Monorail Mark I Orange, not Red?

[consultant]

I just got one of those Master Replica Monorail Mark I replicas. The call it red, but it sure looks orange to me. Supposedly the designer of the Monorail, Bob Gurr has pieces of the Mark I at his home and they matched the color. Although there are not many good photos on the Internet, I've got some Disney Treasures DVD with footage showing the monorail.

In the footage and the pictures the monorail looks more red than the Master Replicas but it does appear to be an orange-red. The Master Replicas piece though is definitely orange.

I'm trying to determine if the monorail looks more red in photos and video because of color restoration effect used or if maybe they didn't account for UV fading when they matched the color on the replica with the actual monorail Bob Gurr still has?

 

[flyinglizard]

Yeah, I can see why you say it is orange. I have one of the very first ones produced, and now that you mention it...

However, I can assure you that the color was painstakingly matched to the exact color sample that Bob Gurr furnished. The final prototype was also approved by Bob, including the red color. The blue version proved to be much more of a problem with color match than the red!

I can also assure you that all of the prototype crew on this project are fanatical Disneyland historians, and very demanding of detail perfection.

Please PM me if you need more info...

 

[consultant]

So did is the blue off or did they get it right?

 

[flyinglizard]

I don't have the blue one, but I do know it took a while, and several tries, before Bob Gurr approved it. All of the old images of the Big Red were from film. I suspect that age or transfer to video rendered the images more red than the original. In the 90's I saw a special presentation of Disneyland 1959, a film that rarely is ever seen, even by Disney people. I remember I was surprised how orange Big Red appeared. GREAT flick by the way, I hope they will release it one day in tin!

Once again, from first hand experience, I assure you that the modelers and research people went to extreme lengths to get everything correct. This was also true for all the models released for the 50th Celebration. Especially the "Jungle Cruise" boat...