Disney World apparently now offers a behind-the-scenes tour of its RR facilities. Here's a description from Ed Kelley on the Park Trains list:

I took the "Magic Behind our Steam Trains" tour on Thursday. We arrived
around 7:15 in front of the floral mickey to meet Jack, our tour guide, who is a
conductor on the line and who started the tour. We received pins with our
names on them showing a cartoonish steam train and Mickey. The Roy O. Disney soon
pulled up to the station and made a safety check run after we took some
photos of it. It soon returned and we got on the last car of the train. We ran to
Toontown Fair station where a junior member of the crew from Texas threw the
switch and we backed down the spur. As the crossing gates went down on the
roundhouse spur, cast members did some daring stunts...speeding under the
closing gates to get in on time! The Walter E. Disney sitting out front blew its
whistle as we backed into the roundhouse and got a look around (we couldn't get
off the train). No photos beyond Toontown. We saw the Roger E. Broggie and
the Lilly Belle sitting in the enginehouse, building up steam. Jack told us
that the Roger E. would be pulling the third train of the day. When I asked him
why steam was coming off the Lilly Belle's whistle, he didn't know why. He
said they weren't equipped to run 4 trains at once. We then pulled out of the
roundhouse and got to go into the cab of the hot Walter E. Disney. The fire
was turned off as we went in. That junior member got to blow the whistle and
ring the bell. Then after everyone got to look inside, we stood back as they
re-fired the Walter E. Disney. In a few minutes we were on our way back to
Main Street. We then were offered coffee and water and then got a tour of the
station area and the historical photos there. The whole tour was complimented
by stories and information, most coming out of Michael Broggie's book which I
have read cover to cover maybe 3-4 times, but there is some new stuff too
including the story how someone stole Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from the Disney
brothers. We then were handed out (and were one of the first groups to receive) a
beautiful custom train tour pin (not cardboard and paper like the name tag but
like the other Disney pin trading pins) that was custom designed by a
cartoonist and can't be purchased anywhere on property.

It was a great tour and I reccomend it to everyone who loves trains and is at
WDW.


ryarger@rypn.org

What do I have to do to sign up for this tour? I live about an hour from Disney and I've always been interested in the WDWRR.

mrwowak@nospam.yahoo.com

> What do I have to do to sign up for this
> tour? I live about an hour from Disney and
> I've always been interested in the WDWRR.

It's called The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains. Details from the official Disney site here:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/pa ... nsTourPage

The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains
eledbetter@rypn.org

Sorry to drag this thread back from the dead....

I was wondering if anyone has taken the "Behind the scenes" Disney World railroad tour recently and had any advice about it.

My wife and I are making our first trip to Disney World with our young children this coming October, and after I mentioned something about the "Behind the scenes" tour of the railroad, she had her travel agent lady sign me up for it. My train loving son is way too young to attend, but I'm looking forward to myself. :)

I imagine that it's not very in-depth technically, but I'm still looking forward to a good look at the equipment and facilities.

The tour is as in-depth technically as you want--just ask questions about anything you want to know.

A lot of us in this community poo-poo the Disney programs, but they've been running those Baldwins nearly every day since 1971. The folks on the west coast have been operating their engines for almost 60 years. So they do have some pretty good experience.

With nine operating steam locomotives in the country (and a couple of steam-powered boats), it's a given that more kids have been exposed to steam power and steam railroading at a Disney park than anywhere else.

With that much use have they all been reboilered by now (or were when put into WED service)? How about other major work like replacing cylinder castings and things of that nature? How much can they do themselves and how much gets done by folks like TVRM, Wasatch, Strasburg, or other vendors (not trying to slight anyone) ?

Steve

I tried to take the tour a couple of years ago and they were not running tours because they had a collision on the monorail system. They were not doing tours while there was a smashed up monorail sitting around the monorail shop witch is right next to the steam shop.

In California, Engines 2, 3 and 5 have been re-boilered. Engine 4, out for rebuilding now, is having a new boiler built. Engine 1 is still on her original 1955 Dixon boiler.

Engine 2 has had new cylinder castings made. Interestingly, Engines 1 and 2 have their cylinders bolted individually to the cylinder saddle (the same method used to affix the cylinders on the prototype both are loosely based on--Central Pacific's No. 173).

Engines 1, 3, 4 and 5 have their original Baldwin cylinders.

In Florida, all four Baldwins have their original cylinders.

As for how much work they can do themselves, that sort of depends. They cannot make boilers or complex castings like cylinders. In 1955, most parts were outsourced (boilers by Dixon, frames flame-cut from sheet steel plate using paper patterns, and drivers cast by Wilmington Ironworks). However, everything was assembled at the Park, and details like domes, cabs, headlights and stacks were fabricated by Disney.

This work was supevised by a former Kansas City Southern Roundhouse foreman, Earl Vilmer.

All day-to-day maintenance is conducted by the Disney roundhouse Operating Engineers. Back in the '50s, most of the engine crew and roundhouse staff were former steam railroaders from the Santa Fe and other railroads. Today, there's a separation between those that run the trains, and those who work on them. The Operating Engineers who do the maintenance usually come from industry. There are machinists and stationary boiler operators, among others. The guy in charge of rebuilding the Walt Disney World engines worked in the Tampa shipyards. He was so good at what he did that Earl Vilmer asked him to run the FL roundhouse, where he stayed for several decades until retiring a few years ago.

However, virtually all major overhauls are outsourced. Tweetsie and Strasburg have both done work, as well as smaller shops in CA and elsewhere. In a bit of a debacle, Benson Mountain Co. in Rhode Island rebuilt Disneyland's Engine 2 in the late 1990s. There were quite a few problems during the process, and a lot of finger pointing on both sides. But I digress.

The engines have exacting maintenance schedules, but there have been times that they've literally "run the wheels off 'em:"





This repair was handled in-house.

Anyway, hope this helps answer some of your questions.

I strongly second this. Just about everything you see nowdays is a "steam zoo"; very rarely do you get to see the real thing in a real setting. And, when it comes to set designs and "Imagineering"; Disney is one of the best.

I went just this past December, and took the tour. We also got the pin, but our nametag was metal and a keeper as well. Here are my pictures from the trip:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7 ... ba648470c8

I highly recommend riding the steamboat "Liberty Belle" as well. It is guided by an underwater track, but is otherwise a reasonable authentic paddlewheel riverboat; unlike the Natchez and other running Mississippi riverboats, it is non-condensing, blowing a puff of steam with each stroke of the pistons. The boiler for the riverboat was also built by the Dixon boiler works; I don't know where the main engines came from. Two Worthington steam pumps pump the diesel fuel to the boiler; a steam turbine powered pump supplies feedwater to the boiler.

When the team from Disney brought back the four locomotives from Mexico, they also brought back a pile of spare parts. The whistle, light and bell on the steamboat also came from that pile of parts. The steamboat is also maintained in the transportation center along with the steam trains and monorail; there is lift bridge on the railroad that lifts up so the boat can reach the center through a canal. While you are at the transportation facility; notice also the congeneration facility across the street. (A cogen plant uses a gas turbine to turn a generator; the exhaust then enters a boiler, or HRSG that generates steam, the steam can then be used for steam A/C or drive a steam turbine. ) Disney World was one of the first facilities outside of petrochemical plants to use a utility cogen plant.

We stayed in a cabin on the Frontier Wilderness campground. At one time, a narrow gauge train built for the park was used to ferry visitors around the park. The little locomotives “could not”, and the trains were retired. After sitting derelict for years, they were sold to a private owner in California; you can see the picture of the train that was in our cabin as well.

The Animal Kingdom theme park has in the very back a neat replica train built for the park by Severn Lamb; last two pictures in my album. Too bad they are not steam; they look so much like a picture out of one of Colin Garrett’s world steam books; with luggage piled on top of the train, and a bicycle lashed to the front of the locomotive. It was raining, and I had my grandson with me when we were there; I retreated to the dry train car, and let him sleep on the bench while I enjoyed going in circles.

There is a pair of neat paintings in the visitor center on Main Street USA. Behind the counter were a neat pair of paintings, which you can also see. Not only did one of the staff offer to take the pictures for me, but she produced a typed page that described them. I was very impressed.

Still, it was even more magical in the past, when the boats that plied the Seven Seas Lagoon were actual steamboats, and one could ride a steam train around the Frontier Wilderness Campgrounds. (There was a second riverboat as well; but it was lost in an accident on shore.) All of these disappeared either due to mechanical problems or budget cutting.

http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/7seas.htm

Still, a highly recommended place to take your family and get a good dose of steam at the same time. I have a steam locomotive recording as a ring tone on my phone. Normally, it is very distinctive; but at Disney World, between 1-2 trains at a time and the steamboat, I kept reaching for it and realizing it was not my phone.…

Thank you for the feedback guys!

I'm happy to know that the tour will likely show me some real details of the locomotives and the operation. I'm also happy that my thoughtful wife signed me up for it after I told her that I probably wasn't interested in the tour since it would cause her to be alone with the kids while I went looking at trains. :)

James, thanks for the information about the campground train. My parents took me to DW way back in 1973 (when I was four), and we stayed at the campground. One of my only real memories about the entire trip was finally seeing the steam engine come through the campground on the last day that we were at the park. (I wonder if my dad might have a slide of it somewhere?) Anyways, when I looked at the park map recently, I couldn't figure out how I had seen a train in the campground. Now I know.

Just a question regarding the original post. I wonder why there is no photography allowed? Seems like a pointless rule, particularly when you are taking people through who have a genuine interest is the "nuts and bolts" of the operation.

Wes

I don't know about then, but today, they only ask you not to take pictures inside the maintenance building or at piles of spare parts outside. That is understandable; besides security issues, it is a maintenance building, so it is not neat and tidy like the rest of the park. And that is the point, they want to maintain the "magic", not have pictures posted that cast the park in a potentially negative light.

Not only is there no museum dead line at Disney, everything is maintained to the highest standard. The park is over 50 years old now; but even after looking in corners or under eaves, I could not find a patch of flaking paint or rust anywhere. It is amazing the level of upkeep they keep the entire park at; especially when you consider it is open 365 days a year, and all maintenance happens at night.

I stayed at the Grand Californian hotel at Disneyland a couple of years ago and at night watched the monorail maintenance vehicle at work. It runs the opposite direction as the trains.

I also had a "tender ride" on one of the steam trains - since the cabs are too small! The operating crew was very friendly and answered any questions I had.

I live on the left coast. Does anyone know if Disneyland has a similar backshop tour?

Only Florida's Disney World has a roundhouse tour (and both parks DO refer to their facilities as "roundhouses," even though both are rectangular).

However, only Disneyland in CA has tender rides--a good trade-off, if you ask me. BTW, the cabs of engines 3 and 5 can accommodate at least two more people, but only engines 1 and 2 are equipped for guest riders.

Back about 20 years ago, I was at Disneyland in the Tomorrowland area and noticed a steam locomotive crew working on their engine with an adjustable wrench and heavy-duty pliers. I think the cylinder lubricator was misbehaving. When I saw these "on the road" repairs, it reaffirmed that these are real steam engines.