Disney: Monorail System Shutdown at the Magic Kingdom and Storage Shed

When people think of monorails they often think of the Walt Disney World monorail system, but the original is still found in Disneyland. Originally opened in 1959 it was designed as a ride above the Tomorrowland and Fantasyland areas of the Disneyland park. When Walt Disney World opened in 1971 they opened the first true monorail transit system with a pair of loops taking guests between the Ticket and Transportation Center and the Magic Kingdom with a few resort stops along the way. 11 years later with the opening of Epcot a third line was added allowing guests to travel the entire distance from the Ticket and Transportation Center to Epcot. The monorails operate an hour before park opening to an hour after park closing (excluding evening extra magic hours). Once the operating day is done the monorails must be cycled out of the system. This involves a series of track switches to get all the monorails from the 3 lines transferred over to the dedicated maintenance spur that leads to the maintenance shed behind the Magic Kingdom. Following the death of a cast member during this complex process the procedures were changed requiring that the trains remain more spaced out and mandating that a monorail can only travel in forward, requiring a cast member to operate from each cabin of the train to accomplish the transfers.

This video was filmed from Magic Kingdom path to the Contemporary Resort the night of November 18th 2017.