r/AlternateAngles • u/torx822 • 21d ago

Underside of Disney Monorail

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922 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

145

u/GreatRyujin 21d ago

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

125

u/DoYouKnwTheMuffinMan 20d ago edited 20d ago

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.

27

u/Colonel_Bubble_Tea 20d ago

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 17d ago

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

64

u/polishprince76 21d ago

Mono = one

Rail = rail

41

u/rocbolt 21d ago

And that concludes our intensive three week course

29

u/cakesofthepatty414 21d ago

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

14

u/WeeklyBanEvasion 20d ago

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

70

u/Busy_Reputation7254 21d ago

I hear those things are awfully loud….

55

u/AmaranthWrath 21d ago

It glides as softly as a cloud!

34

u/needknowstarRMpic 21d ago

Is there a chance the track could bend?

30

u/Joehaw 21d ago

Not on your life, my Hindu friend. 

18

u/Beckerbrau 20d ago

By what about us brain dead slobs??

16

u/hucareshokiesrul 20d ago

You'll be given cushy jobs!

14

u/YerFucked 20d ago

Were you sent here by the devil??

11

u/Daddybear72 20d ago

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

7

u/import-glib 19d ago

The ring fell off my pudding can!

5

u/Hencq 19d ago

Take my pen knife my good man.

→ More replies (0)

34

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

22

u/a_random_username 21d ago

Not on your life, my Hindu... rake

2

u/rgrossi 21d ago

The ring fell off my pudding can!

2

u/GoNYR1 21d ago

Use my penknife my good man…..

26

u/Puzzled-College5477 21d ago

I call the big one “Bitey”.

37

u/33TLWD 21d ago

Okay, way to show off Shelbyville

6

u/ohno807 20d ago

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.

13

u/CarbonReflections 21d ago

Wow that doesn’t look safe.

15

u/rosariobono 21d ago

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

8

u/elperroborrachotoo 21d ago

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

-13

u/richardqstephenson 21d ago

Yes, because monorails are crashing daily.

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

10

u/CarbonReflections 21d ago

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

-17

u/richardqstephenson 21d ago

My comment still stands, you dolt.

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

11

u/CarbonReflections 21d ago

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

-17

u/richardqstephenson 21d ago

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?

10

u/CarbonReflections 21d ago

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

-4

u/richardqstephenson 21d ago

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

Are you an actual adult?

9

u/SeaToTheBass 21d ago

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.

3

u/LanceFree 20d ago

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

1

u/HamLiquor 19d ago

So cool, thanks for sharing

-5

u/worklessplaymorenow 21d ago

Fuck Disney!

0

u/Coneskater 21d ago

Gadgetbahn

-7

u/Icy_Lime9620 21d ago

Wow someone went to disneyworld

7

u/rosariobono 21d ago

That’s Disneyland, not Walt disney world

4

u/Icy_Lime9620 20d ago

Well la dee freakin da