The Story of Disney's Third Peoplemover

If you want more info on the Capitol Subway, I would reach out to the Office of the Architect of the Capitol. They are the ones that would have designed, sourced, and now maintain it. If a simple "contact us" form submission is not fruitful, filing a Freedom of Information Act request is usually free and will reveal an abundance of information!

Neill Thornton

JFK air train is also a Skytrain type system...forgot to mention..

Vaughn B.

In the relatively small world of LIM based transit system. In addition to these relatively simple people mover where I imagine the LIM are constant rate, there are several System such as Detroit that someone has mentioned which was an earlier system based on the same train technology as the Scarborough RT (odd driver based system, though it was designed to be automated out of the box), then Vancouvers Skytrain (Expo, Millennium, and evergreen lines), then Detroit, Malaysia and Beijing airport trains I believe. Vancouver being the largest by far if it’s kind. These much larger Bombardier cars are powered and use LIM motors installed on the trains and a reaction rail run the entire length of the guideways. The trains also use variable frequency control, which has changed in design over time giving the system an usual sound when accelerating or decelerating. As suspected, the older trains at least are highly reliable and low maintenance with the earliest cars 1985-1991 going through a 15 years life extension. (LIM overhaul, control computer upgrades). This system can handle substantial grades due to reaction rail vs. Wheel traction. Icing of the power rails can occasionally cause issues in certain spots...overall a very good system.

Vaughn B.

I've been on the DC capital system. those cars are indeed identical on the inside. I wish I remembered more about them to help with the research!

Oooooooh, this was neat! Thanks for doing it.

evistre

Another one of these "I didn't know I'd be this excited about and interested in this particular topic" video. :D

Alec Jahn

I loved the way this video turned out! Especially the match cuts to move from system to system. I’m glad you managed to get to film three of the systems. And I’m now extra curious that Disney had a transport division trying to sell systems to locations elsewhere. Ewen

Ewen McNeill

I can understand why you are proud of this video Alec, well done. As Thijs Dortmann says, this was a journey. I hope it does well for you in terms of views - let us know! I think you should look for more journey subjects and make the occasional epic edition like this one. By the way, I did notice the 'sentence-started-in-one-place-and-finished-in-another' moments - very David Attenborough! ::-) A trick well learned and used to great effect. Congratulations on a great video.

Stephen Bell

Oh, somewhat unrelated but still a burning topic of interest to your multitude of fans... ;-) WHAT is that oboe-based theme that you use musically in your videos? Sorry if you've answered before but I've not heard it outside of them, so....?

Will Latinette

Loved the video., Keep up the great work. Did I say work? Looks more like FUN to me but I know that's not totally accurate either. The fact that you make it LOOK like fun is because you work so hard. Congrats !

Vincent G. Calvacca

Did you know about the People Mover in Detroit. (Almost got taken out when the old Hudson's building was demode.) It's a really nice system. The trains are powered and it does have some changes in elevation, just not very much. ight make a cool video and at the same time, show the way Detroit is coming back.

Allen Boogaard

If you're doing more videos on people movers, and you have the time and budget, and your Hilton travel benefits work in the United Kingdom, I strongly recommend you do a video on the people movers at London Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5. There's one people mover that runs between the three concourses of that terminal (which is structured like O'Hare Terminal 1 except there are two remote concourses, not two), as well as the unique parking "pods" that autonomously transport individuals or small groups between the terminal and the business car parking lot.

Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog

I couldn't tell for sure (and I couldn't really get a good picture of it) but it looked like there was a device at the bottom of the curtain doors which would grab the door of the train. There's a bar-like thing on the bottom of the train's doors, and perhaps when it gets pushed up or down, it unlocks the door. So I think it slips between a little o o shaped thing (imagine this sideways), and when the train stops, it squeezes together ( oo ), both unlocking the door and grabbing hold of it to move it. I also think that the curtain doors might be using standard elevator door operators, though that's admittedly a stab in the dark based on the way the linkage looks. The weird and totally unexplained thing is that there is a small, red "Door Hold" button inside the train. I have no idea how that would communicate to the door mechanism to override a close, though it's entirely possible it simple shorts a couple of contacts that the door mechanism is touching. And in any case, there is also an optical sensor to detect a blocked door.

Technology Connections

I think it's both simpler and more complicated than that :) In Tomorrowland, when the system is stopped for whatever reason, the trains can all get back up to speed pretty quickly even when they're in the long straightaways without any closely-spaced motors. The reason they sometimes fail to start, I think, is that they happened to stop right in the perfect place where none of the vehicle presence sensors are tripped (so none of the motors power on). My intuition tells me that just as AC motors have a natural RPM, the linear motors have a natural linear speed they want to push the trains. There's a bit of an "impact" like force whenever the Houston trains start from a stop, and this is in line with my memory of Tomorrowland restarts. I think it's the instant torque of the motors. This, combined with the fact that the motors are evenly spaced otherwise, makes me think the motor clusters may in fact be a mix of high and low speed motors, allowing for some controlled slip and a smoother acceleration. As for why there are more in the tight turns of Houston, I would guess this is to add more raw power to overcome the added friction from the turn. These are all my best guesses, though. I'm no engineer!

Technology Connections

Very interesting! I really like this style of video, with you taking us along on the journey between different places. The timing was great, as I just had my first encounter with an indoor peoplemover system when I came back from a visit to London a few days ago, and rode one at Heathrow airport between the different gate buildings at Terminal 5. Very interesting to hear a bit more about these types of systems, as we don't really have them in the Netherlands as far as I'm aware of - at least I've never seen one. One thing I was wondering about are the doors, as they open and close at the different stations. Are they in some way grabbed by the curtain doors at the stations? Or is there a secret power source to the otherwise passive trains to power a motor that opens and closes them?

Great video (as usual!), thanks!

Eris Alar

Surely the reason for placing the motors together is just an acceleration and not a transition? As it's linear induction, is it not simply that if you place a number of them together there is going to be an increased amount of force pushing against the metal on the bottom of the train, thus the train is pushed faster? It's just like magnets, right? And then due to minimal friction the train's increased speed can be maintained by using the same motors. So basically it's a cost saving measure - all of the motors are the same, you just put more where you need to accelerate the train and then space them evenly to provide just enough force to keep the speed the train is moving at without any acceleration. This ties with the fact they need more at corners - a corner has far more friction and thus in order to maintain a constant velocity, more force is required. (edit here) Again, for the modern system where they are all equally spaced is due to the new linear motors having the ability to drive a variable force, wheras the more primitive Disney ones just emit a constant force with no variability. Alternatively I may have totally misunderstood how linear motors work, so someone tell me I'm a fool - I don't actually know this stuff, just thinking on the spot!!

zephyrmo

Now that you mentioned it. You might be right.

Brilliant! Sorry for driving you mad about the D.C. system, but I now know more about it than I did a few minutes ago. Very interesting stuff.

Big Car

I think you should go to Vancouver and do Expo Line. The transit system is based on Disney Peoplemover. Expo Mark 1 train is about 33 years and run ​for 12 miles. Skyway is just ne​wer version of Vancouver Expo 1 train.

GK

Oh, and the 'Viewers Like You' intro is just perfect.

Kevin Kostka

I'm not trying to slight your other videos, but I think this is very much your best one yet. It's such an interesting topic and one you clearly care a lot about, and I'm glad you're able to do stuff like this because of Patreon.

Kevin Kostka

A couple of people on my last post mentioned that I should have some sort of a bumper. I figured, why not, and am trying this out. Plus, that noise is an Easter Egg for PeopleMover fans

Technology Connections

I like the PBS-like supporters bit at the beginning the video. Gaming Historian does something like that at the end of their videos <3

Linh Pham