Well, my girlfriend is a huge Disney-phile, so we spent last week at Disney World in FL. I was happy to find an operating NG steam railroad circling the park…yeah, they have circus clown paint jobs and there’s not a lump of coal in sight (I understand they’re running on used fryer oil!) but these have to be some of the busiest steam engines anywhere! I didn’t find out till we got there that you can actually take a steam shop tour…unfortunately it was booked for the time we were there. Has anybody taken this tour? Did I miss something good?
There’s some You Tube videos out there shot by visitors to the Disney railroad at WDW in Florida, including the shop tour. They’re actually quite well done. I don’t remember the names given to said videos but I’m sure you can find them by internet search without too much difficulty.
To say Walt was a major railfan is putting it mildly. When Disneyland, and then Disney World were built Walt insisted on circling both with railroads, and insisted they be live steam, no steam-profile fakeroos.
The locomotives were aquired from Central and South American narrow-gauge lines and no expense was spared in the rebuilds. The color schemes may be a bit too colorful (although not unusual for 19th Century steamers) but at least they’re the real deal.
Associated Press article by Bob Thomas, July 16, 1955
Walt Disney’s 20-year dream comes true tomorrow when the gates of the $17-million Disneyland opens for the first time.
This is the modern wonderland that a mouse built. Well, Mickey Mouse started it anyway. The cartoon star was the first success in the fabulous career of Walt Disney.
Then came the Three Little Pigs, Donald Duck, Pluto, Snow White, The Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, Pinocchio and a host of other characters who became famous around the world. Somewhere along the line the cartoon wizard got the notion for an amusement park. Not the usual Coney Island affair, but an imaginative playground that would delight young and old.
Disney made his move a year ago. He succumbed to the lure of television and arranged to tie in the TV show (he hosted) with a Disneyland park. A survey showed that this citadel of sunshine and orange groves, accessible to 10 million population, was the best location.
Hmmm indeed. Note also the reporter’s reference to the site having once been an “orange ranch.” Would have been interesting to be there at round-up time to see them corraling all those grazing globes of citrus.
Yeah, ranch oranges are fat, soft, juicy, and sweet. Wild oranges are shriveled, tough, dry, and quite tart. Disney steam locomotives are friendly, safe, and gentle. Wild steam locomotives shower you with burning cinders, threaten to run you over or to go up in a catastrophic boiler explosion . . .
Local supermarket’s selling free-range eggs now. I think it’s a bit irresponsible to let 'em run around loose like that, who knows what mischief they’ll get into?
Orange you glad I didn’t make any egg jokes? As Mike Wallace said on 60 minutes many years ago regarding the “chicken and egg” controversy, “A chicken is an egg’s way of making another egg.” I’ll stop now.
Getting back to original question a bit, I took the special tour 6-7 years ago and found it quite interesting. We spent a little time at the shops, but not a lot. The steam shop was essentially under the Monorail shop. We did get a ride around the park and a lot information on operations. In addition we got to have our picture taken with the train while standing on Disney grass. (I understand it’s very rare that visitors are allowed to statnd on grass in the Disney parks)
This is a very real railroad that operates I think 4 steam locomotives, (usually not all at once). As a C&S person I was suprised to see they had a block signaling system and cab signals on the locomotives. Also interesting that they have to make provisions for resting the crews regularly because of working in the heat of the cab during a Floriday summer.
It was certainly interesting and worthwhile for me.
