Designer Times by Bob Gurr
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63. Projects from Never

LaughingPlace reader FigmentMI writes:

Not everything Disney started always got finished as a real living attraction. We embarked on a number of projects only to have them die on the vine before becoming a reality. Some just didn't get anywhere no matter how hard the company worked on them. Others were just plain dumb ideas to start with, and lacked a champion to lead us all to final success. Two major projects went on for over a decade and strangled to death under battles between government agencies, the courts, and activist groups. A lesson in Disney not being able to control it's own destiny.

The April 9, 2003 Designer Times issue number 36, Five Years of Various Vehicles, briefly touched on a few of these Projects from Never:

1974-79 CTS TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT Disney formed a new Company called

Community Transportation Systems (CTS) in response to requests for various kinds of transportation systems from citys and shopping malls. WED Enterprises, later named Walt Disney Imagineering, spent years on a number of proposals formulated around some of our existing Disney transportation ideas in development. We even had a nice brochure printed up to distribute to interested venues. I did a lot of modular body designs for CTS. Our MAPO shop even built a full size mock up peoplemover car to show to potential clients.

Former Disneyland Chief Engineer John Wise headed up the whole CTS effort over several years. John had supervised many Disneyland installations, especially the Monorail Beamway System, which made John an expert on engineering new transit systems. Disney had a team of marketing folks who pursued a number of potential peoplemover-type projects over these years with mall and redevelopment agencies. This was a period when a great number of large companies were proposing PRT, or Personal Rapid Transit Systems.

A very extensive PRT demonstration expo was held in Washington DC during this time, since it seemed that a lot of federal grant money might get some of these projects started. Westinghouse and LTV won a lot of big automated airport projects in the 1970s. Disney won the contract to build the Houston Airport WedWay linear motor underground system, but never found any follow up work afterwards. So CTS just sort of fizzled out over time.

1973-74 TURBOTRAM The EPCOT transportation planners were fiddling with all

sorts of ideas on how to move guests around the Florida property. One of the wildest schemes was to build Monorail bodies and put them on a ground-based vehicle chassis to run on a dedicated surface right of way like a railroad.

This vehicle was to use a new GM Allison gas turbine engine for power. I made a lot of drawings of this wild scheme, but it died during the first world gasoline crises in 1974.

1974 OMNITRAM The previous TurboTram design was resurrected again, only

this time it was planned to use a new Caterpiller diesel engine. This design went pretty far into preliminary engineering with some working drawings done by the MAPO drafters. We worked with Caterpiller, Rockwell-Standard and others to obtain component specifications. I made a lot of drawings for this weirdo.....it was really kinda cool looking. Like a Mk IV Monorail with a big Caterpiller diesel in it's nose.

1977 WIDE BODY DUORAIL An even more wild EPCOT transportation scheme was

the idea to build a jumbo super-wide dual beam Monorail which we dubbed Duorail. This was a train maybe 15' wide that would ride on two beams spaced laterally on about a 10' separation. It looked like a flat platypus with windows. Several of our drafters did quite a few drawings to see what this monster would look like. Mechanically is was pretty simple since it was more like a bus than a Monorail and needed side wheels for guidance only rather than full side to side roll resistance. It sure had big load capacity. I was happy to see it get canceled.

1974-77 WEDLIFT Disney spent over a decade trying to get somewhere on the

Mineral King Ski Resort project near California's Sequoia National Park. I did a lot of drawings for all kinds of transportation ideas during those years. The most interesting challenge was to develop a truly high capacity ski lift. Not being a skier myself, I had no prior snow experience. I tried all kinds of coo coo schemes until one day I had the idea to load the skiers thru the rear of a car. This allowed an unbroken line of skiers four abreast to enter the car which moved across their path in front of them, with the doors closing behind them as the car moved off sideways. MAPO built a full size functioning ski lift station at the Glendale, California test lot to demonstrate that it would work. It even was going to use linear motor propulsion. I was granted a US Patent for my design.

1965-78 MINERAL KING In 1949 the U.S. Forest Service asked for proposals

to develop a ski resort in California's Mineral King Valley just south of Sequoia National Park. Not much happened until August 1965 when Disney and five other bidders offered to build such a resort. Disney was awarded the job December 17, 1965 barely a year before Walt's death.

Thus was started a long and contentious wrangle ultimately involving numerous state and federal agencies, environmental groups, and an interesting cast of avid skiing consultants. The whole thing met what some would call a fortunate demise as Congress added Mineral King to Sequoia National Park on October 12, 1978. Mineral King today is a gloriously beautiful wilderness that is a joy to hike thru, as I can personally attest to.

But I sure spent many hours off and on thru those developmental years being assigned to help figure out various transportation schemes to get enough guests up the mostly one-way (700) curve (21) mile steep old 1913 road.

Someone early on proclaimed that Disney would build a Monorail right up the steep canyon. A big diesel bus system was even considered, finally the project settled on a cog railway as more practical. But the cost was out of sight.