The Monorail That Got Destroyed By A Monster Truck

The year is 1971. The vacation kingdom of the world had just opened. A new, futuristic mode of transportation excited guests from all around the world… it was called the Walt Disney World Monorail.

The monorail system opened with 10 trains, and it operated a 10 train system until 1984. The photo at the top of this post shows the original fleet. In 1984, shortly after the Epcot monorail beam expansion opened, Disney realized that they needed more monorail trains. As a result of this, 2 new trains were ordered; these trains were monorail Coral, and monorail Lime.

Meanwhile in Vegas

Bally’s Casino & Hotel and MGM Grand Resort, Hotel & Theme Park (yes, theme park) were wanting to open a monorail line that connected their two properties. Construction started in the early 1990’s.

At Walt Disney World

After 20 or so years of service, Disney decided that it was time to update their monorail system. In 1989 they started phasing out the Mark IV trains. By 1990 nearly all of the Mark IV trains were replaced with Mark VI trains; except Lime and Coral, the newest trains that were made in ’84. Coral and Lime lasted until 1991.

Back in Vegas

Bombardier transportation was hired to get trains for the Vegas system. They realized that 12 of their trains were just retired in Orlando, so they set up a deal between the Vegas monorail company and Walt Disney World to purchase monorails Lime and Coral! The 2 trains were saved from destruction! Monorail lime was turned into the Bally’s train, and monorail coral was turned into the MGM Grand train. Below you can see Lime being turned into the Bally’s train.

Vegas Livin’

The two trains started daily operation in 1995, transporting guests between MGM Grand and Bally’s. Below you can see the two trains sitting next to each other in their maintenance bay.

The trains operated happily. Below you can see the happy trains (woo hoo!)

Then 2004 came along, and there were plans to expand the Vegas monorail system. The plans went through, and the line was extended farther down the vegas strip. Bad news for the Mark IV’s… They were to be replaced with new automated trains. The poor guys were moved to the desert where they are currently stored. One of the train cabs and passenger cars were sold on Ebay in 2014, and one cab from the MGM Grand train (monorail Coral) was used at a Las Vegas Monster Jam show in 2014. That means that the other 2 cabs and the remaining passenger cars are still out there somewhere… Just waiting to be restored.

Dear Feld Entertainment,

You guys literally ran over history with a monster truck at your redneck fiesta. Thousands of happy guests rode on that train at the vacation kingdom of the world, and you hit it with a stupid monster truck while Billy from Umatilla cheered it on. You probably wouldn’t destroy your Ringling Bro’s Barnium & Bailey train like this.

Sincerely, we hate you,

Love Park Pass

Hopefully you guys don’t take our letter to you seriously.