FROM: No Event Too Small Published Wednesdays
The Little Trams That Couldn't
I'm sure it wasn't funny back then, but the mental image Charlie Ridgway describes of the passenger trams at just-opened Disney World not being able to putt putt up the slight incline to the Contemporary Resort is now... pretty funny.
At a recent D23 event to commemmorate the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World's grand opening, I saw an old friend and fellow Disney Legend, Tom Nabbe, who started at Disneyland in 1955, many years before me, and stayed with the company for nearly 50 years. We chatted for awhile.
I didn't know Tom when he worked as 'Tom Sawyer' in Disneyland. Later, he was in the Marines for a short period, and then returned to the company to work in Operations, and that's when I first met him. A bit later still, we both came down to Florida during the construction of Disney World. Tom was put in charge of the monorails.
At D23, Tom and I talked about some of the problems Disney had with the monorails in the opening weeks of the park. There had been an urgency to get the park open on schedule, and to do so, Disney was cutting corners in terms of both time and money. That meant problems with the monorails, and problems with many of the other things that today work so well.
One problem, in particular, had to do with the trams used to transport guests.
Disney powered those trams with tractors they bought from airports. Those tractors had the muscle to pull 747s around the airports, and so Disney figured they'd be plenty strong enough for the trams.
They weren't.
That became especially clear when the driver of a full tram would pass under the tunnel and then up the little hill toward the Contemporary. It wasn't a big hill - just a slight incline - but the trams couldn't take it.
Disney had to order a whole new set of tractors, which took several weeks to arrive. In the meantime, they were very short on transportation between the parking lot and the park, and they had to press into service all sorts of small boats and other vehicles.
It wouldn't be long, however, before the trams (and the monorails) were working fine.
Don't want to wait another week to read more from Charlie Ridgway? Don't blame you! I can help: first, read my review of Charlie's book, Spinning Disney's World, and then... buy it! The book brims with Charlie's well-told stories, and it spans the length of his Disney career, from Disneyland to Disney World and beyond.
More: NO EVENT TOO SMALL
Stuff Not to Skip
- Spinning Disney's World [Amazon]
- Spinning Disney's World [Intrepid Traveler]
- Book Review: Spinning Disney's World [Disney Dispatch]
- Charlie Ridgway [Disney Legends]