Walt Disney's Disneyland Railroad - Part 2

Welcome back! The second half of our Disneyland Railroad story continues our journey from 1956 through today. Along the way, we'll learn how Walt's team found and Disney-fied historic locomotives, see how the Railroad has grown and evolved, and explore special events from the past 69 years. There are several behind-the-scenes moments that you won't want to miss.
The stack is clean and the track is clear, so here we go!

[@danielboone3770]

I especially love the model Lilly Belle and Disneyland G Scale locomotives! They are like a dream come true.

[@johnthompson3480]

Great video. Thank you.

[@ryanschwartze6517]

Great times working on the Disneyland Railroad and also be there on the first crew for a Disneyland 50th anniversary

[@TonyFriscia]

Thank you Michael.......

[@The53BILL]

Thanks Michael Campbell for the continuing story of Walt’s love of trains ! I have the LGB CK Holliday in G scale-a Earnest Marsh in G - Ward Kimball from Heartland and live Steam of the Ft Wilderness & the Lilly Bell which is # 16;of #173 in G scale from Accucraft Trains

[@danielboone3770]

Plus I wish I was in my 20's or 30's seeing the opening of Videopolis & then Splash Mountain!

[@onceuponatrain]

I just wish I was still in my 30's!

[@DVSDonna]

Nice hat! Glad it made it home safely.😜

[@onceuponatrain]

Hahahaha. Yes, I should have mentioned “Straight from the NSRM!”

[@evanburt2766]

Seeing these videos makes me miss working on the railroad

[@jeremydegeytere8385]

Fantastic content as always! I do love seeing CK Holliday pulling Holiday red round the corner but any locomotive pulling the excursion train is my second favorite. I’ve never seen a mixed consist running before or even a photo of one so that was wild! That Fred Gurley by LGB commands money I don’t even want to speak on eBay, I love looking at it on Main Street because I don’t know if I could stomach that price point 😂 the backup light does bother me on it, I’d have to find a way to chop it off if I got my hands on one. Stoked for part 3 about the Ward Kimball! That’s the one HLW model I was able to get ahold of! I remember seeing the original parked in a siding along La Palma at knotts after the trade with cedar point when I was a kid, had no idea what it was back then but glad I got to see it now!

[@onceuponatrain]

I’m glad you enjoyed the episode! My great friend Dennis Flores has performed a few “upgrades” on the LGB Gurley to make it more faithful to the prototype. It was one of these that we ran at the Walt Disney Family Museum in 2014/2015.

[@danielboone3770]

I love this too! The fun never ends!

[@davevan8864]

Looking forward to more!

[@stevedegaetano8188]

Another home run Michael! Glad you were able to get some video of the order board in operation. Also interesting to see mixed consists!

[@onceuponatrain]

Thank you, Steve, for all your help! Folks, if you don't know Steve DeGaetano, you should. He is THE authority on the Disneyland Railroad. You'll learn more about him and his books during the upcoming Ward Kimball episode. (BTW, Steve, it was Mike Aronson who found the semaphore video. He never ceases to amaze me.)

[@davidrose425]

Keep up the great work Michael!!

[@onceuponatrain]

Thanks, David! I think you'll be quite happy with one of our upcoming episodes.

[@jayo1212]

@4:45 I kinda don't like that about Disneyland's set-up. I like how Disney World was able to build a station in Fantasyland that was close enough to Tomorrowland to avoid it... @16:33 I thought it was stolen... @18:22 I think it could make a reasonable stand-in for one of the Disney World engines...

[@onceuponatrain]

Not exactly. It depends on who you ask.😎

[@alexandrearraou]

Awesome video as usual! I can't wait for more videos, its always a treat when you upload something.

[@onceuponatrain]

Thanks! It’s a treat for me, too: I always learn something new when doing the research for these.

[@eliotreader8220]

@@onceuponatrain I understand that Walt wanted Ward's Chloe but she would have been converted from a wood burner to a oil burning engine

[@onceuponatrain]

Yes, that's what I've been told as well. Makes sense. I doubt that was Ward's only concern, though. Even if Ward acquiesced, I'm not sure Chloe had enough tractive effort to pull a fully loaded, six-car passenger train. It's TE is 1,000+ lower than the other DRR engines.

[@pedrocortes5973]

Disneyland railroad is closed and it would re-open in late October or Early November

[@onceuponatrain]

Yes, it’s closed for important track replacement. The Park has put up some nice, temporary displays featuring DRR history. These are at Mickey’s Toontown and Tomorrowland stations.

[@cjmcdade9715]

What about the trains of Disneyland Paris? What ate their stories?

[@onceuponatrain]

The Disneyland Paris Railroad is on the list to cover! We’ve got a lot of stories to tell about railroads everywhere.

[@wmtrader]

I'm curious as to what is the ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) container on your desk? I'd like to get one.

[@onceuponatrain]

I wondered when someone would ask about that. Disney steam trains aren't my only hobby; I'm a lifelong fan of Jeff Lynne. The cover of the Discovery album shows a man holding a small version of the ELO logo (spaceship). I thought that would be a nice thing to have, only to find that it was never made into a product. Years later, a company made an accurate, miniature model of the Wurlitzer 1015 jukebox. Then they released the matching Wurlitzer 4008 speakers. These speakers were the basis for Kosh's creation of the ELO logo that first appeared on A New World Record. I purchased four of these speakers and converted them into the ELO logo by updating the colors and creating a new hub out of styrene and polished brass. I kept one and the other three are being enjoyed by friends and family.

[@wmtrader]

@@onceuponatrain I've always thought the spaceship on the ELO album "Out of the Blue" was cool. There is the Cut-Out Model of the ELO spaceship that's included with their "Out Of The Blue" album but nothing else.

[@onceuponatrain]

Exactly. That's why I had to make my own. I suggested to Jeff's management that they could make something like this, but it went nowhere.

[@wmtrader]

​@@onceuponatrain Somone should license it, make it, and sell it themselves before the generation that knows ELO gets too old. Or it could be offered as part of an ELO collectors release with the audio CDs and video DVDs/Blu-ray disks inside.

[@AndyG13GLA]

As a newcomer to model train enthusiasts I’d be curious to know if any UK manufacturer such as Hornby ever produced a OO Gauge Disneyland RR model. I understand HO can be used on UK tracks but the “scale” becomes an issue. Can anyone here, or any UK Disney enthusiasts advise please? I’d like to incorporate a railway line into a diorama model of Disneyland in my garage.

[@onceuponatrain]

Hi, Andy. Hornby made a Toy Story 3 set in 2010. The locomotive was fashioned after the "Old 95" (a reference to the release year of the first Toy Story film). In turn, Old 95 was based on the C. K. Holliday. I own this set and the engine is remarkable well made for being a "toy". The proportions and colors are quite nice. There are a few missing aspects, such as the drive rods and the entire tender. But it's well made and would be a great starting point for a C. K. Holliday kitbash. As for scale, that's always a consideration for Disney trains because these models are scale versions of something that itself was a scale model. HO is meant to be 1:87 of the prototype and OO is 1:76.2. But of what? The Holliday is nominally five-eighths the size of the Central Pacific 173. So is the Hornby loco 1:76.2 of the CP173? Or is it a much larger scale model of something that is little more than half of the CP173? This is why I try to refer to gauge and not scale; while the Toy Story locomotive is a scale model of *something*, it will run on OO / HO track. My suggestion is to do what Walt did: look at something in its setting and decide if it looks "right" to you or not.

[@heidihobear]

I think the only way to actually get the Disneyland engines in G scale is to kit bash them

[@onceuponatrain]

Thanks for your comment. I agree that truly faithful G-gauge models of engines 1 through 4 require a fair amount of kitbashing. Locomotive 5, the Ward Kimball, is fairly well represented by the HLW version we created. I'll go through the story of this model when we create the episode dedicated to Ward.

[@jayo1212]

@@onceuponatrain I thought the model of the Gurley was pretty darn accurate...

[@onceuponatrain]

@@jayo1212 For me to feel that a model is pretty darn accurate, I'd expect the cab to be correct, no giant backup headlamp atop the cab, and the correct order of the bell and domes. Essentially, the "25 feet away" test. 🙂

[@Ndoggy1127]

Someone pls tell me where Fred’s hidden Mickey is I cannot find it 😭😭😭

[@stevedegaetano8188]

Hint: you have to be able to see on top of the tender…

[@Ndoggy1127]

@@stevedegaetano8188 No way I can find footage of that…could you possibly put a spoiler warning and then comment the answer more specifically? This comment section is a thread so there’s plenty of warning.

[@rachaelmajdali5696]

It's on the tender. There's a photo of the Mickey online, btw!

[@Ndoggy1127]

@@rachaelmajdali5696 literally have searched the other person said it’s on top of the tender…No photos on top of the tender for Fred. Literally all side angles

[@stevedegaetano8188]

Just do a Google Image search for "Fred Gurley Disneyland hidden mickey." On my computer it's the very first image.