I've seen suspended monorail sets on layouts and wanted to shop for them but not sure which ones would work with Lionel O gauge layouts, esp. the Japanese ones or the Disney types. Would someone suggest some to consider.
Thanks, Rod (rodlewis12@aol.com)
The Disney Monorails are sold as "HO" but personally I think they're closer to "S" in scale:
I've been using mine for several years and I'm very happy with it:
The Disneyland Railroad is pulled by a Lionel Lone Ranger General:
You do have to make the support pillars taller if you're crossing over an O gauge line:
They require a wide radius too:
Here it is in action:
You can buy them only at Disney Parks or online through the Disney Store for around 80 dollars: https://www.shopdisney.com/parks/shop-by-category/toys/ but they're not always available (I just checked and today they're not available) and you don't get to choose the color. Ebay of course is always an option, but more often than not you'll pay double what the Disney Store charges. This place is another option: https://www.yourwdwstore.net/playsets.html especially if you're wanting to choose the color. But they are a bit pricey.
Hope this helps!
Same me, different spelling!
Great advice from Becky!
The only advice I can give you doesn't concern monorails per se, if you go with a Japanese one remember to allow some room on the layout for Godzilla!
He'll attack bullet trains too!
There you go!
Gojira BANZAI!
pennytrains ............... You can buy them only at Disney Parks or online through the Disney Store for around 80 dollars: https://www.shopdisney.com/parks/shop-by-category/toys/ but they're not always available (I just checked and today they're not available) and you don't get to choose the color. Ebay of course is always an option, but more often than not you'll pay double what the Disney Store charges. This place is another option: https://www.yourwdwstore.net/playsets.html especially if you're wanting to choose the color. But they are a bit pricey. Hope this helps!
...............
I'd agree and suggest waiting for them to come up on the Disney shopping site. They seem to appear and disappear regularly. Unless someone really needed one immediately, it's not worth the extra cost to buy from an ebay seller or other site.
The one "newer" thing is that the DisneyLand ones are remote controlled (infrared). That is a neat feature, controls forward/backward/neutral and also triggers the audio clips. They are also "models" of the latest version that they have at DL (Mark VII, If I'm not mistaken). They do cost a few $ more than the WDW ones which are not remote controlled. May be $100 instead of $80-$85.
To the best of my knowledge, they only made those latest DL ones in Red and Orange. They had not done Blue, which is the third color DL has for these latest trains. No idea why (maybe it's a paint/decorative challenge for some reason? they have a slightly metallic look to them). You will likely get Orange, if you order a DL one on-line, I think Red was only the first few years before they came out with Orange. Unless they've done Blue and I missed it in the last couple of years. (in which case I have something new to search for! ;) )
If you order a WDW one, the color is a bit more of a random thing, I think. There are probably 3 or 4 that I have seen regularly at the parks the last few years, maybe Black, Red, and Light Blue(? - it's been over a year now, so my memory is a bit foggy). The "color" of course on the WDW ones is just a stripe on the main color of white as Becky's pictures show - the DL ones are almost entirely the defining color of the set.
-Dave
There is no "O" size monorail, and the Disney ones I've seen set up at train shows look fine. The Disney "track" takes up a fair ammount of space. I imagine a true "O" one would really be a "space hog".
MTH did a reproduction of a prewar that probably was close to O for posing with O scale figures. They did it in a few colors. Here is a link to the MTH website. https://mthtrains.com/11-6060-0
Bob Keller
Of course you can have a gauge with only one rail. In fact all monorails not only have a gauge; whatever the scale, they all have the same gauge--O (zero)!
Bob Nelson
Seven years ago I experimented with a "monorail" made from modified Marx M10000 car bodies:
It ran well enough (modern era Lionel can motor) but the three rails hanging fairly unsupported 8 inches off the deck were prone to spreading, which of course led to derailment if I was lucky. The cost of upgrading to a wider radius and adding extra pylons without removing any key buildings was higher than just purchasing the battery operated set. By the way, I still call it my "Tri-rail Elevated" rather than calling it a Monorail.
Very ingenious Becky! I have to wonder, do you think it might work with Fastrack or MTH Realtrax? Those shouldn't spread at all having a plastic base.
Of course it wouldn't be a "monorail," more like a high-tech elevated.
I also worked on the idea of using a platform for the track:
I then would have installed wood segments between the rails like those used at grade crossings to help disguise the system. Another idea was to create a trapezoidal wood platform or even a hollow one similar to what you see on "L's". But again it would just be riding on a platform rather than over it in horseshoe fashion like Disney/Alweg style trains.
It sounds like you left the track with just the pylons so you could intentionally sort of see through it to cause it to be more plausibly mono-rail like?
If not, I did have success for a different 3 rail project cutting some MDF board to the exact shape of the tracks and then securing the track to this MDF using machine screws with nuts through the track ties.
Since I was running a train probably a bit heavier than your monorail, I used 1 1/4" x 4" pine board cut to height as my supports. I was able to space them decently though. The MDF bolted to the O42 track I used combined to give it enough rigidity.
I screwed the MDF into the ends of the pine board using regular wood screws. I placed a support far less often than you would with the traditional toy train Lionel elevated trestle set. (well, maybe half as many - it certainly was not every track joint like you would do with the Lionel product)
I didn't run any high speed trains up there, but the whole point in my case was to incorporate one of those Lionel Rotary Coal dump accessories. So I had a pretty large diesel that I used for my bathtub gondolas and It never fell off ;). (again, I did not run at high speed).
Point is something similar would probably easily support your elevated tri-rail. ;)
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