All aboard to Santa Land!

December 9, 2022 6:09 PM

America's Most Loved Monorails: from Wanamaker's in Philadelphia to Meier and Frank in Portland, one highlight of Christmas Seasons past was a ride on the Department Store Monorail!
posted by vespabelle (13 comments total)

My daughter rode the one at Meier and Frank in Portland probably around 2005. I just remember thinking about how much it looked like a death trap with the wire over the window holes. I was so happy when she got out of that thing.
posted by perhapses at 6:48 PM on December 9, 2022

The Philadelphia Wanamaker monorail is in the Please Touch Museum in Memorial Hall in Philadelphia now; it doesn't work any more, but kids climb in and out of it and pretend to drive it. Saw it again today.
posted by Peach at 6:53 PM on December 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

This was fun, thanks!
posted by calamari kid at 7:20 PM on December 9, 2022

Perhapses, My daughter also rode the Monorail at M&F about that same time. I think it had moved to the basement so it wasn't the full glorious experience kids in the early days had.
posted by vespabelle at 7:36 PM on December 9, 2022

I rode the one in Wanamakers in Phila as a kid. I had half way convinced myself I had made up this memory. I did forget it was at Wanamakers though, and thought It was in Gimbels. I'm sending this video to my sister.
posted by evilDoug at 7:50 PM on December 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

Up until this point I'd only seen a photo, of the Wanamakers' -‌- thanks! Note they also had monorails across the pond, at Butlin's holiday camps. Theirs were like Disney's -‌- non-suspension.
posted by Rash at 8:32 PM on December 9, 2022

I remember one in the late 60s at Stix Baer & Fuller in the River Roads Mall in St. Louis. I, too, had almost convinced myself I made this up!
posted by MLW15 at 6:43 AM on December 10, 2022

The monorail in Midtown Mall in Rochester, NY was everyone's holiday highlight. My kids were fortunate enough to be born soon enough to have ridden it before the mall was demolished.
posted by tommasz at 7:16 AM on December 10, 2022

Wanamaker’s knew how to do Christmas right. Not only was there the monorail, but there was the Christmas light show in the main gallery.

And the light show is still going, despite it going from Wanamaker’s to Lord and Taylor to Macy’s! Go at the right times and they play music on the pipe organ along with it.
posted by mephron at 8:26 AM on December 10, 2022 [5 favorites]

I never got to ride the Pink Pig, but somehow am still nostalgic for it.
posted by ob1quixote at 2:17 PM on December 10, 2022

I was also fortunate to ride the Meier and Frank one before it was over with, did it every year at a very young age, as part of a walking Christmas tradition that sometimes included Tuba Christmas in Pioneer Square, and always Finnegans Toys. Dad takes the kids out on the town, Mom can use the dining room table to wrap the Christmas presents and gets a break from the kids being on vacation.

I wish at least one or two billionaires would focus a little money each year on running something like this in the malls and department stores that still exist, instead of trips to space and social media website ruining.
posted by shenkerism at 10:33 AM on December 12, 2022

Here's a video of the one in Meier and Frank
warning: get ready to tell your kids that it's more fun than it looks.
Still looking for the onboard video.
posted by shenkerism at 10:43 AM on December 12, 2022

Jefferson County, Iowa (home of Louden) has a page of links about the monorails. The site is very Web 1.0, but worth poking around. There's another page on the overhead track system which was originally developed for agriculture work but became a staple of industry, especially during WW2. Monorails are more popular than you think!
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:16 AM on December 12, 2022