Train Driver

That's a great overview. I believe it was in '83 that Train 7 caught fire and was taken completely out of commission. There were originally 7 trains, and all of them could be in the preserve at the same time, but after the fire, Train 7 never ran again. I was told when I was working there was that the radios that were permanently fixed in the trains were replaced with hand-held walkie-talkies because the driver had to escape the flames and was unable to radio for help. The biggest problems we had in '84 were the Capybara getting out of their area, one of the drivers drove over a baby deer, and a train broke down returning to the station stranding the other five trains on the preserve for about 4 hours.

Phil, That switchrail looks exactly like the one we used at Kings Island, only with paint on it. - is it the same one? Thanks, Keith

I believe that I might have been the one to mention the pickups. I drove the trains back in 1984, which is getting to be more and more distant! Thank you so much for posting and clearing some things up for us! I also remember being told that the train came over from Switzerland - but it came without any instructions. I can't remember the name of the engineer that was placed in charge of assembling the trains and designing some of the controls, but they said he was a genius. I'm assuming that although you have plans for the conversion, you are pretty much doing it from scratch - or did you contract the design out? I recall that each car had an electric motor. Have you kept the motors and simply installed a diesel generator to power them all? Are you housing it in the driver's cab? Thanks! Keith

Just to show you that I have my priorities straight, here's a picture I took today of the little guy. Mom says that will be the last day for that outfit because he's growing so fast. I'm going to take Gordon Bombay's advice, I think - I've already spent money on the monorail that I have now... If an N or Z scale model shows up, I can always reconsider. It's easier to replace the train than scenery... I'll also take Avatar's advice and build it in sections...

I guess I was wondering if anybody out there knows of an N or Z scale monorail train set. I've been googleing all over the place, but Im not having very much luck. Thanks!

LOL!!!!!! I wish I could! It's not a bad idea, but I have a couple of bumps in that road - first of all, I don't own the house that I live in, so I'm not sure how the owners would respond to a monorail in my backyard. Secondly, many of the materials I have now to build it with I couldn't use because they're not waterproof.

I've got good news and bad news: Actually there are two good newses... First of all Cory Butcher was able to locate Robert Reece for me! Bob told me that he would be willing to help me with this project, so I've sent him some pictures, and we're working out some details. Thanks Cory!!! The other good news was that I friend of mine assisted me in determining the ultimate measurements of the layout. We projected the layout on the wall: The turn radius of my HO scale monorail is about 3 feet. We sized the layout on the wall so that the turn radius was three inches. Then we measured the entire layout. The bad news is that in order to keep this in HO scale - the layout needs to be at least 56 feet long!!! My basement is only about 27 feet long. I have a decision to make - I either need to make only a portion of the layout using the HO scale monorail, or alter the layout design, or go with a smaller scale. My friend has connections in Japan, and he's going to check and see if there are any N or Z scale monorail trains. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Thank you very much! This is turning out to be quite a mystery...

Last I heard, Robert W. Reece was the aquatic habitat coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Before that he was with The Wilds. I checked out your lead, and a Robert L. Reece works there, but not Robert W. Interestingly enough, Robert L. says that he has been mistaken for another Robert Reece in Oklahoma - so it's still possible he's out there. It's also possible that he isn't, because when you do a White Pages search on the net, there are plethoras of Robert Reece's out there. I will go back and contact the Wilds and see if I can't get any information from them. Thanks for your help, though. Train Driver

Last I heard, Robert W. Reece was the aquatic habitat coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Before that he was with The Wilds. Thanks! I saw a web site with his name on it and an email address, but when I emailed him it just came back to me. It was saying something about The Wilds, but now he's in Oklahoma? I'll do some searching, but if anybody has a phone number, please let me know. Send me a private message if you need to. I'm hoping he might have some pictures or data we could use. He's got to be getting close to retirement by now... Train Driver

These are awesome pictures - I believe they were taken around '74 to 76. At that time the animals were located in different parts of the preserve than in '84 At that time each zone represented types of animals, rather than what country they were from. Back then the trees were in better shape than when I worked there. The rangers started putting chain-link fence around the trees because some of the animals were scraping their horns/antlers against the bark. I think the ride had three names through its life: Lion Country Safari, Wild Animal Safari, and Wild Animal Habitat. It was WAH by 84, and I believe that was the last name change. Was anybody working or riding after 84, and did they have that channel 5 weatherman doing the spiel on a recording until they tore it out? Also, Robert Reece was the director of the preserve - does anybody know him or know of his whereabouts?

Hey, can you give me the approximate year this was taken? Thanks!

Thanks! I noticed that I am only seeing some of the posts - when I go to reply, I see posts that are not on the main page - can anybody tell me what's happening there? Oh, wait... I think I see what's going on... And thanks so much for all of your kind words.

Well folks, some other things have shaken loose. I've been looking like a madman for a copy of the Monorail layout, and as many pictures of the layout from the air as possible - this is so that I can recreate this layout as realistically as possible. I want to thank everyone who has contributed photos and items for this project - please keep doing it! There is so little out there about the monorail anymore that it is truly up to you to help us keep it alive. Until this past week, I've been frantically searching the net for anything that would resemble the actual layout - and I finally found it right here on KICenteral! http://www.KICentral.com/history/photos/di...t=0&pos=185 I was able to rotate and resize it against a current satalite view of KI and now have the complete layout from above, and it fits perfectly! By traindriver So now I have the layout in two dimensions, but I still need more pictures: from the train, from the Eiffel Tower, any Arial views that you might come across so that I can get the topography correct. Thanks for your help!

One of those things was still being used in 2006 to cool The Vortex driver box. Don't know if it is still there though. But those things pump out some serious cold. Its still there This doesn't surprise me - of all the mechanical problems we DID have, we NEVER had air-conditioning issues.