Mickey's Mouseorail (& Other Vintage Tomorrowland Ride Vehicles)

In 1987, the Mark III Monorails at Disneyland were retired and replaced with the Mark V Monorails (the Mark IV was designed for use at Walt Disney World).  After retirement, the Mark III "Monorail Red" train was chopped up and converted into "Mickey's Mouseorail."



The Mouseorail was a street-legal vehicle that toured the country in 1990 to promote Disneyland's 35th anniversary.  Prior to embarking on it's promotional tour, it appeared in a pre-parade show for the 101st Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day, and then again at Disneyland in the premiere performance of the Party Gras Parade on January 11th, 1990.



If you would like to see footage of Mickey's Mouseorail making it's debut in the 1990 Tournament of Roses Parade, you can watch it below. The Mouseorail appears at the 5:40 mark, but the video includes the full Disney pre-show, as well as the entire Rose Parade.



Back in the late nineties, I used to drive to and from work using West Street (now Disneyland Drive). This was back when Disney was buying up property for their "resort" expansion. There used to be a small campground/RV park located on the east side of West Street, that backed up against the Disney property. After Disney purchased this property, they put up a gate across the driveway and used this property for storage. One of the items that was stored back there for a while was the Mouseorail. Since it could be seen just sitting there on the other side of the fence, I decided to pull over one day back in March of 1997, and take some pics of it through the opening in the gate.



Note the steering wheel that was installed in the nosecone of the monorail. There is also a pirate ship parade float that can be seen in the distance. I'm not sure which parade that would have been from. In the foreground, we can see a couple boxed-up trees. I wonder where those trees were from and where they ended up?



When it came time to design a new Tomorrowland, the original plan for the former Mission to Mars space was to have it be a restaurant where guests could eat their food while sitting in an old Skyway gondola, a PeopleMover car, or the actual Mouseorail car. One of the old Mission to Mars space capsules (there were two theaters!) was going to be left intact and guests were also going to be able to eat their food in that theater while watching the original "Rocket To The Moon" footage play on the floor and ceiling. Well, as we all know, plans can and do change very easily over at Disney (Helloooo, Westcot and Port Disney!) These plans got scrapped and what we ended up with was Redd Rockett's Pizza Port where guests can eat their food while sitting next to the Monorail, PeopleMover, or Skyway......attraction posters. Waaa waaaa!

It was then decided to just use the old attraction vehicles as decor in both Tomorrowland's Premiere Shop and in the queue of the new Rocket Rods attraction. At this time, the Mouseorail/Monorail Red was chopped up again and a portion of it went into the Rocket Rods queue along with a couple Rocket Jet vehicles, a couple PeopleMover cars, and a car from Space Mountain. (To see pics of the old Tomorrowland attraction vehicles that were used in the Premiere Shop, click here for my previous post from 2009: Vintage Tomorrowland Ride Vehicles.)

For the Rocket Rods queue, the vehicles were painted blue and tape was applied to them to give them a "blueprint" appearance.



You can see in the photo above and below that a mirror was used at the end of both the Monorail and the PeopleMover cars to give the illusion that they are longer and that they are coming out of a tunnel.

I love the way that the PeopleMover cars were just placed on top of the carpet without a base or anything. At least a fake beam-way was recreated for the Monorail. And how about the irony of that statement above the PeopleMover cars? It reads, "In the world of creativity, there's no end to the possibilities." Oh, I think there WAS an end to the possibilities and they reached it with Tomorrowland '98!



This next photo shows a couple of the old Rocket Jet vehicles. On the wall in the background, there are blueprints for the Tomorrowland Moonliner Rocket, as well as one for the Flying Saucer attraction.



Well unfortunately, there was not a happy ending for "Monorail Red." At some point after the closure of the Rocket Rods, that last remaining section of the Mark III Monorail was scrapped and another piece of Disneyland history was lost forever. :-(

(And as a side note, the front section of one of the 1971 Walt Disney World Mark IV monorails was saved after it was retired and is now in the hands of a private collector. To see a brief video tour of it's interior and exterior, click below:)



To see footage of the rescued WDW Mark IV Monorail being reunited with it's designer, Bob Gurr (at Walt's Barn), click below:

America Sings Weekend & Tomorrowland - 1981

Hey kids, it's time for another vintage newspaper ad from the Los Angeles Times! Thirty years ago this week, Disneyland was celebrating "America Sings Weekend."

One month earlier, Disneyland had "Small World Days". Now it was America Sings' turn in the spotlight and once again, park guests did not have to give up an "E" ticket in order to experience it (or was America Sings already a "D" ticket by 1981?) The ad reads, "Snap a souvenir photo with Sam the Eagle".....was there ever a walk-around character of Sam the Eagle? I miss America Sings. I would rather watch those characters perform in the Carousel Theater instead of just float past them briefly on Splash Mountain. Oh well, I guess that's PROGRESS!

One of the souvenirs being sold in the park at this time, were postcard books that included eight regular sized postcards attached to a mini version of the postcard. I guess the idea was that you could tear along the perforation, send the postcard to someone and still have the smaller version attached to the book to keep for yourself. There was a postcard book for each of the "lands" and there was also one with shots of the park's 25th Anniversary "Family Reunion Parade" from 1980. The Tomorrowland book featured two interior scenes from America Sings. Here is the entire postcard book.

The front cover was the only postcard that did not include the "mini version."

The back cover:

Wouldn't THIS monorail still look futuristic today?

By the 1980's, wasn't the Matterhorn considered strictly a Fantasyland attraction?


Too bad Space Mountain doesn't look like this anymore!

Geez, everything at Disneyland was better back then, wasn't it?


This group sang, "Hound Dog" and "See You Later, Alligator" in Act 4 of America Sings.

The Swamp Boys sang, "Polly Wolly Doodle" in Act 1.

I think it would be nice to see all of the buildings in Tomorrowland restored to their 1967 glory. I really don't have faith anymore that Disney could do anything that looks better. They wanted "retro" for the '98 Tomorrowland.....well, do retro again, but do THIS version of retro! It would also be nice to see the PeopleMover come back in some form and also some kind of rotating theater show in the former Carousel Theater building. I know, I know....IT AIN'T NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!

Happy America Sings Weekend, everyone!

Grad Nite Tragedy at Disneyland - June 1980

The article below appeared in the L.A. Times, following the death of a Grad Nite guest who had climbed out of a PeopleMover vehicle.

The Lunching Pad Revisited

Let's take a look at a long extinct Disneyland eatery, The Lunching Pad. This little snack bar used to be located underneath the PeopleMover station and Rocket Jet platform in Tomorrowland. It's original name was The Space Bar and that signage can be seen in these next two photos from Gorillas Don't Blog (used here with permission - THANK YOU, Major Pepperidge!) Incidentally, there was a larger "Space Bar" restaurant in the first version of Tomorrowland, but it was torn down in 1966 to make way for the Carousel Theater and the New Tomorrowland of 1967.

Looking through my collection of old Disneyland guides, it appears the name of this facility changed from The Space Bar to the The Lunching Pad sometime between the Spring and Summer of 1977. The change appears to have happened around the same time that Space Mountain opened. Here's a pic of the Lunching Pad as it appeared in September of 1995.

I like the font that was used for the signage.

After the release of "Toy Story" in 1995, The Lunching Pad received a "Little Green Men" makeover. These next photos were taken in October of 1996.

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Notice the white architectural element that sits between the two popcorn cases and also biscects the area behind the counter.....later, we'll see a shot of how that appears today.

A close-up of those purple Disneyland cups can be seen (here.)

What, no Space Mist? I guess it had already been removed from the menu. How about those 1996 prices!

Shortly after the 1998 redo of Tomorrowland (UGH!), this space was transformed into the headquarters for Radio Disney. While I don't have any pics of the building during this time, I do have this magnet that was given out free (yes, free!) at the park to promote Radio Disney.

In 2007 this space changed once again, and it is now a souvenir shop called TomorrowLanding, featuring "Gifts from Outer and Liquid Space."

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That architectural element pointed out earlier is now located in the middle of the shop. There are more of these that surround the building. I believe they are the actual supports that hold the structure up. Unfortunately, the rest of these were partially covered up with walls during changes that were made in 1998 for the Rocket Rods. I would love to see this structure returned to it's original 1967 glory with the Rocket Jets twirling up above once more, and some version of the PeopleMover brought back. The new shop could even stay! ;-)

Just for fun, here's a shot of Walt Disney World's current Lunching Pad.

Tokyo Disneyland has a snack bar under their Rocket Jet platform too, but theirs is called the Space Place Foodport. The gantry lifts that take guests up to the Rocket Jet (Star Jet) flight deck can be seen in the background. Hey Disney, bring back Anaheim's gantry lifts!

I hope everyone enjoyed this little trip back in time to Disneyland's Lunching Pad!

Vintage Tomorrowland Ride Vehicles

Where in the 1998 Tommorrowland could you have found Rocket Jets, PeopleMover cars AND Skyway buckets? I know what you're thinking. You are thinking "nowhere" because Disney destroyed all of those attractions. Well, the answer to that question is actually The Premiere Shop, located at the exit to the Rocket Rods attraction. (Of course, the queue for the Rocket Rods even had part of a vintage Monorail car, but that's the subject for another post!)

Notice the upright Rocket Jet vehicles being used to display merchandise in the next two photos.

Here's a better view of one of the merchandise displays. Hey, the control lever is still in place! Doesn't it make you wish you could go for a ride...but up on top the old Rocket Jet platform? .

After Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters opened in 2005, the shop was renamed Little Green Men Store Command and was given a Buzz makeover, but a few of the old ride vehicles remained and can still be seen in the shop today. Here is what the displays look like today with their new paint jobs.

This is what the cash register counter looked like back in 1998. These are actual pieces of the old PeopleMover vehicles.

And this is what that same counter looks like today.

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This scooped out area on the bottom is where the small white panels originally went as seen here at Daveland.

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I definitely liked all of these vehicles better with their former paint jobs, but I'm just glad they're still around to remind us how cool Tomorrowland used to be!
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*Post Update - 2015: To view a newer post with more pics of vintage Tomorrowland ride vehicles, including the last remnant of a Mark IV Monorail, click here: Mickey's Mouseorail

Welcome to Parachute Land!

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Or is it one word....Parachuteland? It's shown each way on two different signs. This magical land can be found at Tokyo Dome City in Tokyo, Japan. Located next door to the Tokyo Dome sports arena, this amusement area was founded in 1955 and consists of three sections or "lands", Parachute Land, Tower Land, and LaQua.

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Parachute Land does indeed contain a parachute ride and it's called the Sky Flower. This attraction was made by Intamin AG, the same company that made Knott's Sky Jump tower, as well as several parachute towers for other amusement parks across the U.S.

Tokyo's Sky Flower

For a comparison, the photo below shows Knott's Berry Farm's Sky Jump tower, (This photo was borrowed and used with permission from the Vintage Disneyland Tickets blog. Click here: Vintage Disneyland Tickets to see fantastic trip reports of Disneyland, Knott's and Magic Mountain, in addition to great vintage park tickets, brochures, maps, guides and much more!)

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Knott's Sky Jump

Riding in these baskets gave me a major flashback to my childhood visits to Knott's. It also took me back to a time when I worked at the park. On the Sky Flower, you are taken up and dropped twice....just as in the old days at Knott's. (Knott's changed this at one point and only took guests up once.)

This is the view from the top during the day.

And this is the view looking down on the Tokyo Dome sports arena at night.

Parachute Land also has it's own "PeopleMover" attraction called the "Sky Trip," and it's just like Disneyland's used to be....except the vehicles are different colors...and the cars only hold two people....oh, and you have to power them yourself by peddling! Other than that, they are JUST like the old PeopleMover. The next photo shows a Sky Trip car leaving the station. That's a hotel rising up in the background. It kind of gives the park a "Disney's California Adventure" feel to it.....but not in a good way.

Here is a blue and a pink car going around the base of the parachute tower.

And here's another view of the vehicles looking straight down from the top of the Sky Flower. An orange Sky Trip car can be seen at about "eight o' clock" and a blue one can be seen at about "ten o' clock."

I hope everyone enjoyed this visit to Parachute Land! I will try to do a post on the other two "lands" of Tokyo Dome City in the future, but I probably won't be blogging for a little while now, because I am leaving in just a few days for Tokyo. On April 15th, Tokyo Disneyland will be celebrating it's 26th anniversary with the opening of their new Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek attraction. I hope to bring back lots of new photos to share!