Only Known Footage of Union Station Opening, Shot by Ward Kimball

In honor of Union Station's 75th Anniversary, Metro and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in cooperation with the family of Ward Kimball, have restored the only known footage of the historic opening. Documented in the home movie, the parade drew half a million spectators to downtown Los Angeles.
The silent 6-minute color film clip features train engines, vintage automobiles, and spectators from the parade, which took place on May 3, 1939. The home movie was shot by legendary Disney animator Ward Kimball, creator of numerous classic Disney characters, including Jiminy Cricket in "Pinocchio", Tweedledee and Tweedledum in "Alice in Wonderland", and Lucifer the Cat in "Cinderella." In 1970, Kimball received an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) for "It's Tough to be a Bird."
Kimball was an avid railway enthusiast and collector of old railroad memorabilia. His personal film collection at the Academy Film Archive includes footage of Kimball's own Grizzly Flats Railroad and documentation of a range of transportation technologies.
Learn more about the Kimball Family Collection by clicking the following link www.oscars.org/film-archive/co...

[@dfirth224]

Ward Kimball worked for Disney. Color film was no problem for him. Kimball and Walt Disney himself were both railroad fans. Had their own backyard miniature railroads.

[@microbusss]

actually Kimball had a full sized train in his backyard on a short section of tracks

[@TheAtlantaRailfan]

wards wasn't a miniature he owned three full-size narrow gauge locomotives named the Emma Nevada, Chloe, and olomana

[@Keeper1st]

The engine seen at 4:18 is still operational. If you want to hear what it sounds like, here's some video I shot of it in 2011: 1875 Baldwin steam locomotive, V&T #22 "Inyo" I think its appearance in this parade was a clever tie-in to the movie "Union Pacific" (which came out two days later) in which it featured heavily, as the engine is preceded by a sign "The Union Pacific comes to Los Angeles".

[@scottfw7169]

That tie-in makes sense.

[@badkittynomilktonight3334]

4:55 I recognize that loco, it's at Traveltown in Griffith Park, I also recognized one of the vehicles, an early motorized farm wagon, they use to have it at the Autry Museum.

[@CurtisFerrington]

That little Southern Pacific 0-4-0 #2 at the 4:55 mark still exists! It's part of the Travel Town Museum collection in Griffith Park.

[@BearFlagRebel]

Southern Pacific cab forward pulling a railway gun. Probably brought it up from Fort MacArthur. My grandfather talked about them firing in the harbor after Pearl Harbor while he was a welder working in the shipyard.

[@ez4me252]

I love seeing things like this. Thanks for posting it. Hoping you could upload more of these old treasures in color.What a wonder to see!

[@tsmatlock]

An 8mm color home movie of the parade sold on ebay 3 or 4 years ago (I bid on it but it went quickly out of my price range). IIRC, it was shot from above the crowd, likely from a roof, and the parade moved from right to left in the screen.

[@tymime]

I wouldn't be surprised if Walt Disney was there to see this too. He loved trains, after all.

[@wahoo7654]

Ward showed these movies to me at his home back in the 1990s. He never mentioned Walt Disney being there. If Walt was around when the home movie camera was running, Ward would normally shoot some footage of him. For example, Walt Disney is shown in Ward's home movies of the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair.

[@fredrickm.duncan3217]

Outstanding replay of rolling stock in the land of LA. The Huntington and the Cab Forward cheek by jowl with the Coachella R.R. delicious. Not to be ignored are the tin lizzies and right hand drive automobiles. For my Grand Father, Chief of Safety, my Uncle, Engine Inspector, and my step brother, Track Welder, S.P. I thank you.

[@boilinabag]

who had color home motion picture cameras at that time? 16mm color stock was very expensive at that time.... amazing.

[@JulianPope]

Kimball was one of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men" and one of the most well respected animators of all time, so I'm sure access to something like that was relatively easy for him.

[@sudriansignalman9387]

Considering Ward operated two locomotives and had a third for display, not too hard for him to afford

[@wayneantoniazzi2706]

Quite a few people did. Yes, the cameras and film were expensive but were still affordable to quite a few people. And I'm sure Ward made good money working for Disney.

[@indnrdr]

Nice to know the CPH was running as late as 1939. Memory of it is now kept alive by the Museum in Sacramento where it resides and the nearly 400 replica park trains built by Chance Rides in Wichita, Kansas.

[@brianrowland7113]

Wow! This is really cool. Thanks!

[@jayvonnoelsmith8445]

Thats so cool amazing

[@par3caddy]

WOWSERS! Gr8 video.

[@andrewdawson7175]

Thank you Ward! :)

[@tymime]

I never would've guessed the trains were able to fit the trolley tracks.

[@Big_Diehl]

Actually, while most trolley tracks do use "Standard Gauge" (and you could run a train on trolley tracks), this was actually the Southern Pacific's access to its station which ran right down Alameda infront of LAUPT, which replaced The SP's "Central Station".

[@romanval69]

riograndedude ahhh I remember those rails running down Alameda. They were embedded into the street for a very long time; only very recently were they dug up or paved over.

[@klarissak]

Roman Val Some still remain to this day on 6th street I think. Pretty cool to see it but definitely bumpy since they are all deteriorated.

[@badkittynomilktonight3334]

They weren't trolley tracks, that's actually how some of the trains once came into downtown, right up the middle of Alameda Blvd

[@microbusss]

most trolley tracks are Standard Gauge anyway exception is some trolley lines in Philadelphia where they purposely used a 5 foot gauge so no trains could use them

[@DVR01]

This my Parade-Type where Trains are lined up and participate on the street tracks. I hope there will more train parades, especially in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade where the singers could sing on the locomotives and cars, one day. #TrainParade #MacysThanksgivingDayTrainParade

[@singwith]

Nice!

[@SouthCalifas619]

so are those the same tracks that are now those abandoned rails that run down the middle of alameda st south of the little tokyo gold line station in downtown LA?

[@conductorbillhatrick2704]

Yes, indeed!

[@erikschiller7210]

It’s a shame more cab forwards didn’t make it to preservation, and that the only remaining one never runs.

[@davidng2336]

Well now we all know what it was like for the C.P. Huntington to run under steam. Glad they saved this beautiful engine. If it wasn't saved, we probably would not have the popular Chance Rides C.P. Huntington train rides from 1960.

[@roachtoasties]

It's too late to complain, but if you're going to take movies of the train station grand opening, you got to take pictures of the actual train station. All I see are trains heading down the middle of the street. :/

[@johnnyballenatl]

And now, over eight decades later, Union Station will be hosting the 2021 Oscars on April 25 (the Dolby Theatre will still play a role).

[@parrot0051]

Too bad this couldn't happen today thanks to the lawyers and of course the scrapping of engines like the cab forward locomotive leading the parade and the other steam locomotives, I wonder where all those old cars are today ? awesome video.

[@cple1]

There is a cab forward at the California State Railroad museum. The C.P. Huntington, Inyo, and the 0-4-0 all still exists.

[@wahoo7654]

It couldn't happen today because the tracks are gone on Alameda Street. Street running of freight trains still occurs on Santa Ana Street in Anaheim. It wasn't that long ago that the Ringling Bros. Circus train ran there, pulled by the Union Pacific.

[@stevenparker1063]

that was Arthur Winston washing the Windows 😂😂

[@anthonyvo5880]

Why was CP #1 stopped at 2:56

[@mlgsnip3r661]

How did I get here

[@brucejensen2693]

The CP Huntington and the V&T No. 22 "Inyo" still exist. The Nevada SRR Museum in Carson City operates the Inyo a couple of time annually. The Huntington is static at the Cal State R Museum, which also has a can forward, also static.

[@uniquely.mediocre1865]

I believe the cab forward shown in this video is the same thats here in Sacramento

[@brucejensen2693]

@@uniquely.mediocre1865 The CF up at CSRM is 4294, an AC-12; the one in the video is 4120, an AC-5 (earlier model).

[@uniquely.mediocre1865]

@@brucejensen2693 ohhh ok tbh the only reason I said that is because I think they share a running number or atleast they're very similar

[@brucejensen2693]

@@uniquely.mediocre1865 Good point. At the very least, they're both 4-8-8-2s. That counts for something!

[@uniquely.mediocre1865]

@@brucejensen2693 exactly lol, in all honesty im more interested in British and European locomotives but I have a sift spot for C.P. Huntington

[@microbusss]

I'd like to know where all those locos are NOW hehe

[@brucejensen2693]

At least two of them are at the CA State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. The Inyo is at the Nevada SRR, where it still operates on special occasions.

[@fgcanales]

who was the one-armed gentleman alighting the #1

[@joeypincombe8384]

most likely the c p huntington will never tour america on standard gauge. railroads in this decade. however the museum is on the san Andreas fault line. all it take is one big earthquake to send these priceless iron steeds in the sea not the place for any of steam locomotives. just hope they will sponcer an rail tour on such railroads as. cass scenic railway and green Brier railroad and only standard gauge railroads except Hawaii or alaska.

[@martinlumber]

You, sir, are a bafoon.

[@MichaelAirbnbHost]

Why does this video quility look better than the moon landing?

[@Keeper1st]

Because the moon landing footage you usually see was live TV video; this is film.

[@MichaelAirbnbHost]

But the television you use to see is transferred by air waves anyways?

[@Keeper1st]

Michael Lucero Exactly; it can't contain as much information. Why do you suppose Skype doesn't look as good as what you see in a movie theater?

[@MichaelAirbnbHost]

Skype is actually transfers video by cable, not wirelessly there is a lack of quality but the type of quality lose using Skype is lagging frame rates. But you now raise an additional question why was there no lagging frame rate? I am multimedia developer so when I asked I was hoping for a detailed technical explanation.

[@Keeper1st]

Michael Lucero I can't get technical enough for you, perhaps, but I suppose the fact that it was an analog signal has something to do with it. Instead of dropped frames like a flaky digital signal, a flaky analog signal just becomes distorted. They used an especially low-resolution signal which I guess was to mitigate problems. Film shot on the Moon, processed after returning to Earth, is of course at a much better quality.

[@singwith]

No one had color film until late 60s unless you were super rich or belong to the motion picture company.

[@SierraRailway]

I know of several railfans who had their hands on color film regularly from the late 1940's and beyond. Sure, they never had too much of it at one time, but it was available, and they bought enough to document what they needed to.

[@tymime]

Ward Kimball was an animator for Disney, so it'd be the latter case.

[@MrBongers]

Snuffy's Cat Prod. - many people shot home movies on 8mm and 16mm color film (Kodachrome) in the 30's , 40's , 50's . It wasn't that rare.

[@SierraRailway]

howardkevinm The color scenes in the Wizard of Oz were the product of lithography, the practice of hand painting photographs, or in this case every single motion picture frame. This was done very often before color film was invented.

[@singwith]

howardkevinm I was referring to the consumer products. The color film is not affordable to anyone unless you are Ward Kimball or Walt Disney.