The Western River Railroad (

reporting mark A reporting mark is a code used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain rail transport networks. The code typically reflects the name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equip ...

WRR) is a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

rail transport attraction in

Tokyo Disneyland (local nickname ''TDL'') is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be ...

, which opened on April 15, 1983. Its route is long and takes guests through the Adventureland,

Westernland Frontierland is one of the "themed lands" at the many Disneyland-style parks run by Disney around the world. Themed to the American Frontier of the 19th century, Frontierlands are home to cowboys and pioneers, saloons, red rock buttes and gold ...

, and

Critter Country Critter Country is one of the "themed lands" at Disneyland Park and Tokyo Disneyland run by The Walt Disney Company and The Oriental Land Company. It was originally designed as Bear Country at Disneyland Park in 1972, with the Country Bear Jambo ...

sections.

Overview

Sponsored by

Takara Tomy is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on March 1st 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Tak ...

, the Western River Railroad is one of two rail attractions at

Tokyo Disney Resort The (local nickname ''TDR'') is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. The resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under a licence from The Walt Disney Company, who constru ...

, the other being the

DisneySea Electric Railway The DisneySea Electric Railway(ディズニーシー・エレクトリック・レールウェイ)is a narrow gauge elevated electric railway attraction at Tokyo DisneySea. Opened on September 4, 2001, the railway is one of two rail attractions ...

Tokyo DisneySea is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just next to Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park, and licenses intellectual proper ...

. Unlike other Disney railroad attractions, it does not circle the whole park. Instead, the railroad only passes through Adventureland, Westernland, and Critter Country. Additionally, this railroad has a track gauge is

as compared with other Disney railroad track gauges of narrow gauge. At the time that the Western River Railroad was opened, Japanese rail regulations required that any railway line with more than one stop be subject to the same rules as any other conventional rail line, which included running on a timetable and collecting fares; this law was later abolished on April 1, 1987. As such, there is only one stop on the Western River Railroad in order to avoid having to charge fares and to allow the use of passenger cars that are not fully enclosed, which would not be allowed otherwise..

Ride experience

Going clockwise around the loop, the train departs Adventureland Station, and passes through Stillwater Junction, a Western-themed train station (though the train does not stop here). Afterwards, the train goes through a forest where passengers are able to see animatronic displays of wild animals and Native Americans. Continuing down the line, the train crosses over a long

trestle ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laborato ...

through the Critter Country section and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction in the

section. Finally, it enters through a deep tunnel containing the Primeval World Diorama (featuring animatronic

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s) and exits back to the Adventureland Station.

Rolling stock

The Western River Railroad has four narrow gauge

2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels. The notation 2-4-0T indi ...

steam locomotives built by Kyosan Kogyo Co., which were named after famous rivers located primarily in the Western United States (hence the name of the railroad).. All four locomotives were designed to resemble the

Denver & Rio Grande The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...

''Montezuma'' locomotive, which was built by

Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades t ...

. Each WRR locomotive shared the same tender design, which holds of fuel and of water. The railroad also has a fleet of twelve passenger cars, with three coaches assigned to each locomotive. The passenger cars are based on the Narragansett-style excursion cars used on the

Disneyland Railroad The Disneyland Railroad (DRR), formerly known as the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, is a 3-foot () narrow-gauge heritage railroad and attraction in the Disneyland theme park of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, in the United St ...

and

Walt Disney World Railroad The Walt Disney World Railroad (WDWRR) is a 3-foot () narrow-gauge heritage railroad and attraction located within the Magic Kingdom theme park of Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, in the United States. Its route is in length and encir ...

, with guests facing forward. Each coach has a small door in each row of seats that swings inward as a safety precaution.

References

Bibliography

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External links