WDW Disney Trains - Real or "12 inch scale "model"" VIDEO


OCMRRC Jeff

OCMRRC Jeff

OCMRRC President/webmastr
Over several trips to Disney I took alot of pictures of the Disney Railroad and created the embeded video of the trains and monorails. It the railroad a "real" railroad or a model railroad albiet a full scale one. Of course the same could be asked about Tourist Railroads.
I just know one of my highlights has been riding the entire loop at Disney multiple times. I even like the TTA (Tomorrowland Transit Authority)!

[YOUTUBE]Se_cE4HWKBw&feature=g-upl&context=G233e1b1AUAAAAAAAXAA[/YOUTUBE]
 
Nice video. On my high school band trip to Disney last year riding the mono rails was pretty cool. When we first arrived at the Magic Kingdom most of the band took the boat over.. Myself not wanting to stand in searing heat for half an hour grabbed a couple of guys from my group, ran over to the monorail station, got on, and beat everyone in the park by 20 minutes! :D
 
As most people may know Walt Disney was a serious train buff. WDW in Florida may be more of a built for the park heritige? Be interesting to find out. Whatever the story at least it gives visitors the experience of seeing first hand something they might otherwise only catch in a movie or on tv.
 
They have a "behind the scenes" tour where you go into the engine house, I never took it but some day I will!
 
cool vid, I rode the mono rail a few times my self, even got to ride up with the conductor as well, really nice guy he was, and I was a kid so that was really sweet :)
 
I was there in October, in WDW(Florida). My family has a time share down there...at Ft Wilderness. In the lobby, is a pretty cool display of the Trains Walt ran either in his back yard or the Disneyland resort, I forget. It was awesome...they were like live steamer scale. A few nights a week, a guy comes and gives a talk about the models. I sadly missed it.

Also, while there we drove out of the resort to do some shopping and got lost. We came out around Disney University and I saw a railroad crossing. I was looking to see which RR it was and I noticed the tracks seemed smaller than 1:1 scale, there was a MOW truck on the rail and a guy working on the crossing signal. I turned left and saw the line lead into the shops...it was neat! They had about 4 or 5 guys working on the WDW locomotives, a few passenger cars. Kind of a cool experience seeing a locomotive shop WDW....fun place.
 
WD, according to some information in a past MR that covered one of his animators live steam. Ward was his name, (I can't remember if that was his first or last name), and he said Walt was a live steamer, and had a nice setup around his home.
 
Cjcrescent said:
WD, according to some information in a past MR that covered one of his animators live steam. Ward was his name, (I can't remember if that was his first or last name), and he said Walt was a live steamer, and had a nice setup around his home.
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Thats cool. I saw some photos of Walt driving around on them...if that was his back yard, that is a pretty nice back yard!
 
enjineerbill said:
Right on Carey, Ward Kimball was his name. One of Disney's finest!
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Thanks for the proper name Bill! My half-heimers has kicked in today and I can't remember s***!:D

Ward also bought the train station used in the movie, "Pollyanna". It was a prop, built esp. for the movie! He like it so much that when the movie wrapped up, he bought it from the prop dept, and had it moved to his back yard, where IIRC, he had about 125' of track, and rail his steam loco on it. Also IIRC, it's a real engine, but I don't remember the wheel arrangement.
 
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Cjcrescent said:
Ward also bought the train station used in the movie, "Pollyanna". It was a prop, built esp. for the movie! He like it so much that when the movie wrapped up, he bought it from the prop dept, and had it moved to his back yard, where IIRC, he had about 125' of track, and rail his steam loco on it. Also IIRC, it's a real engine, but I don't remember the wheel arrangement.
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True, true. And if memory serves me correctly, it was a 4-4-0 'high-wheeler'. Ward was a very unique character, he himself was almost a caricature what with his big black round rimmed glasses and unique speaking voice!
 
I've been to Disneyland about 7 times, once for my Honeymoon 9 years ago. It was my 7th ime but my Wife's first so the first thing I did was put us on the train to circle the park. That's always a good way to introduce newbies to the park.
Of course, don't forget Big thunder Railroad. Though not prototypical by a long shot, it has that railroad feel to it that I love.
I went to Disneyland Paris in 1992 but they don't have a train there, only BTRR

Ward was a very unique character, he himself was almost a caricature what with his big black round rimmed glasses and unique speaking voice!
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If memory serves me Ward Kimball was one of disney's seven key animators, and the model for Jimny Cricket.
Walt's small live steam train was on his home property, some of his workers helped build it as well as the engine (named the Lily Belle) The layout was named The Carolwood Pacific after his wife
 
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OCMRRC Jeff said:
I even like the TTA (Tomorrowland Transit Authority)!
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Excellent video there.

The monorails are quite something in their own right, as well as the TTA (or WEDway PeopleMover for the oldies out there).

Both the Monorail and PeopleMover would have been an integral part of Walt's City of EPCOT, allowing residents to commute to and from work with such ease.

OCMRRC Jeff said:
I had heard that the WDW engines run on propane is that true?
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According to a source I found they run on "Distillate #2 low-sulfur reformulated"

CNR Glen said:
I went to Disneyland Paris in 1992 but they don't have a train there, only BTRR
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They do have a train in Paris. There are four in the fleet - the George Washington, C.K. Holiday, W.F. Cody and Eureka.

Here's a vid from Main Street to Fantasyland..
http://youtu.be/RvsUGaIQ-Do

For those interested on the trains in the rest of the Disney Empire, they also have a train in Tokyo Disneyland however it only runs in Westernland.

Video from the Mark Twain Riverboat
http://youtu.be/V8258Ds8-fg

Hong Kong Disneyland also has two trains, the Walter E. Disney and the Roy. O. Disney.

Here's the Walter E. going over the 'it's a small world' bridge. According to the comments there's a diesel engine in the tender providing the power here.
http://youtu.be/hHxZ5GnmT-Y

Its yet to be announced if Shanghai Disneyland will have a train when it opens in '16 but its looking like it will be the first Magic Kingdom style park to be without one.

CNR Glen said:
If memory serves me Ward Kimball was one of disney's seven key animators, and the model for Jimny Cricket.
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Yes, and after his passing in '02, they named the newest locomotive after him, and Jiminy Cricket appears in the trains lantern.

CNR Glen said:
Walt's small live steam train was on his home property, some of his workers helped build it as well as the engine (named the Lily Belle) The layout was named The Carolwood Pacific after his wife
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Here's a great article about the Carolwood Pacific..

http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2011/9/8/carolwood-pacific-and-other-backyard-railroads.html
 
Between high maintenance, high liability, and the problems working with steam and keeping steam in it's proper location, I can't blame WDW for running diesel. As long as it looks and sounds "real".
 
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