Walt Disney’s love of railroads went back to his teens when he worked as a news butcher selling popcorn, soft drinks, peanuts and fruit on the trains out of Kansas City. In later years, to free himself from the stress of running his studio, he dabbled in model railroading, building the half-mile long, one-eighth scale Carolwood-Pacific Railroad in his backyard in Holmby Hills.
Disneyland Locomotives
When the park opened in July 1955, two locomotives of the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad were ready to go. Constructed at the Disney Studios the locomotives were correct in every detail and named for Santa Fe Railroad pioneers E.P. Ripley and C.K. Holliday. It soon became evident that the popularity of the ride required more trains and a third locomotive, Fred G. Gurley, a reconstructed 1894 Baldwin was added in 1958. A fourth locomotive, Ernest S. Marsh, built in 1925, started the run a year later. The locomotives were all powered by steam engines and require filling with water several times a day. In early 2009 the locomotives were converted to run on recycled cooking oil.
Trip Around the Park
The trip around the park takes about twenty minutes and includes stops at each of the stations for guests to embark or disembark as they choose. The early part of the ride is behind the scenes and passengers catch glimpses of various cast member areas and other parts of the park. After leaving New Orleans Station the train passes by the Zip-a-dee-do-da scene of Splash Mountain. Another train-only treat comes after leaving Tomorrowland Station when the train slows down and passes through a tunnel containing a diorama of the Grand Canyon added in 1958 and accompanied by music from Grand Canyon Suite. Following that is the Primeval World Diorama, showing various audio-animatromic dinosaurs originally built for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair and moved to Disneyland in 1966.
In the early days the locomotives hauled traditional front facing passenger cars. There were also freight cars in which the guests stood for the journey peering through the open slats in the walls. These proved less than popular and were later phased out. When the Primeval World diorama was installed, side facing seats were added to permit easier viewing of the diorama.
Disneyland Stations
At first there were only two stations, the Main Street Station and the Frontierland Station. A medieval themed station was added for Fantasyland in 1956 and in Tomorrowland a futuristic platform was built in 1958. The Fantasyland Station became Videopolis Station in 1988 and Toontown Depot in 1992. The Frontierland Station became the New Orleans Station in 1966. Here sharp eared guests can hear the telegraph key tapping out Walt Disney’s opening day speech in Morse Code.
The Disneyland locomotives
- E.P. Ripley – built at Disney Studios, named for Santa Fe Railroad former president
- C.K. Holliday – built at Disney Studios, named for Santa Fe Railroad founder
- Fred G. Gurley – built 1894, hauled sugarcane in Louisiana, named for chairman of Santa Fe Railroad
- Ernest S. Marsh – built in 1925, used at New Jersey lumber mill, named for then president of Santa Fe Railroad
- Ward Kimball – built in 1902, refurbished and installed in 2005, named for Disney artist and train enthusiast.
A number of postcards exist depicting the Disneyland Railroad. Five of these are shown below:
- Card 1 – Walt Disney driving the locomotive Fred Gurley - Where the Magic Begins - #6
- Card 2 – Artist’s conception of the Santa Fe and Disneyland RR Station – P11887
- Card 3 – Greetings From Disneyland, Ernest S. Marsh at the Disneyland Station – 01110400
- Card 4 – E.P. Ripley leaving Disneyland Station – D-128
- Card 5 – Fred Gurley about to be boarded by Mickey and friends – 00156-27003
Click here for more Disneyland trains on postcards.
Bibliography
- Bob Thomas – Walt Disney An American Original – Pocket Books, New York – 1976
- Bruce Gordon & David Mumford – Disneyland: The Nickel Tour – Camphor Tree Publishers – 1995
- Dave Smith – Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia – Disney Editions, New York – 2006
- Tim O’Day –Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories For a Lifetime – Disney Editions, New York – 2002
- Birnbaum Guides – Disneyland Resort 2008
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