The Walt Disney World Railroad

Рет қаралды 10,195

Ай бұрын

On this Grand Circle Tour, we travel across the U.S. to visit the Walt Disney World Railroad. Together, we'll learn about its origins, the history of its locomotives, and the people who made it happen. Then, we'll take a rare look at special rededication events over the years, and some products that the WDWRR inspired.
We've got a clean stack and clear track. All Aboard!

Пікірлер: 75

@yorrickwi Ай бұрын

now that the dutch theme park is converting their steam locos to electric i am extra happy to see the care and dedication that is taken for these locos,

@morph628 Ай бұрын

Oh, how I'd live to visit the roundhouse!

@TKSP4449 Ай бұрын

The part with that MTH prototype near the end made me think of the modified models done by Fairest Of Them All Locomotive Works.

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thanks for introducing me to Fairest Of Them All Locomotive Works! Excellent craftsmanship.

@MattyCtrains Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrainHe’s a great friend of mine. I always have dubbed him an imagineer for model trains. Name an engine from either Disney park and watch him go! Excellent video and channel!

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thank you!

@ThunderMesaStudio Ай бұрын

That was wonderful, Michael. Thank you!

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@isaiahwilliams2642 Ай бұрын

Oh wow. It's nice of you to share your own piece of history with this railroad! Such a great story! Let's hope the railraods all stick around for generations to come!

@brianc1701 Ай бұрын

Great video, sure brought back some great memories of my time as a conductor and engineer back in the 70's! Had a great summer as part of the "Steam One" crew watching them build Space Mountain as we circled the park! I fondly remember that when the track was wet (dew or rain) you'd have to keep your speed up in the Lilly coming up the back stretch just to get up the grade to Main Street! Otherwise you'd spin your drivers! No Fantasyland station in those days. Running three trains during the summer was a challenge as well.

@onceuponatrain 29 күн бұрын

Wow, what great memories you have! I spun the drivers in the Roy once… right after the engine wiper finished. 😳

@brianc1701 29 күн бұрын

@@onceuponatrain Ever have to jump out of the cab and throw ballast under the drivers to keep them from slipping to make it up the grade?

@onceuponatrain 29 күн бұрын

Close to it. I was hogging the Heisler at Roaring Camp. First run of the day and the rails slick with dew. We were going up one of the 7% grades with a full load of tourists, I’ve got the throttle full open, am essentially emptying the sander, and we are going maybe 2 miles per hour. We could have walked up the grade faster.

@Steamfan1 Ай бұрын

Lets not forget next year is the 100th anniversary of the twin locomotives. I hope they do something like a 1 day morning show, or putting special flags with a special logo, or even a 1 day early morning photo charter featuring a doubleheader before the park opens. I just hope they do something for these twin locos.

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

I totally agree!

@AndyG13GLA Ай бұрын

Why am I just discovering this channel now when I’ve got an entire Playlist for anything about WDRR’s? It’s so informative, well presented & actually has what I’d consider a true link to the Rail Roads at Disney Parks. Hopefully there will be others about the Rail Roads at other parks such as DLP (which is my closest).

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thank you for your kind comments! Yes, I will get to all of the Disney Parks, including one that has a railroad station but no railroad.

@TheKostathe Ай бұрын

Honey, get ready for bedtime, cause i've got the latest story book of "Once Upon A Train" from the library. COME QUICK !!! Nice to see ya back and great video as always. keep up the great work.

@sbroggie Ай бұрын

Excellent, as usual. 😁❤

@fairestofthemalllocomotive4802 Ай бұрын

Great video Michael! As always keep them coming and thanks for giving us east coast railroad people some love!

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thanks! I confess I didn't know that you craft such remarkable model trains. Truly outstanding work!

@fairestofthemalllocomotive4802 Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrain thank you very much Michael!

@AlextheHistorian Ай бұрын

This was a fantastic video, and I enjoyed the personal stories. Speaking of model Disney trains. Back in 2010, I believe, Disneyland, CA started selling an ATLAS N scale 4-4-0 replica of the C.K. Holliday. Well...being an N scaler at the time, I jumped on the opportunity to buy it. ATLAS sold many high quality N Scale 4-4-0's of various styles, and I bought quite a few of them...but the only one that ran perfectly right out of the box, was my C.K. Holliday while the rest were not useful at all (they couldn't even pull their own tender, but the Holliday locomotive was something special, it could pull all 8 cars of my replica Disneyland freight set). I ran that C.K. Holliday for 10 years on my layout until the rubber grip tires on it wore out. After that it went on display, and I gave away my N scale layout, and then switched to a much more reliable scale: On30. Did you say you helped design the narragansett coaches for N scale and HO scale? Because I bought the N scale ones, 5 of them, they are amazing. Now that I have an On30 layout, I wish I could get 5 of them made for my current layout.

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thanks for your comment! Yes, we sold an N-scale Holliday made by ATLAS in 2010. This was done through Lowell Smith’s Signature Series brand. There were also some Retlaw 2 (freight) cars available. I’m amazed at how much these have gone up in value since then. And you’re spot-on: Lowell’s Holliday pulls like a champ! Yes, I helped Bachmann create Narragansett coaches in both N and HO. I believe they offered a non-Disney version for a while.

@AlextheHistorian Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrain oh that's amazing, yes I have the non-Disney bachmann Narragansett coaches, and that Holliday 4-4-0 looked so great with them. I need to build a display case for my N scale stuff, they're all in boxes right now. But yes, that Lowell Smiths 4-4-0 is something special don't know what you guys did to make it run so reliably but I tip my hat to you! Best 10 years of N scale operation I ever had lol 😅

@cliff24g1 Ай бұрын

Michael, another great episode!!! I really enjoyed this and I hope the "toy" trains some day com to fruition.

@stevedegaetano8188 Ай бұрын

Excellent Michael! For me, the best parts of these videos have been your discussions about the various collectibles. I always learn something new.

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thanks, Steve! I greatly appreciate all the knowledge you've shared with me over the years. Once Upon a Train wouldn't be possible without you.

@bryansmith1303 Ай бұрын

I truly enjoyed this trip down memory lane, nice job!

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@knightwinggl1800 9 күн бұрын

I just wish the locomotives and cab crew were a little more accessible when in the park. As a steam engineer myself at another park, I wanted to get a much closer look at the engines when I visited in January. Couldn't even talk to the crew. They park where you can't stand next to them. We make it a point to be approachable by our guests for a little Q&A. It's a shame really.

@onceuponatrain 9 күн бұрын

At one time, there was a walkway from the Fantasyland Station to Tomorrowland. Part of the path passed right by the locomotives as they were at that station. They'd take on water and do blowdowns there; this would give the engine crew some time to chat with the guests. I haven't been there since the Tron construction, so it may be gone now.

@jeremydegeytere8385 Ай бұрын

Oh man, I’ve got the HLW Lilly Belle and Ward Kimball but I would be the first person in line if anyone ever made any G or F scale models of the Walt Disney World Railroad. Same with the Disneyland railroad! CK Holliday is my favorite locomotive but I’ve only got that one in N scale and I’m too afraid to run it haha

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

We also had HLW make a G-gauge version of the Ernest S. Marsh. These pop up on ePay every now and then. We built a whole event around that product release; I'll go into it during the Marsh episode.

@jeremydegeytere8385 Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrain I’ve seen photos of the Marsh model but never seen it out there! I’ll keep my eyes open on eBay for sure, great video

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

@@jeremydegeytere8385 I think we made 1955 of those, so they shouldn't be too rare.

@jeremydegeytere8385 Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrain it’s wild! I was able to find my ward kimball rather easily and I think that’s the rarest one? Lilly Belle took me a long time but I found one brand new in box last year, I was shocked by the condition! Not even a whisper on the Marsh!

@pennsy6755 Ай бұрын

I’ll be damned didn’t expect this channel to pop up. nice content ya making here. Personally wished the company’s modern products were up to standards like classics pre-2000s movie/tv show wise and ain’t controversial, but ya can’t deny the solid railroad stuff Walt did. Can’t wait to see more!

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thanks for your kind comments! Yes, Walt - and the people who helped him - knew how to make the trains and railroads first class.

@danielboone3770 Ай бұрын

Engine #3 is Roger E Broggie & #4 is Roy Disney.

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Indeed they are. I mention how those were planned to be reversed, and how Roy O. Disney insisted that they be swapped.

@davidbutton3500 Ай бұрын

I have an old HO scale Trainset in my collection. However, I would love a modern DCC HO scale set with all the bells and whistles(pun intended). Companies like Rapido can make incredibly detailed model trains these days, I would love if the Disney trains would become available.

@zachb2572 Ай бұрын

Have to say I’m so happy that this series is still going, I was scared it had stopped. Fantastic work! Keep chugging along 🚂

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Glad you are enjoying it! No, we're not going anywhere soon; we have lots more stories to share. Life sometimes gets in the way of the fun stuff.

@eccentric_traveler Ай бұрын

Amazing video! Is it possible to watch the full 'Roy O. Disney' rededication ceremony anywhere?

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thanks! I have the full version and may publish it if there’s enough interest.

@fiercetrains4052 Ай бұрын

Hey it’s Davenport! 3:56

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Lots more of the Davenport story in a future episode.

@fiercetrains4052 Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrain Davenport was just sent out to be rebuilt too

@pinchy08 Ай бұрын

Great documentary Mike! I’m lucky to have some train sets related to the WDWRR. The New Bright set. The Scientific Toys set. The HO set. And now the Lionel set. I’m so glad Lionel and Disney are working together on producing smaller scale sets. The Scientific toys large scale set was all the was available everywhere on Disney property. I saw it unnecessary to have only a large scale set available. Thanks to Lionel it’s all finally scaled down a little. I also have N scale models of Walt Disney’s trains manufactured by Atlas in collaboration with Lowell Smith and Bachmann. From Atlas and Lowell I have the CPRR Lilly Belle, and Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad CK Holiday with its 3 car freight train. The Bachmann set was hard to find and very expensive as it was only sold to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in Anaheim CA. Bachmann also produced an HO set of the CPRR. With all 4 locomotives having just about been overhauled again this time by Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania I hope after Roy’s overhauling all 4 locomotives can have a proper christening ceremony with champagne bottles being broken on the front.

@Ian-qs3fz Ай бұрын

I absolutely love this guy’s voice

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thank you! I’ve been told I have a face for voice-over work. 😆

@Flsteamfan1990 Ай бұрын

I am a Disney World Passholder … Just so I can take the grand circle tour once a week.

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

That’s a great use for an annual pass!

@DER-ail Ай бұрын

I always learn so much from this channel. Amazing work as usual! At 4:22 Bob is sitting on top of Lulu, one of the locomotives we have on display here at the Lomita Railroad Museum. It was one of the "showroom engines" that Irene Lewis had to promote the Little Engines company. Should you ever be looking for information or photos for a project about other live steam history, we would love to help you research!

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thanks for the offer! I will very likely take you up on it. Once Upon a Train is currently Disney-centric because that sphere is where a lot of my experiences occurred. I've always intended OUaT to branch out to other railroading in general.

@DER-ail Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrain Well we'd certainly be thrilled to help! Currently we are actually working on a "railroads in animation" display to tell the story of Little Engines and it's connections with the Disney Family so stay tuned!

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

I’m very interested in the LE/Disney connection.

@DER-ail Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrain Irene and Walt were casual friends according to some first hand accounts we have from relatives and former employees. Disney and Kimball where also both members of the Southern California Live Steamers (which Ward actually designed the original logo for in 1941) while they were located on the Lewis property here in Lomita. There are quite a few connections that not many know about, so I love seeing channels like you covering these topics. If interested, friend of the museum Nate’s Vintage Trains has some great videos on this topic as well.

@highballallaboardthewdwrr550 Ай бұрын

Ahh i wish Hartland followed through with the Walter model. That looks gorgeous.

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

I wish the same. Sadly, I heard Hartland Locomotive Works is no more. They were absolutely great collaborators.

@highballallaboardthewdwrr550 Ай бұрын

I heard heard the same as well. I have a Lilly Belle, and it runs like a Swiss watch.

@highballallaboardthewdwrr550 Ай бұрын

Did they ever follow through with their Grizzly Flats models?

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Yes, I’ve seen some. They didn’t make many, though.

@highballallaboardthewdwrr550 Ай бұрын

I was aiming to get one, but when Bachmann announced their version with the all-metal gear box, I could not resist and got that one instead.

@jaytwobeetwo Ай бұрын

This is amazing! Do you know where I could find the full video of the Roy O Disney re-dedication? Thank you!

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

I have the full video. I may post it in entirety if there’s enough interest.

@danielboone3770 Ай бұрын

Sorry, something else I didn't know about locomotives #s 3 & 4. Anyhoo, I wish I was 29 or in my 30's in 2002 for the celebration of 100 Years of Magic at WDW.

@JimJepson Ай бұрын

Great video!! I just sent the link to old friend Joel Fritsche.

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

Thanks! Please give my best regards to Joel. He will feature in a few upcoming episodes.

@JimJepson Ай бұрын

@@onceuponatrain I heard him tell a story recently that before they would open a ride, Joel would have to get on and test it. If he didn’t die, then it was safe enough for the public. 🤣

@alexexploresvlogs6060 Ай бұрын

The video of the redecation event of the the roy o disney war can i find it ?

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

The full video isn't public. I may share it out at some point in the future.

@paytongauthier6452 Ай бұрын

So did the 5th locomotive get sold for preservation or scrap?

@onceuponatrain Ай бұрын

I haven’t found a definitive answer to your excellent question. The oft repeated story is that it was sold for scrap at the shipyard. However, in talking with some Imagineers who were around at that time, I heard that it was shipped to WED in Glendale and displayed. In the late 70’s, it was sold to a private citizen. It’s not clear if it was preserved or scrapped. I keep digging for evidence of the locomotive’s eventual fate.