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The German manufacturing company Alweg produced this first monorail system for the Disneyland theme park in 1959. Alweg was formed in 01/1953 by the Swede Dr. Axel Lennart Wenner-Grenname, an entrepreneur who built the Electrolux Company into a market leader. He became one of the richest men in the world by the 1940s, and began to invest in a variety of new ventures, including monorails. ("Alweg" was an acronym of Axel Lennart Wenner-Grenname.) Alweg subsequently manufactured and operated the monorail used at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962.

Each Disneyland Monorail car was equipped with a 600-volt, 100-horse-power DC electric motor that propelled the vehicle on rubber tires over a concrete track. Originally, the monorail made a loop through the Tomorrowland section of the park, but track was added to make a larger circuit and a station erected at the Disneyland Hotel. This station lasted from 1961-1999 when it was demolished for the Downtown Disney Station. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers declared the Disneyland Monorail System to be a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1986.

PCAD id: 15893