Disneyland Monorail System

Disneyland Monorail System
Mark VII Monorail passes over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage show building
Disneyland
Area	Tomorrowland
Status	Operating
Opening date	June 14, 1959
General statistics
Attraction type	straddle-beam Monorail
Designer	WED Enterprises
Height	41 ft (12 m)
Speed	30 mph (48 km/h)
Vehicle type	Monorail Trains
Vehicles	3
Riders per vehicle	120
Duration	11 minutes
Vehicle names	Monorail Red, Monorail Blue, Monorail Orange
Track gauge	Single straddle-beam
Wheelchair accessible

The Disneyland Monorail System (originally named the Disneyland ALWEG Monorail System) is an attraction and transportation system at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, United States. It was the first daily operating monorail in the Western Hemisphere, and the first in the United States.

Walt Disney originally envisioned the monorail as a practical form of public transport for the future. However, the monorail came about during a time when America's—and particularly Los Angeles'—obsession with the automobile was increasing, and monorails in the United States came to be associated only with Disney's theme parks, with the exception of Seattle's monorail.

The job of building the monorail was originally assigned to the Standard Carriage Works of East Los Angeles, but in late 1958, Walt Disney, pressured for time, moved it to his Burbank studios. Disney designer Bob Gurr then headed a Disney team that designed and manufactured the cars, chassis, suspension and propulsion systems, thus completing the Red Mk 1 just in time for the re-dedication of Tomorrowland.

The Disneyland ALWEG Monorail opened on June 14, 1959, as a sightseeing attraction in Tomorrowland in Disneyland, along with the Disneyland Expansion with the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Submarine Voyage, the expanded version of Autopia, and the Motor Boats. The Mark I trains (Red and Blue) consisted of three cars each. In 1961 it became a true transportation system when Tomorrowland station was lengthened to accommodate the debut of the four-car Mark II and the additional new Yellow train; the track was extended 2½ miles outside the park and a second platform was constructed - the Disneyland Hotel station. In 1968 Mark III Monorail Green joined the fleet, and both platforms were lengthened for the arrival of the more streamlined and efficient five car Mark III monorail train conversions.