Question About Monorail Playsets.

[tigger1968]

Does anyone have a list of the different color trains that have been issued so far? I had bought several a few years ago, and recently my love of Monorails has been rekindled and I am in a collecting mode again. I just can't seem to find a list of what color trains have been issued so far.

Thanks so much!

 

[boBQuincy]

I remember red was the original. After that was:
yellow
orange
blue
black
silver, not necessarily in that order.

There was also the Disneyland/California Adventure set which I think was blue?

The original red set did not have opening doors, that came later but I don't recall with which models. Radio control (but not a good one) is the most recent version afaik.

Modifications I have seen include higher speed, radio control (hobby grade, full proportional), and Monorail Silver's incredible fully automated conversion!

 

[shannon006]

I am looking for any information on the original Spaceship Earth. How is it ? I know the monorail drives under it as opposed to the current version available. Does the original come with any accessories?

 

[386chad]

Modifications I have seen include higher speed, radio control (hobby grade, full proportional), and Monorail Silver's incredible fully automated conversion!

You are right about the Monorail Silver mod. Michael Andrews is the one behind it. I did a series of posts on my blog no one reads that shows some of the assembly process. It is mylazyafternoon dot com. The latest post has a video that shows off some of what the system can do.

Does anyone know why you can't find the WDW playsets on Disneystore.com anymore?

 

[386chad]

I am looking for any information on the original Spaceship Earth. How is it ? I know the monorail drives under it as opposed to the current version available. Does the original come with any accessories?

I have the original Spaceship Earth in the video from my earlier post. Sorry, I'm new so it won't let me post direct links. Take a look and see if you have any questions.

Yes, the monorail drives under it as you can see in the video. It comes with 2 pieces of straight track. It's pretty awesome as far as I'm concerned. I don't like how the new one looks sorta janky the way it folds apart, plus the monorail playset doesn't integrate with it at all, drive under it, etc. I do not own that one though.

 

[boBQuincy]

You are right about the Monorail Silver mod. Michael Andrews is the one behind it. I did a series of posts on my blog no one reads that shows some of the assembly process. It is mylazyafternoon dot com. The latest post has a video that shows off some of what the system can do.

Impressive monorail system on your blog! Your workbench looks like mine (only neater). Unfortunately it appears MonorailSilver is no longer in business. I understand, the monorail business is tough! When I sold my first N scale monorail it seems I had saturated the world market!
My latest project addresses what I consider the worst feature of the monorail, the gearbox and drive system. I am replacing these with a completely new design that is smooth and quiet! It also drives the monorail like the real one, with a wheel/tire that rides on top of the beam. The monorail includes state of the art RC, a tiny 2.4 GHz Deltang receiver.

Watch for it late next week!

 

[386chad]

Impressive monorail system on your blog! Your workbench looks like mine (only neater). Unfortunately it appears MonorailSilver is no longer in business. I understand, the monorail business is tough! When I sold my first N scale monorail it seems I had saturated the world market!
My latest project addresses what I consider the worst feature of the monorail, the gearbox and drive system. I am replacing these with a completely new design that is smooth and quiet! It also drives the monorail like the real one, with a wheel/tire that rides on top of the beam. The monorail includes state of the art RC, a tiny 2.4 GHz Deltang receiver.

Watch for it late next week!

Amen on those little transmissions, they are abysmal. Mike was nice enough to give me several replacements for the rubber tread for the guide wheels, so I should be ok for a few years.

I spent so much time on this system (learning to solder, etc) that I need it to last a little while.

I love your idea for the on top drive wheel. Wow.

You have my interest, sir.

 

[386chad]

That is a really clean design. Looks great.

 

[ILoveDisneyWorld2015]

Here's what I know of:

WDW
•Monorail - They have released about 10 colors by now I think and two different versions the newer one has opening doors
•Straight Track - pack of 4
•Curved Track - pack of 4
•Contemporary Hotel
•Spaceship Earth (Discontinued) - This is the original one that the monorail went underneath spaceship earth.
•Disneyana "Silver" Monorail - Very limited edition special packaging and the whole thing is colored silver
•Disneyana "Silver" Contemporary - Same as above
•Disneyana "Silver" Spaceship Earth - Same as above
•TTC Switching Station (Discontinued) - Has three switches at each end to create three separate loops themed to TTC
•Polynesian Hotel (Dicontinued) - Includes a great ceremonial house and station (If you by two of these and put the station parts end to end it creates a station that is the correct length of the train)
•Grand Floridian Hotel (Discontinued) - The grand Floridian station
•Cinderella Castle Playset
•WDW Sign Set (Discontinued) - includes WDW Main Entrance sign(lights up), WDW directional road sign, Contemporary sign, Polynesian sign, and Grand Floridian sign(lights up)
•WDW Tree and Light set (Discontinued) - Includes Main Street Light(lights up), tomorrowland metallic palm tree, and Contemporary "Dixie Cup" style tree
•Astro Orbiter Attracion (Dicontinued) - Includes two disney characters and can be activated by the monorail with seperately sold attraction connector
•Dumbo Attracion (Dicontinued) - Includes two disney characters and can be activated by the monorail with seperately sold attraction connector
•Tea Cup Attracion (Dicontinued) - Includes two disney characters and can be activated by the monorail with seperately sold attraction connector
•Attraction Connector (Dicontinued) - Plugs into attraction and attaches to monorail pylon
•WDW Haunted Mansion (Discontinued) - No attraction connection
•New Spaceship Earth - More of a standalone playset
•Tree of Life Playset (Discontinued) - Really has nothing to do with monorail but is packaged in monorail packaging

Disneyland
•Disneyland Monorail (Discontinued) - An accurate model of the Mark V monorail, this was the most detailed monorail two right down to the doors, rearview mirrors, and escape hatches and includes the Golden Gate Bridge
•Disneyland Mini Monorail (Discontinued) - Same as above but only included the two end cars, a little less track, and no bridge
•DCA Orange Stinger (Discontinued) - Works with attraction connector
•DCA Golden Zephyr (Discontinued) - Works with attraction connector
•DCA King Tritons Carousel (Discontinued) - Works with attraction connector
•DCA California Screamin (Discontinued) - A real pain to put together but really big once its done with either orange or purple cars
•WDW Monorail sold as Disneyland monorail - Just a different package for the WDW one
•Disneyland Haunted Mansion (Discontinued) - Same as WDW version but modeled after Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

I think that covers most of it, I probably left something out or got something wrong so feel free to offer any correction.

Nice Job with your list! It is really accurate.

 

[caremedic]

I saw the list of Monorail Playsets and am wondering if there any updates to colors of the monorails? or playsets? I am wondering if they have colors like peach or pink? I found lime and possibly coral on ebay. The list is thorough but a few years old. Anyone??

 

[boBQuincy]

Nice Job with your list! It is really accurate.

In case no one else listed them:
the two Disneyland monorail sets with remote control and opening doors (one side only);
the (sort of) N scale $5 pull-back spring powered model, monorail red only;

The Disneyland sets appear similar to the WDW models but inside almost everything is different.

 

[Toddtt]

We have one of these and it is arguably the best accessory to the Monorail playset -it lets you move the monorail between up to three different track loops and has six different announcements that can be set to run by specific track (one for each of the three monorail resorts as well as two for the MK and one for Epcot.) All this adds a significant amount of "play value" to a running setup.

However, there are issues with the station. The first is a design problem with the track switching mechanism that often causes it to jam. The second is the announcement audio level being very weak because of the cheap, tiny speaker the station uses.

It took him several hours, but my husband took care of the jamming issue by adding plastic "tables" to each side of the switching pole system that is inside each side of the station. That keeps the "feet" of that mechanism from sliding off the pieces they move on, which is what causes the jamming issue.

The audio problem was easier to deal with, he simply cut the wires going to the original speaker and attached them to a larger, higher quality one. He somehow managed to squeeze a three inch long speaker (scavenged from an old radio) into an open interior space near the middle section of the station, facing down through the bottom via a hole he cut in the floor. Nice approach, much better sound but you can’t see the change. He also added some sort of high level to low level circuit to the audio system, which is connected to a stereo headphone jack installed under the station controls. That allows the station to be connected to outside amp/speakers if we ever want/need to do that.

If anyone is interested in more details on these upgrades, let me know and I'll see it I can get him to open up the station again and take some pictures of the changes he made.

 

[Toddtt]

We are having the sames issue with the switch station can you share the pictures and instructions on how to fix it

 

[rshannie]

It's Collectitall41 my friend,
I'd love to see your work! Sign up for a free photo hosting site like Photobucket, Flickr etc and just post your link here

Hi, I know this is a long shot, but would you still have a copy of the town square set up instructions. I saw one of your earlier posts from years ago. If not, do you have any idea where I can find the instructions? Thank you! rshannie

 

[disney55]

Blue has also been released it was the first of the series with opening doors. So I guess that would leave Pink, Lime, and Coral to be made. Pink will probably be a huge hit but I doubt they will ever make lime and coral and even if they do they won't get it right.

We bought the set in 2008 and it is lime green with doors that open

 

[Eric mercer]

I want to build a mini monorail system. This weekend I found at Disney Spirngs (not yet purchased) the blue and orange stripe, Contemporary, WDW Castle, and Spaceship Earth. What are things to watch our for?

 

[boBQuincy]

I want to build a mini monorail system. This weekend I found at Disney Spirngs (not yet purchased) the blue and orange stripe, Contemporary, WDW Castle, and Spaceship Earth. What are things to watch our for?

Here is some information: http://monorail.suzieandbob.com/ho.html

 

[DClatt]

Here's what I know of:

WDW
•Monorail - They have released about 10 colors by now I think and two different versions the newer one has opening doors
•Straight Track - pack of 4
•Curved Track - pack of 4
•Contemporary Hotel
•Spaceship Earth (Discontinued) - This is the original one that the monorail went underneath spaceship earth.
•Disneyana "Silver" Monorail - Very limited edition special packaging and the whole thing is colored silver
•Disneyana "Silver" Contemporary - Same as above
•Disneyana "Silver" Spaceship Earth - Same as above
•TTC Switching Station (Discontinued) - Has three switches at each end to create three separate loops themed to TTC
•Polynesian Hotel (Dicontinued) - Includes a great ceremonial house and station (If you by two of these and put the station parts end to end it creates a station that is the correct length of the train)
•Grand Floridian Hotel (Discontinued) - The grand Floridian station
•Cinderella Castle Playset
•WDW Sign Set (Discontinued) - includes WDW Main Entrance sign(lights up), WDW directional road sign, Contemporary sign, Polynesian sign, and Grand Floridian sign(lights up)
•WDW Tree and Light set (Discontinued) - Includes Main Street Light(lights up), tomorrowland metallic palm tree, and Contemporary "Dixie Cup" style tree
•Astro Orbiter Attracion (Dicontinued) - Includes two disney characters and can be activated by the monorail with seperately sold attraction connector
•Dumbo Attracion (Dicontinued) - Includes two disney characters and can be activated by the monorail with seperately sold attraction connector
•Tea Cup Attracion (Dicontinued) - Includes two disney characters and can be activated by the monorail with seperately sold attraction connector
•Attraction Connector (Dicontinued) - Plugs into attraction and attaches to monorail pylon
•WDW Haunted Mansion (Discontinued) - No attraction connection
•New Spaceship Earth - More of a standalone playset
•Tree of Life Playset (Discontinued) - Really has nothing to do with monorail but is packaged in monorail packaging

Disneyland
•Disneyland Monorail (Discontinued) - An accurate model of the Mark V monorail, this was the most detailed monorail two right down to the doors, rearview mirrors, and escape hatches and includes the Golden Gate Bridge
•Disneyland Mini Monorail (Discontinued) - Same as above but only included the two end cars, a little less track, and no bridge
•DCA Orange Stinger (Discontinued) - Works with attraction connector
•DCA Golden Zephyr (Discontinued) - Works with attraction connector
•DCA King Tritons Carousel (Discontinued) - Works with attraction connector
•DCA California Screamin (Discontinued) - A real pain to put together but really big once its done with either orange or purple cars
•WDW Monorail sold as Disneyland monorail - Just a different package for the WDW one
•Disneyland Haunted Mansion (Discontinued) - Same as WDW version but modeled after Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

I think that covers most of it, I probably left something out or got something wrong so feel free to offer any correction.

I know I'm necro'ing a super duper old topic but I was just wondering if you had any pics or more information on this Disneyana all silver limited monorail playset? I can't find a lead anywhere. Thanks!

 

[Dsnyguy75]

Okay, so here's what I have for colors at this point.

Black
Gold
Yellow
Lime
Blue
Orange
Red
Purple
Silver

I do know there is a 25th Anniversary Silver Body Model (Disneyana Version)

There is also
Mark VII models from DL
Orange
Red
Blue

Does anyone have any colors that I'm not aware of? I have slowly been collecting these over the last 10 years.

 

[boBQuincy]

Is the DL Mark VII Blue out yet (I want one)? There were also models of the DL Mark V Blue, maybe other colors.

Okay, so here's what I have for colors at this point.

Black
Gold
Yellow
Lime
Blue
Orange
Red
Purple
Silver

I do know there is a 25th Anniversary Silver Body Model (Disneyana Version)

There is also
Mark VII models from DL
Orange
Red
Blue

Does anyone have any colors that I'm not aware of? I have slowly been collecting these over the last 10 years.