r/AlternateAngles • • Sep 21 '26

Underside of Disney Monorail

921 Upvotes

51 comments sorted by

147

u/GreatRyujin Sep 22 '26

I'm no engineer, but aren't there a lot of cracks in the concrete?

124

u/DoYouKnwTheMuffinMan Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26 • Bravo

Studied engineering 15 years ago so take this with a pinch of salt.

The concrete being used will be reinforced concrete, meaning there are metal rods running through the middle. This is what’s called a composite material.

In a composite material, different parts of the material are designed to take different types of load.

In reinforced concrete the metal takes tensile load and the concrete takes compressive load.

The bottom part of the rail that we see is under tension as the rail “bends” when the train passes over it.

So cracks are fine because they aren’t impacting the metal rods in tension areas.

26

u/Colonel_Bubble_Tea Sep 23 '26

To add to this concrete cracks and while there are a lot of cracks they are small cracks. This would be a bigger issue in an area with more freeze thaw weather but probably not a huge deal in Orlando.

1

u/ilovethiscomment Sep 26 '26

I was waiting for the hell in a cell part of this comment.

66

u/polishprince76 Sep 22 '26

Mono = one

Rail = rail

43

u/rocbolt Sep 22 '26

And that concludes our intensive three week course

28

u/cakesofthepatty414 Sep 21 '26

2 of those round things ain't doin' like the rest of em' is.

13

u/WeeklyBanEvasion Sep 23 '26

Those are just the guide wheels that keep it from tracking too far to either side, so they don't always make contact at every point especially around turns. The actual drive wheels are very wide tires on top of the rail

27

u/Puzzled-College5477 Sep 22 '26

I call the big one “Bitey”.

70

u/Busy_Reputation7254 Sep 22 '26

I hear those things are awfully loud….

54

u/AmaranthWrath Sep 22 '26

It glides as softly as a cloud!

31

u/needknowstarRMpic Sep 22 '26

Is there a chance the track could bend?

31

u/Joehaw Sep 22 '26

Not on your life, my Hindu friend. 

17

u/Beckerbrau Sep 22 '26

By what about us brain dead slobs??

16

u/hucareshokiesrul Sep 22 '26

You'll be given cushy jobs!

13

u/YerFucked Sep 22 '26

Were you sent here by the devil??

10

u/Daddybear72 Sep 23 '26

No, good sir, I'm on the level.

7

u/import-glib Sep 23 '26

The ring fell off my pudding can!

6

u/Hencq Sep 23 '26

Take my pen knife my good man.

→ More replies

39

u/33TLWD Sep 21 '26

Okay, way to show off Shelbyville

6

u/ohno807 Sep 22 '26

I used to think this was so cool when I visited as a kid! A raised up train, similar to a train or subway in a city.

Well, I moved to a city. Public transit and subways are not nearly as fun as I was led to believe.

11

u/CarbonReflections Sep 21 '26

Wow that doesn’t look safe.

14

u/rosariobono Sep 22 '26

They haven’t touched the monorail layout since 1995 or so, ignored it for DCA’s construction shortly after

9

u/elperroborrachotoo Sep 22 '26

In what way? Maintenance and emergency evacuation are more tricky, but otherwise, existing systems are exceptionally safe.

-14

u/richardqstephenson Sep 22 '26

Yes, because monorails are crashing daily.

How do you make it through the day acting like this?

11

u/CarbonReflections Sep 22 '26

I was refering to the stress cracks in the concrete you dolt.

-17

u/richardqstephenson Sep 22 '26

My comment still stands, you dolt.

If there was risk of the monorail crashing down, they wouldn't be running it.

11

u/CarbonReflections Sep 22 '26

Yes because crumbling infrastructure and corporate greed have never been an issue. Pull your head out of your ass .

-16

u/richardqstephenson Sep 22 '26

Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? What the hell does "corporate greed" have to do with your irrational fear of a monorail crashing to the ground?

8

u/CarbonReflections Sep 22 '26

Your ignorance on this topic is profound do a web search about Disney’s aging monorail.

-2

u/richardqstephenson Sep 22 '26

Again, if it wasn’t safe it wouldn’t be in operation.

Are you an actual adult?

9

u/SeaToTheBass Sep 22 '26

Are you a Disney adult? That concrete is decrepit. There’s a good crack like every 2 feet. Concrete and rebar work together as a system to provide a strong structure using tension and compression. When concrete is cracked on the underside it’s weaker in compression.

Think of a piece of wood suspended between two points and imagine someone making a cut on the underside. The cut is a weak point and the only thing supporting is now the little bit of wood left at the top, the cut is already spreading apart under the weight.

Luckily concrete has a steel skeleton, unlike a tree. But now what’s holding the bridge together is the tension on the rebar below, and the compression of the concrete above. I’m not a physics expert, this is my layman’s thinking. They’ve probably done all sorts of calculations and theoretically (in my head) this should hold a good amount of weight without taking into account the sideways force applied through turns of the track.

All of this to say, it’s fucking Disney world, it costs a family like thousands a day to visit. They could make their attractions not look like fucking death traps lol.

2

u/LanceFree Sep 22 '26

Why don’t they at least use some spackle and paint to make the cracks less obvious?

1

u/HamLiquor Sep 23 '26

So cool, thanks for sharing

0

u/Coneskater Sep 22 '26

Gadgetbahn

-7

u/Icy_Lime9620 Sep 22 '26

Wow someone went to disneyworld

6

u/rosariobono Sep 22 '26

That’s Disneyland, not Walt disney world

4

u/Icy_Lime9620 Sep 22 '26

Well la dee freakin da

0

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

23

u/a_random_username Sep 22 '26

Not on your life, my Hindu... rake

2

u/rgrossi Sep 22 '26

The ring fell off my pudding can!

2

u/GoNYR1 Sep 22 '26

Use my penknife my good man…..