The Disneyland Railroad Disneyland's railroad has a long and historic past. It started out from the fascination that Walt Disney had of steam locomotives. The Inspiration for the Disneyland Railroad came from Walt's own backyard where is fascination with steam trains led to the creation of the Carolwood Pacific Railroad...Walt's own personal railroad. This scale model railroad included a steam engine affectionately named the "Lilly Belle" after his wife Lillian.
The Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad premiered with the park on July 17th 1955. Walt along with Governor Knight of California, Fred Gurley (President of the Santa Fe Railroad), and of course Mickey Mouse proudly rode in the cab of the E P Ripley as it pulled into the Main Street Station.
The Disneyland Railroad travels around the park on top of the "berm" which separates Disneyland from the outside world. The trains travel around the track which stretches for about 1 and a half miles.
When the Disneyland Railroad opened there were only two locomotives ... The C K Holliday, which was named after the Founder of the Santa Fe Railroad and the E P Ripley. Both trains were built under Walt's supervision at his studios. One train acted as a passenger train and the other as a freight train. There was only two stations at the time, one in Frontierland and one on Main Street. The trains were able to complete the one and a half-mile trip in approx. 6 minutes.
Later in 1956 a Fantasyland stop was added and in 1958 a Tomorrowland station was added. Also in 1958 the Fred Gurley was added to the roster and a new "Grand Canyon" Diorama took passengers on a journey around the edge of the majestic canyon. The Diorama was set up between the Tomorrowland and Main Street Stations.
In 1964 Walt Disney created four shows for the New York World's Fair. One of these shows was included in Ford's "Magic Skyway" exhibit. Ford's "Magic Skyway" took guest on a journey through time in Ford Convertibles. Part of this exhibit called "Primeval World" was set up along with the "Grand Canyon" diorama and in 1966 guest could now travel through time aboard the Disneyland Railroad.
The original passenger and freight cars were replaced to allow a better view from the trains. These new cars included 3 full "Holiday" trains that had seats facing forward and one "Excursion" train with seats facing the right side of the train (towards the dioramas). One of the last of the original passenger cars was converted into a VIP car and added to the end of the C K Holliday. The car is named the "Lilly Belle" after Walt's original steam train and is furnished in live plants, burgundy velvet seats, and elaborate woodwork and stained glass skylights.
The trains are stored in a storage facility behind "it's a small world". The location of the trains at any time can be obtained from a board indicator inside the Main Street Station. Also in the Main Street Station is the Original Lilly Belle from the Carolwood Pacific and many other railroad paraphernalia. The familiar voice of the Disneyland railroad is Thurl Ravenscoft who also did the voice of Tony the Tiger.
In 1974 "Santa Fe" was dropped from the name and the trains continued under the "Disneyland Railroad" name. The names of the engines remained the same.
