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 encircles most of the park, with train stations in three different park areas. The rail line, constructed by WED Enterprises, operates with four historic steam locomotives originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. It takes about 20 minutes for each train to complete a round trip on the WDWRR's main line loop. On a typical day, the railroad has two trains in operation; on busy days, it has three trains.

The WDWRR's development was led by Roger E. Broggie, who also oversaw the construction of the Disneyland Railroad in Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The attraction's locomotives were acquired from the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán, a narrow-gauge railroad system in Mexico. After being shipped to the United States, they were altered to resemble locomotives built in the 1880s and restored to operating condition. Each locomotive was also given a set of passenger cars, which were built from scratch.

The WDWRR opened to the public for the first time on October 1, 1971, the same day that the Magic Kingdom park opened. Since then, the WDWRR has become one of the world's most popular steam-powered railroads, with about 3.7 million passengers each year.

History

Discovery in Mexico

The development of the Walt Disney World Railroad (WDWRR) from the late 1960s to its opening in 1971 was overseen by Roger E. Broggie, vice president and general manager of Mapo, Inc., WED Enterprises' research and manufacturing branch.. Broggie previously supervised the building of the Disneyland Railroad in Disneyland in Anaheim, California.. From his experience with the railroad at Disneyland, Broggie determined that it was better to use existing steam locomotives, rather than building them entirely from scratch like the Disneyland Railroad's first two locomotives.

In 1968, he contacted rail historian Gerald M. Best who recently wrote ''Mexican Narrow Gauge'', a book containing information about locomotives that could be obtained from a railroad boneyard in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, owned by the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán... This was a narrow-gauge system, the same gauge as the Disneyland Railroad. In 1969, Broggie, along with fellow Disney employee and railroad-building expert Earl Vilmer, went to Mérida to investigate. They determined that four locomotives built by Baldwin Locomotive Works could potentially be salvaged, along with a fifth locomotive built by Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works, which was on display in front of the railroad company's headquarters.

Broggie paid a total of US$32,750 for all five locomotives ($8,000 for each of the four locomotives in the boneyard plus an additional $750 for the fifth locomotive).. The locomotives, along with an assortment of brass fittings and other spare parts given away for free, were immediately shipped by rail back to the United States..

Restoration in Florida

The five locomotives and spare parts acquired by Roger Broggie were sent to the Tampa Ship Repair & Dry Dock Company in Tampa, Florida, to receive the aesthetic and mechanical restorations necessary to run on the planned WDWRR. At the time, this was the closest facility to the Walt Disney World site in Bay Lake, Florida with the space and equipment needed to accommodate full-size railroad rolling stock. Here, Transportation Superintendent Earl Vilmer, who had accompanied Broggie on his trip to Mexico, along with Project Engineer Bob Harpur and the facility's Machinist Supervisor George Britton, were tasked with the project's completion...

The general idea for the restoration was to make the locomotives appear as if they were built in the 1880s.. The original, dilapidated boilers of the four locomotives built by Baldwin Locomotive Works were replaced with new, smaller boilers built by Dixon Boiler Works.. Their worn-out wood and steel cabs were replaced with new ones made of fiberglass, and they were given new tenders, which used the trucks from the originals. Many of the smaller original parts on the locomotives such as the domes and brass bells on top of the boilers, the frames, the wheels, and the side rods were successfully refurbished and retained. The locomotives' fireboxes were also modified to burn diesel oil. Replicas of their builder's plates were also made to replace the originals. The restoration cost for the four Baldwin locomotives and their tenders was around $125,000 each.

The Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works locomotive acquired along with them could not be restored. Built in 1902, this locomotive was the oldest of the five locomotives purchased and was determined to have too many problems to be rebuilt. Some of its parts were salvaged to help restore the four Baldwin locomotives, including its smokestack, which was fitted to the WDWRR's No. 4 locomotive.. Afterwards, the remains of the Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works locomotive were stored out of use at WED Enterprises in Glendale, California before being sold to an unknown locomotive broker in the mid 1980s.

Opening to present day

The restoration of the WDWRR's four locomotives, as well as the construction of five new open-air Narragansett-style excursion cars for each of them (twenty in total), was completed in less than two years.. The first completed set of five passenger cars was delivered to the Magic Kingdom park during April 1971 and the first completed locomotive arrived on May 15, 1971, several months before the park's opening.. Like the steam trains running on the Disneyland Railroad during Disneyland's opening day on July 17, 1955, the steam trains for the WDWRR were the first attraction in the Magic Kingdom park to be finished, and they have been operating in the park ever since it opened on October 1, 1971.. D tickets were required to ride on the WDWRR until 1982 when they were discontinued in favor of the pay-one-price admission system, allowing visitors to experience all of the park's attractions, including the WDWRR. George Britton, who was instrumental in getting the WDWRR's locomotives refurbished, became the railroad's foreman from the time the railroad opened until his retirement on April 6, 2006. The WDWRR would eventually become one of the most popular steam-powered railroads in the world with about 3.7 million passengers each year.

For the first few months after the WDWRR opened to the public, Main Street, U.S.A. Station at the Magic Kingdom park's entrance, modeled after the former Victorian-style Saratoga Springs station in Saratoga Springs, New York, was the only stop for passengers along its route, making only complete round trips possible.. On May 1, 1972, the first Frontierland Station opened near the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café in the Frontierland section on the park's western edge. It was one of the last changes made to the WDWRR prior to the retirement of Roger Broggie on October 1, 1973.. Frontierland Station was demolished in November 1990 to make way for the new Splash Mountain attraction and was replaced by the current Frontierland Station, which opened in December 1991 just north of the original station site. During construction of the Splash Mountain attraction and the current Frontierland Station, the WDWRR was temporarily renamed ''Backtrack Express'' and operated a single train in a shuttle mode along the section of track between the Main Street, U.S.A. and Mickey's Starland sections. Between 1976 and 1977, the Auto-Train Corporation sponsored the WDWRR..

The WDWRR's third station, Mickey's Birthdayland Station, opened on June 18, 1988, in the Magic Kingdom park's brand-new Mickey's Birthdayland section adjacent to the Fantasyland section in the park's northeast corner, and the railroad was briefly renamed ''Mickey's Birthdayland Express'' to promote it. When the Mickey's Birthdayland section was renamed ''Mickey's Starland'' in 1990, ''Mickey's Toyland'' in late 1995, and Mickey's ''Toontown Fair'' in 1996, the signage for its WDWRR station changed both times, but the station's structure remained the same.. In mid 2004, the station was demolished and completely rebuilt with a much shorter canopy. On February 11, 2011, the Mickey's Toontown Fair section closed to make way for the new Storybook Circus area, part of a new expansion of the Fantasyland section.. The current Fantasyland Station, built on the site of the former Mickey's Toontown Fair Station, opened on March 12, 2012. In April 2012, the water tower and maintenance buildings adjacent to Fantasyland Station were re-themed to match the station's new design. These were the last additions made to the WDWRR before the death of Bob Harpur in November 2012.

On December 3, 2018, the WDWRR temporarily closed to accommodate construction of the Tron Lightcycle Run roller coaster attraction in the Tomorrowland section. On December 23, 2022, the WDWRR reopened with a new tunnel that goes underneath the elevated walkway of the Tron attraction. Additionally, many of the wooden railroad ties along the route were replaced with composite plastic ties for another 25 years of track maintenance. The stations in the Main Street, U.S.A. and Frontierland sections were completely refurbished and repainted with new colors.

Ride experience

Beginning at Main Street, U.S.A. Station adjacent to the Magic Kingdom park's entrance, the trains of the WDWRR travel along its single track in a clockwise direction on its circular route, which spans around the park. It takes about 20 minutes for each train to complete a round trip on the WDWRR's main line and each of them arrives at each station every 4-10 minutes. On any given day, either two or three trains run, with two running on a typical day.. Each train is operated by an engineer and fireman in the locomotive, as well as a conductor at the rear of the train who supervises the passengers. The speed limit of the WDWRR is .

As the train departs Main Street, U.S.A. Station, it crosses an access road in the Adventureland section, travels over a small bridge, enters a small tunnel, then crosses a second access road in the Frontierland section.. After entering a tunnel through the Splash Mountain log flume attraction, the train stops at Frontierland Station. While the train is awaiting to depart, a sound effect of a telegraph operator using a telegraph key to enter Morse code can be heard at the station, transmitting Walt Disney's 1955 Disneyland dedication speech..

Continuing down the line, the train passes the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad mine train roller coaster attraction and traverses a fully functional swing bridge, which crosses a canal connecting the Rivers of America to a dry dock area and the Seven Seas Lagoon.. This bridge was originally located in Wabasso, Florida, and was previously owned by the Florida East Coast Railway.. The train then runs through an area where numerous static and Audio-Animatronic displays of Native Americans and wild animals can be seen. After that, the train goes under an overpass, passes the spur line leading to the WDWRR's roundhouse where its trains are stored and maintained, and arrives at its next stop at Fantasyland Station..

In the final segment of the train's journey around the park, it goes through a tunnel underneath the elevated walkway of the Tron Lightcycle Run roller coaster attraction. Afterwards, the train passes the Space Mountain roller coaster attraction in the Tomorrowland section and travels over a small bridge before it arrives back at Main Street, U.S.A. Station.. This completes what the park refers to as ''The Grand Circle Tour''.

File:WDWRR - Main Street, U.S.A. Station Entrance.jpg, alt=An old-fashioned railroad station building with a flagpole on its roof, Main Street, U.S.A. Station
File:WDWRR - Frontierland Station Entrance.jpg, alt=An old-fashioned railroad station building with a chimney on its roof, Frontierland Station
File:WDWRR - Fantasyland Station Entrance.jpg, alt=An old-fashioned railroad station building with a weather vane on its roof, Fantasyland Station

The WDWRR closes each night during fireworks shows, given that its track runs close to the fireworks staging area. It also closes temporarily during heavy thunderstorms.. During parade events, the trains are halted due to parade floats crossing over the WDWRR tracks in the Frontierland section. Personal strollers, wheelchairs and electric conveyance vehicles were allowed on board the train, excluding rental Disney strollers. Since August 1999, a separately-priced tour of the WDWRR named ''Disney's The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour'' has been available once daily, and includes access to the railroad's otherwise-restricted roundhouse. At the end of the tour, the guests were originally given free railroad spikes as souvenirs, but due to the September 11 attacks in 2001, the spikes were dropped in favor of the enamel pins.

Rolling stock

When working on the line, each WDWRR locomotive consumes of fuel and of water per hour, and each tender can hold of fuel and of water.. Each of the four locomotives takes on water at Fantasyland Station every three trips and pulls a set of five passenger cars with seating capacity for 75 passengers per car, for a total of 375 passengers per train. Occasionally, locomotives and their passenger car sets will be switched when either one is out of service.. The locomotives do not contain brakes, but the passenger cars do. In the past, all four locomotives received overhauls at the Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.. Overhauling services currently take place at the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.

Block signals

The WDWRR uses block signals to notify the engineers, firemen, and conductors on each train whether the track segments along the railroad's of main-line track are clear or occupied by other trains. They are also used to notify WDWRR personnel when Big Thunder Mountain Railroad's transfer track is swung over the WDWRR's track to transfer trains on and off the roller coaster. The WDWRR's track is divided into seven such segments, or blocks, and each block has a track-side block signal to communicate its status.. Block signals are located at each of the three stations, alongside the three main-line blocks between the stations, and alongside the spur line connecting the WDWRR's roundhouse to the main line.

See also

*Hogwarts Express (Universal Orlando Resort)
*Rail transport in Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
*Serengeti Express
* Sugar Express
*TECO Line Streetcar

References

Bibliography

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External links

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{{Florida railroads

1971 establishments in Florida
3 ft gauge railways in the United States
Fantasyland
Frontierland
Heritage railroads in Florida
Magic Kingdom
Main Street, U.S.A.
Narrow gauge railroads in Florida
Passenger rail transportation in Florida
Rail transport in Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Railroads of amusement parks in the United States
Railway lines opened in 1971
Transportation in Orange County, Florida
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions
Walt Disney World transit