Random Disneyland and Walt Disney World tidbits too time-sensitive or inconsequential to cram into a formal article.
Monorail Shutdown Throws Investigation a Curveball
Posted 10-19-2009 at 12:34 PM by David Koenig
A computer glitch on Walt Disney World’s monorail system forced the resort to shut down the Epcot line yesterday—and opens up the possibility that July 5’s fatal crash may not have been entirely human error.
Disney World operates three separate monorail lines (Magic Kingdom Resort line running from the Ticket & Transportation Center to the park and three hotels; Express, which stops only at the TTC and Magic Kingdom, and Epcot, which runs between the TTC and Epcot. Since the Epcot line does not connect to the barn, when adding or subtracting trains, vehicles travel to or from the Express line via a spur track near the TTC. Shop activates Switch 8 (connecting Express to the spur) and Switch 9 (connecting the other end of the spur to the Epcot line), and power begins to course along the spur.
Yesterday, however, switches 8 and 9 were lined up with the mainline, but the lights on the computer console at Shop erroneously indicated 8 was on the spur.
“Express is operating, but they can’t bring up power on the Epcot beam through the switches,” an insider reported early yesterday evening. “The conflict today casts doubt on who ultimately was at fault in July. It’s possible that Shop’s board may have indicated that the switches were aligned on the spur while they were actually still on the mainline.”
So conceivably those at consoles could have been led to believe all was well in the moments before the fatal crash. Even so, I have to think there was still time to react.
As one monorail old-timer shared, “Early in my career as a pilot we talked with one of the Park Rangers (that’s what Monorail Shop calls the maintenance cast who hang out at TTC so they can respond to problems faster) about the computers on the train. He quickly corrected us. He said there are three PROCESSORS in the monitoring system. However, ‘there is only one COMPUTER on the train: the pilot.’ Meaning that we pilots were ultimately responsible for the operation of the train, and those souls on board and that we shouldn’t explicitly trust the electronics.”
Disney World operates three separate monorail lines (Magic Kingdom Resort line running from the Ticket & Transportation Center to the park and three hotels; Express, which stops only at the TTC and Magic Kingdom, and Epcot, which runs between the TTC and Epcot. Since the Epcot line does not connect to the barn, when adding or subtracting trains, vehicles travel to or from the Express line via a spur track near the TTC. Shop activates Switch 8 (connecting Express to the spur) and Switch 9 (connecting the other end of the spur to the Epcot line), and power begins to course along the spur.
Yesterday, however, switches 8 and 9 were lined up with the mainline, but the lights on the computer console at Shop erroneously indicated 8 was on the spur.
“Express is operating, but they can’t bring up power on the Epcot beam through the switches,” an insider reported early yesterday evening. “The conflict today casts doubt on who ultimately was at fault in July. It’s possible that Shop’s board may have indicated that the switches were aligned on the spur while they were actually still on the mainline.”
So conceivably those at consoles could have been led to believe all was well in the moments before the fatal crash. Even so, I have to think there was still time to react.
As one monorail old-timer shared, “Early in my career as a pilot we talked with one of the Park Rangers (that’s what Monorail Shop calls the maintenance cast who hang out at TTC so they can respond to problems faster) about the computers on the train. He quickly corrected us. He said there are three PROCESSORS in the monitoring system. However, ‘there is only one COMPUTER on the train: the pilot.’ Meaning that we pilots were ultimately responsible for the operation of the train, and those souls on board and that we shouldn’t explicitly trust the electronics.”
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Do you know what time the shutdown occured? Or did it never start up?Posted 10-21-2009 at 04:55 AM by Drince88 
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First word I heard of it was early afternoon. Not sure if it was ever operational. The problem was corrected by the end of the day.
From a source: "Most likely it was down all day; they switch trains to the Epcot beam prior to opening ~7:30 a.m."Posted 10-23-2009 at 02:42 PM by David Koenig
