In June 1961, the Monorail became a true transportation link. With an extended 2.5 mile track, Disneyland Hotel guests could board the Monorail at the hotel and begin their park visit in Tomorrowland. Disneyland Park guests could exit at the Disneyland Hotel to drink beverages at the Monorail Lounge that weren’t readily available in the park. Not only was the track extended, but trains grew from three cars to four cars and the fleet grew to three Mark II trains with the addition of a yellow Monorail.
Four generations of monorail trains have been used in the park, since their lightweight construction means they wear out quickly. The most recent, the Mark V, was installed in 1987 when more modern trains built by Ride & Show Engineering eliminated the old ALWEG Buck Rogers-style trains. The monorail shuttles visitors between two stations, one inside the park in Tomorrowland and one in Downtown Disney. It follows a 2.5 mile (4 km) long route designed to show off the park from above. As of 2004, three monorail trains (Red, Blue, and Purple) were in regular service. A fourth train, Monorail Orange, was removed from service and shipped to Disney's engineering department in Glendale for disassembly and study so that new blueprints can be created from it, since ALWEG has gone out of business, and the current trains, built by Ride & Show Engineering in 1987, use some of the same parts as the ALWEG trains. Monorail Blue was sent to Canada for major rebuilding in late August 2006. Monorail Red & Purple remain at the Monorail Barn at the Disneyland Resort. Disneyland had a contract with Alweg which required the Alweg name to be displayed on the monorail. This conflicted with the Santa Fe contract stating only their name could be associated with railroad attractions, thus causing a rift between Disneyland & Santa Fe.
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