The Wildlife Express Train 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 ...

African themed

heritage railroad A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is a zoological theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division, it is the l ...

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

. Its route is long and takes guests from Harambe Station in the Africa section to Conservation Station in the Rafiki's Planet Watch section. During the ride, portions of the Animal Kingdom backlot can be seen, including animal holding buildings for rhinos and elephants, among other animals, as well as the roundhouse where the trains are stored. It takes about twelve minutes for each train to complete a round trip on the line: seven minutes from Harambe Station to Conservation Station, and five minutes from Conservation Station to Harambe Station. The railway is built to a

, which is smaller than the currently used on East African railways. The full journey is a round trip. The railway is part of the fictitious Eastern Star Railway, running from Lusaka to

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

and

Kisangani Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville or Stanleystad) is the capital of Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the fifth most populous urban area in the country, with an estimated population of 1,312,000 in 2021, and the larg ...

. Despite the dated and weathered appearance of the trains, they are actually brand-new models built by Severn Lamb in Alcester, England.

History

Early plans for Disney's Animal Kingdom called for a railway that would have taken guests through the Savannah plains. This idea was modified, however, when concerns about the safety of the animals was raised. Instead, Disney decided to create a railway that would take guests from the Village of Harambe in the Africa section of the park to Conservation Station in the Rafiki's Planet Watch section of the park. Imagineer George McGinnis came out of retirement to design the locomotives for the attraction. They were designed to give guests the impression that the trains had been traveling through Africa for a hundred years, collecting grime and rust along the way. According to imagineer Joe Rohde, the idea was to create a look for vehicles "that would be seen today in Africa and Asia, long after their original use in Europe in the late 1800s." The locomotives and rail cars themselves were built in 1997 by Severn Lamb, Ltd. in Alcester, England. Production of the locomotives was overseen by Imagineers Bob Harpur and Joel Fritsche. On April 22, 1998, the Wildlife Express Train opened with the rest of Disney's Animal Kingdom. The Wildlife Express Train and Rafiki's Planet Watch were both temporarily closed on October 21, 2018, and reopened on July 11, 2019.

Rolling stock

The Wildlife Express Train operates three steam-outline locomotives built by Severn Lamb of Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom, in 1997 before the park's opening the following year. The locomotives are all a different color: one red, one black, and one green. These locomotives are based on the L&YR Class 5 and Class 6 locomotives, designed by John Aspinall, and built in 1898 at

Horwich Works Horwich Works was a railway works built in 1886 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) in Horwich, near Bolton, in North West England when the company moved from its original works at Miles Platting, Manchester. Buildings Horwich Works ...

for the

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...

in England, which share the same wheel arrangement and body design. The builder's plates of the locomotives, however, state that they were built in 1926 by Beyer, Peacock & Company at Gorton Foundry. Their numbers are 02594 (red), 04982 (black), and 00174 (green), with the former carrying the name ''R. Baba Harpoor'', in honor of Imagineer Bob Harpur. The rail line also uses two sets of train cars, each consisting of five coaches with a total seating capacity of 250 people on contoured benches facing sideways per train. The two trains are colored red and green. Both sets contain various bins and items on the roof, representing the luggage that passengers have brought aboard the train.

References

External links

Official websiteSevern Lamb – Jungle Express train model
{{Disney rail transport Amusement rides introduced in 1998 Amusement rides introduced in 2019 Amusement rides that closed in 2018 1998 establishments in Florida 3 ft gauge railways in the United States Disney's Animal Kingdom Africa (Disney's Animal Kingdom) Heritage railroads in Florida Rail transport in Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Railroads of amusement parks in the United States Walt Disney World transit

History

Rolling stock

See also

References

External links