Please can people help settle an old old argument

[OneLittleSpark]

OK, this discussion has been going on in my family for years, and I was wondering if all you lovely people here could help settle it once and for all. Did the central section in each Monorail carriage once have flip-down seats attached or not? My mother says she remembers them, but my father claims she's imagining it. The panels do still rattle a bit as if they are hinged but screwed shut, and we once talked to a CM who said he'd heard a rumour that they used to have them, but we've not got any photos or solid evidence to back up the case. So, if anyone remembers these seats (this must have been about 15 years ago), or even better, has any photos of them, please let me know. Or are my mother and I just nuts (well, OK, we are, but is this one of the symptoms)?

TIA

 

[clkelley]

I have read somewhere that those center cushions were seats at one time. However, they found it more efficient to just leave them up.

 

[disneymom3]

I seem to recall that the Disneyland ones were like that at one time. Sorry I can't be more help.

 

[CarolA]

I remember the flip down seats so I vote yes. But it was proabably from my first visit in the 70's

 

[shafke]

I think on one of the show on TV or possibly somewhere online there was a mention that they could have put flip down seats on the new monorail model but decided against it. I don't think the original model had the center sections.

 

[CarolA]

New suggestion.

Go over to disneyworldtrivia.com and post there? That sight is owned by the guy who writes the WDW Trivia guides and it sounds just like something he would know!

 

[safetymom]

We have that discussion every now and then. I remember being able to sit in the middle. Other members of the family don't remember that and we have only been going since 1995.

 

[HappyDznyCamper]

YES YES YES The monorails did indeed have seating in the sections where it is now standing room. Each section had a single open door and the door were opened by the attendant at the station by pushing buttons on the outside of the front cab. Once upon a time they even tried assigning a car for each destination(no sneaking on at MK only to go to TTC using the resort monorail) this however didn't last for very long, too much to keep up with.

PS Disneywordtrivia.com is a great site for questions like this.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

As a former monorail pilot, I can confirm that the Mark VI monorails do indeed have that center seat in the stanchion that can fold out. In order to fold it out, one of the Maintenance cast members would have to use a special tool to unlock them. It was found that these seats actually hinder the loading performance of the monorail, due to strollers and such. Since then, they have been permanently locked, although every so often you might catch one in a down position due to someone prying at them. Some have actually been removed to make room for additional wheelchairs.

I used to have a picture of the seat in its down position... however, my hard drive on my desktop is in the process of catastrophic failure... so it might be awhile before I can get that back.

 

[Poohbear123]

I thought I was nuts, as I remember these too, and once had an argument with a Friend about this....I was Right!

 

[OneLittleSpark]

Huzzah! Thank you everyone, glad to see we're not just cracking up (well..... at least we didn't imagine this) !