Monorail fall down, go boom

dannydp · Post by **dannydp** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:42 am

In vegas:

From CNN.Com--

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- The $650 million Las Vegas Monorail was shut down Wednesday after a mechanical problem caused a wheel to come off one of the cars, a company spokesman said.

Nobody was hurt in the incident, which happened as a train was traveling north toward the Las Vegas Convention Center, spokesman Todd Walker said.

The train limped slowly into the convention center station, and riders were let off, he said.

Walker said the monorail would reopen after inspectors deemed it safe. The company was offering refunds to people who bought tickets.

The monorail opened July 15 and averaged more than 30,500 passengers in its first 17 days of operation. The company has not released current ridership numbers.

The opening was delayed for nearly six months while officials worked out software glitches and other problems.

The monorail follows a Z-shaped, 3.9-mile route behind the Las Vegas Strip, stretching from the MGM Grand to the Sahara hotel-casino.

BirdMom · Post by **BirdMom** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 3:17 pm

They've been working on that thing forever. Too bad they haven't worked the bugs out yet, but that's the nature of the beast. Pretty obvious that Alweg didn't have anything to do with the project.

I can remember a night about 13 or so years ago when I was waiting for a friend in Harbor House - I was driving him home, and he was way overdue from his Monorail shift. About 45 minutes after he was supposed to clock out, he comes in all sweaty, still in costume and informed me that the blue Monorail had literally just crashed. There was a trainee in the cab and she started backing the thing up into the roundhouse before maintenance had thrown the switch, so there was no track there...talk about fall and go boom. It took months to fix blue. :roll:

Freak · Post by **Freak** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 4:23 pm

^ Holy crap! :shock:

CujoSR · Post by **CujoSR** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 6:32 pm

BirdMom wrote:They've been working on that thing forever. Too bad they haven't worked the bugs out yet, but that's the nature of the beast. Pretty obvious that Alweg didn't have anything to do with the project.

I can remember a night about 13 or so years ago when I was waiting for a friend in Harbor House - I was driving him home, and he was way overdue from his Monorail shift. About 45 minutes after he was supposed to clock out, he comes in all sweaty, still in costume and informed me that the blue Monorail had literally just crashed. There was a trainee in the cab and she started backing the thing up into the roundhouse before maintenance had thrown the switch, so there was no track there...talk about fall and go boom. It took months to fix blue. :roll:

I remember reading about that. At least no one was in the car that fell.

Dante101 · Post by **Dante101** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:49 pm

The monorails at Disneyland have had tires fall off. I don't know what the cause was, but it's happened at least twice that I know of (both times in the 90s).

The incident with Monorail Blue falling off was a weird situation.

Back then, when we added a train to the main line, we'd back up midway between the shop and switch, notify Central, wait for the other train(s) to hold at the station(s) and then the shop guys would move the switch and we'd back up onto the main line.

The trainee was following the proper procedure, but the train lost its breaks and they couldn't stop at the midway point (the midway point being on a hill which leads from the shop to the switch).

So Blue coasted back faster and faster towards the switch, and the last car fell off the end of the beam and hit the ground. I heard the trainer & trainee didn't even realize the tailcone had derailed until they were able to climb down.

Ever since that day, the trains stay in the shop until the other trains have stopped at their stations and the switch has been thrown. It's slower but safer.

GMC · Post by **GMC** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:14 am

monorails still have issuses with thing falling off of them, i have a few friends at auto, and every once in a while a guest will hand them chunks of rubber and other things that have fallen of the monorail and hit them... I'm waiting for something to fall of and hit me while i'm on the train, so i can call them on the radio and be all, "YO! monorail blue, from holiday whichever, you just err um beaned me witha chunk a rubber, just thought you oughtta know that..." "oh if you erm want it back, just a come on down to Main Street Station, it'll be in our lost and found." actually since the guests in the nose cone can hear anything i say, i'd have them 10-21 my location.

nitro-junkie · Post by **nitro-junkie** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 1:23 am

And here's the thing. The Vegas monorails were purchased-used-from WDW.

Niiiiice.

GMC · Post by **GMC** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 3:31 am

spealing of monrails, i've heard through the grape vine of adventureland (steam trains) that our monorails don't work in the rain, they e-stop like crazy for wheel slips, and speed issues. makes me sad.

Zazu · Post by **Zazu** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 3:20 pm

nitro-junkie wrote:And here's the thing. The Vegas monorails were purchased-used-from WDW.

That was the old Vegas monorails. They just bought a whole new system from Bombardier. The contract provides that Bombardier has to pay $85,000/day when they aren't working until they had logged three years without catastrophic failure. Last I heard, they'd bought six months worth already.

Dante101 · Post by **Dante101** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:03 pm

GMC wrote:spealing of monrails, i've heard through the grape vine of adventureland (steam trains) that our monorails don't work in the rain, they e-stop like crazy for wheel slips, and speed issues. makes me sad.

True. One big problem was water seeping into the buttons that open/close the doors. Sometimes it would trigger the doors to open and close on their own.

Also a big problem was with monorail cast members who swept water off the platform. No big deal when there was no train in the station, but if you swept water into the pit while a train was sitting there, it'd get a lot of the train's electronics wet; and that would cause problems.

But I think the biggest rain problem is having the windows locked in place. They should be made so the guests can open and close them at will. Big problem on days when the sun comes out, then disappears, then rains, then gets sunny again, then rains...