Maybe you’ve heard this story, maybe you haven’t. I’ve been looking for an answer to this question for 2 years now and I haven’t found it. But maybe we can speculate and come to an at least semi-educated guess and have some fun! [:D]
From a letter dated December 8th, 1947 via LIFE Magazine Books:
"I bought myself a birthday-Christmas present-
something I’ve wanted all my life-an electric train!
I have set it up in one of the outer rooms adjoining my office
so that I can play with it when I have a spare moment.
It’s a freight train with a whistle, and real smoke comes out
of the smokestack-there are switches, semaphores, stations, and everything.
It’s just wonderful!"
So who’s office is this?
Walt Disney’s of course! [;)]
All accounts say that Walt became absolutely obsessed with trains following that purchase. In this letter, to his sister Ruth, Walt mentions the set as being “a freight train with a whistle, and real smoke comes out of the smokestack”. From that we know that the train set in question is a Lionel. The rest is too vague to determine anything further.
Good question Becky, as to which set caused 'ol Walt to go ga-ga over toy trains.
Then again, he wasn’t the first middle-aged guy to pick up the hobby and certainly wouldn’t be the last.
If I remember correctly, Walt was a lifelong railfan to begin with, growing up as he did in Marcelline Missouri, which was on the Santa Fe mainline from Chicago. SF was the best show in town in those days, and it was free!
That’s a great question, Becky. Ironically, it my father’s 1947 1433W set he handed down to me for Christmas some 35ish years ago that got me started in this madness! Just to spin the question even more, do we know it was even actually a 1947 model year set? I’m surprised he didn’t have any toy trains sooner due to his love of trains. i would have assumed he would of had at least the Mickey and Minnie handcar!
Not to hijack Becky’s post, but FLINTlock76? Did I miss the memo?
Some more bio stuff. Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago. In 1906, Elias, an unsuccessful carpenter, moved his family to a farm in Marceline Missouri. To quote LIFE: Walt “spent his four short years there prowling its main street, marveling at the locomotives, and sketching the animals that populated the family farm.”
From the Walt Disney Family Museum: "Walt’s love for trains went back to his early childhood. In a 1938 Family Circle article titled “Snow White’s Daddy,” Walt recalled one of his earliest train memories, “When I was five my family moved out of Chicago and we went to Marceline, Missouri…I can clearly remember every detail—just as if it had been yesterday. I even remember the train ride from Chicago to Marceline, and I remember the new things I saw as I looked out of the window.”
But Elias was not cut out for farming and in 1911 he moved his family to Kansas City where he bought a paper route. Walt and his older brothers were, of course, Elias’ employees. From Wikipedia: "As a young boy, he wanted to become a train engineer like his father’s cousin, Mike Martin, who drove main-line trains on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.[3]
For those of us who want something bigger than Lionel but can’t afford backyard riding trains we now have Large Scale to play with. What LGB started has progressed to many other manufacturers who offer trains in all eras. Hartland Locomotive Works in LaPorte, Indiana and Piko in Sonneberg, Tueringen, Germany, both offer affordable quality large scale products for indoor and outdoor use.
Regardless what kind of toy trains you prefer, one thing remains, simply said: Model Railroading is Fun!
Getting back to your original post Becky, with 1947 being a plausible starting point, I would suspect that the operating accessories were of interest to Mr. Disney. Set 2131WS is headed by the impressive 726 Berkshire and includes the operating milk car and a work car with an operating crane. Surely this set had some serious consideration at least? He surely wanted a passenger set as well. The 2126WS with the 671 locomotive and an impressive passenger consist may have had primary consideration as well. All speculation of course, but these are my guesses.
One thing’s for certain, Walt could have afforded the best top-of-the-line sets Lionel had, and then some. If I was in his position that’s what I would have done.
I suspect Mr. Disney had a secret room of a 1000 sqft layout of Lionel’s trains inside his beautiful house in L.A. Spin the globe and the door will open. [;)]
Well, it’s complicated. But in a nutshell Walt paid himself and his top animators very well and the rest…not so much. It’s what led to this:
Perhaps the catalyst, the ember that started the blaze of 41 was when one of the prime animators got punished for helping a “lower” department get their work done.
This is probably the biggest factor for Walt’s boredom with film making and why he wound up in front of a Lionel salesman in 1947. He became and remained till his death an informant for the FBI.
It’s Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You’ll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Because I was afraid to speak
When I was just a lad
Me father gave me nose a tweak
And told me I was bad
But then one day I learned a word
That saved me aching nose
The biggest word you ever heard
And this is how it goes
Oh, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You’ll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I…
My top 5 favorite movies?
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Mary Poppins
Peter Pan
The Black Hole
Follow Me Boys
There’s something of a trend there…[;)]
P.S. “You can say it backwards which is dociousexpialifragicalirupus but that’s going a bit too far?” Mary Poppins
Probably because I’ve only seen it as edited for tv. Which as we know, usually kills both a film’s storyline and cuts down the cinematic grandeur. Then there’s those pesky commercials. [+o(]
P.L. Travers gave Walt one heck of a time. It took him years to secure the rights and she scrutinized everything because she didn’t want “her masterpiece” turned into a cheap cartoon. She wasn’t satisfied with Walt’s work until after the premiere.
Honestly, I haven’t seen “T-I” on the big screen either. I did see it on Disney’s “Wonderful World of Color” TV show in the early 60’s.
It was a two-parter if I remember correctly, run on consecutive weeks, so there wasn’t any butchering of the film to squeeze in commercials.
And it goes without saying I never forgot Robert Newton’s turn as Long John Silver, the definative Long John Silver! [oX)]
Arrrrrrr!
Goes without saying I’ve also seen the Turner Network Television version of “T-I” from around 1990. Honestly, I think as far as authenticity, scripting, and production values the TNT version is superior to Disneys except for one thing, as good as he was in the role Charlton Heston’s Long John isn’t as good as Robert Newtons, but even ol’ Chuck admitted at the time there was no way he was going to top Newton! High praise indeed!
I never saw any of my top 10 movies on the big screen. Add Tora Tora Tora, The Good The Bad And The Ugly, Jaws, Star Trek The Motion Picture (Robert Wise Director’s Cut) and Blade Runner to the 5 previously mentioned and you get my “no particular order” top 10. But at least I’ve seen ALL of those movies unlike when they’re chopped up for TV. Incidentally, I have 3 different cuts of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in my collection! [:D]
The biggest differences have to do with wether or not they show R.D. scrounging for materials in the neighbor’s yards for his “sculpture”. There’s also a scene with Teri Garr getting in the station wagon and driving off with the kids with Dreyfuss hanging onto the hood. But the big scene that’s missing and only appeared in one cut is at the very end. If you’ve never seen it, here’s the sequence inside the mother ship after Roy Neary walks up the ramp.
