
ReplyDelete@ Bu-
ReplyDeleteThe brätskellar has been closed for some time - as have their other locations in Chicago - at Piper's Alley; Denver - at Larimer Square; San Francisco - at Ghirardelli Square; Orange - at Town & Country Shopping Center and La Jolla - at Prospect Plaza. The best dates I can find for the Westwood location is from the late-1960's thru the mid-1980's.
Belgian chocolate is quite wonderful - and as not too many folks know - the composition of Belgian chocolate has been regulated by law since 1894. But... trying to maintain that 'standard' is harder and harder as so many Belgian chocolate companies are now owned by non-Belgian multi-national companies, and the term gets bandied-about so often as to dilute any sort of authenticity and/or meaning. If you're willing to expand your chocolate selections beyond the 'chocolate aisle' of your supermarket - although [thankfully] much-improved from 20 years ago - and choose your chocolate instead from speciality stores - on-line or bricks and mortar - what awaits you is nothing short of spectacular - and that goes way beyond what comes from Belgium.
Q: How do you teach an elephant to fly?
ReplyDeleteA: Push it out of an elevated train. :P
Grant.....ha, ha! That really is incredible that someone actually captured the moment that the elephant was falling from the monorail car.
Major, thank you for that link. That footage is incredible. It's nice to know that the 120 year old system is still in operation. Maybe they don't quite ruin everything. But then, that is Germany. If that had existed here in the U.S., it would have been torn down long ago.
JB, that sculpture is called Forms in Transit It's still in Flushing Meadows, but moved near the NY Hall of Science.
ReplyDeleteThe story is that Walt visited Wuppertal while filming Third Man on the Mountain to research a monorail for Disneyland, but Lilian felt nauseous from riding it, so a hanging monorail was out - even though many early renderings of Tomorrowland showed one. By luck, Walt saw the ALWEG beam straddle monorail while driving around, and worked out the deal to have one built at DL.
JB, structures where the supports are clearly visible, like bridges, concrete or bearing masonry (not curtain wall type) are most likely to be perceptible.
ReplyDeleteBelgian chocolate is THE best. I tried that first in Bruges and couldn’t believe it. Look for Callebaut, used to be the best.
Tokyo, Anonymous Dennis & Dean Finder, thanks for those additions. If you can’t figure out what something is, it must be art.
JG
DrGoat, I don’t understand why people don’t just go ahead and get robot bodies like I did.
ReplyDeleteBu, I’m sorry you had to suffer through living in Norway! Gee that’s rough, ha ha. How do you know what the invisible plane is designed like? Because… you know. It could look like a flying Edsel for all we know. I think that there is video of the Tower of the Four Winds, with the whirligigs whirling. They might have even shown in on the “Disneyland Goes to the World’s Fair” TV show. Folks have recreated it in digital versions, and I’ve seen some impressive scale models, which would be a fun project if I had any model-making abilities. The Pepsi building was basically an industrial shed, but it served its purpose, as a rather late entry to the Fair pavilions. Westwood is not cool anymore, the last time I went there were many shuttered storefronts, and most of the fun shops were gone. There are still some good restaurants, but I don’t find many excuses to go there.
JB, now I am wondering, have there been any Monorail disasters in the relatively few real-life Monorails around the world? I know that there was a terrible crash at WDW years ago.
dennis, cool that you witnessed a Monorail evacuation! I never understand why something like that takes so long. Were they completely unprepared? Those folks who were stuck up there… yikes.
Mike Cozart, there aren’t many surgeries that are more serious than open-heart surgery. Maybe brain surgery! But the heart is a serious deal. Luckily, we have three hearts, if I remember my high school biology classes. It’s amazing that they can make artificial heart valves that work tirelessly! Thank goodness. I’ve heard that the Tower of the Four Winds would have been out of scale for Disneyland, but… I’m not sure I really buy it? I just say that because the ride was tucked back in that northeast corner of the park, even if it was visible from elsewhere I don’t think it would have been a big deal, just like seeing the Matterhorn from Main Street is not a big deal. It’s there, and we accept it. HOWEVER, the noise element was something I never considered, and could be very valid! My mom’s neighbor has one of those backyards full of garbage, I mean folk art. Lots of spinning whirling things, and when it is windy, MAN they make a racket.
Nanook, are you telling me that you like Belgian chocolate more than Hershey’s milk chocolate?! Remember when Hershey wanted to legally change what “chocolate” is so that they could make it more cheaply? Yuck. And now they get around it by making products like “Hershey’s Gold”. Hershey’s Gold WHAT? But I know how much you love Hershey’s because you go on and on about it.
TokyoMagic!, I love the glimpses of the people strolling along below the Monorail; kids walking, women carrying groceries or laundry (or whatever), chickens in the streets… it’s a real slice of life from 1902 Germany. I would love to ride that Monorail! What an engineering feat. And you’re right, it would have never lasted here in the U.S.
Dean Finder, are you SURE it wasn’t called “The Spirit of Flight”? :-) I pulled that name out of my… out of a hat, I mean. But yours is better, I admit. Gosh, it doesn’t look like the Wuppertal Monorail does a lot of swaying, but it’s hard to tell in a film I guess. Did Walt ask for a Monorail that straddled the track? Or was that Bob Gurr’s idea?
JG, I joked with Nanook about Hershey’s, but of course, who doesn’t like some good Belgian chocolate? One thing I found in Europe was that it seemed difficult to find it without hazelnuts in it, and I am not a fan of hazelnuts. EVERYWHERE we went, it was “chocolate with hazelnuts”, or hazelnut liqueur, or whatever. Not my thing.
Dean Finder, thanks for that info and link to the sculpture. Sounds like the peeling paint and such is original to the artwork and intentional.
ReplyDeleteMajor, I know that the Seattle monorail sort of collided with itself. Two trains going in opposite directions on parallel tracks. The tracks are too close together for the trains to go by each other at certain points along the route. The trains scraped each others sides as they passed. I don't think anyone was hurt though.
Am late to the party, but have really enjoyed all the comments and links.
ReplyDeleteJB, re your last comment: HOW can that happen?! It was BUILT that way?!
Major-
ReplyDeleteOn May 31, 2004, there was a fire on the 'blue train' of the Seattle Monorail. Passengers were evacuated thru both the adjacent 'red train' - using planks placed between them (fun-!) - and also descending fire department extension ladders. The cause of the fire was determined to be the "...blue train’s third car suffering a broken low-speed drive shaft, speeding up the high-speed shaft, which also snapped. A piece of the high-speed shaft broke off and damaged the collector shoe that captures the positive electrical current from the rail. The collector shoe began to short-circuit and melted an aluminum housing, causing electric current to arc between the two rails, which were no longer insulated from each other. Sparks ignited grease and oil on the train’s undercarriage, then flames entered between the cars and ignited seat cushions (they were not original but dated from a 1990's car refurbishment). This caused the circuit breakers to blow, and the train stopped and began to fill with smoke from the fire". There has always been a great deal of grease visible beneath the beamway(s) nearest MoPOP for many, many years. Haven't any idea if this is typical of that style of Alweg train, or just a build-up developing over 60 years. But a grease fire ignited by sparks in that area would hardly be a surprise.
@ JB-
In 1989, a remodeled Westlake Center station was opened, following a re-working of the dual beamways into a narrower configuration, preventing the two monorail trains to pass-by one another as they approached the Westlake station. Although signaling systems were originally-installed, an official 'block system' wasn't, and on November 26, 2005, the driver of the incoming 'blue train' failed to yield to the 'red train' that was departing from the station, causing the trains to sideswipe each other above Olive Way on the narrowed section of track. The monorail system was out of service until the following August.
Wow! Both of those Monorail episodes sound scary. Thanks for sharing that info, Nanook.
ReplyDeleteMike, our local hospital has gone to the “uniformed” approach. Mrs. Chuck was the volunteer coordinator at the hospital at the time of the switch, and she said that the level of grousing from the medical staff was pretty fierce - people threatening to resign if they couldn’t wear their custom-print scrubs and that sort of thing. Over time, though, it actually contributed to a higher level of professionalism, morale, and patient satisfaction; it helps when you can instantly tell if the person who is walking into your room is a nurse, lab tech, or random psychopath who just walked in off the street.
ReplyDeleteNanook, that’s terrifying.
ReplyDeleteThe Alweg Disney trains apparently would shed some kind of debris periodically. Areas where the route passed over pedestrian walks have awnings or shields under the beam to catch the bits.
I never noticed these until someone here pointed them out, and now I can’t stop seeing them. I wish I could remember what the problem is, but it hasn’t gone away and is a chronic issue with the design.
Major, my kids were on a Nutella kick for some time and we always had some in the house, but not for many years now. I’ll have to ask if they still like it.
JG
Major, I believe the beam-straddling monorail was Walt's idea after riding the test one in Germany. Gurr worked out the styling of the vehicles, though.
ReplyDeleteJG, I've been told that the rubber tires blow out from time to time, and while one flat tire won't stop the train, it can shred and drop debris as the monorail moves, so never look directly up at a passing train when you're directly under the beamway.