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The Monorail Box

One of the most remembered icons of Disney Parks are the monorails. Like the castles, images of sleek, futuristic monorails are immediately associated with Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

While highly requested, a model monorail was unavailable for purchase in the Disney parks for many years.

Working scale models of Disney Monorails have been created in the past. The Schuco Disneyland-Alweg Monorail Set routinely appears on auction sites with bids near $500.  At 1:90 scale, this kit is very compatible with HO Model Railroad equipment easily found at 1:87 scale.  

In the fall of 1998, all the monorail fan wishes were fulfilled when Disney released a new, affordable monorail kit modeled on the Walt Disney World Monorails. The first batch was sold out in a few days, and a second batch released around New Years Eve 1998-1999 disappeared before the end of the evening.

This new kit contains an oval of track and a fully articulated, battery- operated Monorail complete with voice and lights.

	The basic kit contains... * 14 Pylons * 12 Curves (3 Curves for a quarter turn) * 2 Straights * 1 Five-unit monorail with 1 powered A unit, an unpowered B unit, and 3 passenger units
The Basic Kit

Close-ups of the included track

Enough track is included to create a simple oval or circle of track. The circle takes up a fair amount of space - enough to encircle a Christmas Tree or fill a den floor.    

The Monorail Track

Assembling the Track

Track is easily connected by sliding beams onto the plastic pylons.  The beams form a flush connection that is strong and well supported.  With some care, it is fairly easy to pick up a complete loop of track and move it out of the way when not running the monorail.

In one interesting test, we had monorail track fully suspended over several connections, supporting not only their own weight, but that of the monorail.  I would not recommend this as normal practice - you might find your monorail spilled across the ground should a connection give way.

Assembling the Track

The Monorail

The monorail itself contains five units, including a lead power unit that pushes or pulls the entire train.  The unit is battery-operated and able to go either direction.  Turn it on and watch the monorail circle the track.  An additional voice features the audible boarding spiel you may hear at the park.

The units can be disconnected and the train shortened or added to with additional passenger units.  I have not taken measurements to determine a scale.  A rough guess suggests a scale closer to model railroader O scale than HO (Half-O) scale - perhaps 1:50 scale.

Only one of the units is powered.  The power comes from 2 AA batteries loaded in a screwed-down compartment on top.   The power switch on the side may be toggled forward or backward.  Going forward, the monorail also lights up with twin green led's in front.  The top button activates a digital spiel (speaker on bottom), and a flashing red beacon.

Internally, the monorail is powered by a simple DC motor driving a rubberized drive wheel that rides along one side of the track. Its a surprisingly efficient system for the power - quite able to move the complete monorail train up hills.  I will caution that after extended run-time, the monorail should be turned off for awhile to avoid overheating and potential damage to the powered unit.  On top, a circuit board controls the flashing lights and digital voice. 

Within the park, the amount of white noise tends to make it very hard to hear.  Once at home, you will find the monorail has audible motor noise and the digital voice is fairly loud.  It is not a high quality recording, but understandable and fun to listen to. 

The Monorail

Buying the Monorail

With the popularity of the Monorail noticed by park management, the monorail is normally stocked inside the park and available for purchase. Additional track packages arrived last year, allowing folks to add to their empire without having to purchase more kits. Of course this author has four monorail kits and can build some fairly large layouts with all the extra track.

Additionally, the monorail is now available for purchase online at our online store MouseShoppe. Click here to buy the Monorail directly from MouseShoppe.

Either way you purchase the monorail, be sure to write me with your model monorail experiences. My other major hobby is Model Railroads. I'll write up a modification article to upgrade the lighting and power systems, and repaint the stripe in other colors. In the meantime, welcome to the hobby!