Walt Disney World Railroad

Location: Main Street, U.S.A.

The Walt Disney World Railroad (WDRR) is a narrow gauge railroad circling the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. This is a 3 ft (914 mm) gauge, mile and a half (2.4 km) railroad that circumnavigates the entire MK park with stations at Main Street, U.S.A., Frontierland, and Mickey's Toontown Fair. It transports over 1.5 million passengers each year.

Walt Disney was a keen railroad buff who had a miniature steam railroad, called the Carolwood Pacific Railroad, built in his backyard. There were plans to have a full-size, narrow gauge railroad known as the Disneyland Railroad at Disneyland and there would be one at later parks in Paris and Hong Kong.

In 1968 Disney sleuths, led by Roger Broggie, purchased five locos from Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatan (United Railways of Yucatan) on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. One of the five was in too poor a condition to be restored and was later sold; the other four were brought to Tampa Shipyards in Tampa, Florida and restored by a crew headed by Disney imagineer and accomplished live steam builder Bob Harpur. New boilers were constructed for the trains by Dixon Boiler Works of Los Angeles, California and the trains were cosmetically back-dated to appear older, including the use of bright colors and polished brass. The trains commenced operations with the opening of Walt Disney World on October 1, 1971.

During 1989-1990, the train played different versions of a song called "Mickey's Birthdayland Express" and "Rollin' on the Walt Disney World Express". After arriving at Frontierland, it went to Duckberg Station in what was then named Mickey's Birthdayland. During November 1990-1991, when Splash Mountain was under construction, the train only had one destination: it went backwards to Mickey's Starland, and then back to the Main Street U.S.A. station.

Recently it has become necessary for the locomotives and some of the passenger cars to be overhauled. Modifications to the passenger coaches in the past have involved removing the PA system/conductor's panel from a position on the rear of the third car, leaving the panel on a deck at the rear of the train for safer operation. Side panels were also recently added to the outside-facing sides of the coaches to keep passengers' legs (and other body parts) from reaching the outsides of the cars.

The railroad has four locos and five sets of passenger cars. The four locomotives are rebuilt narrow-gauge locomotives, originally built more than seventy years ago by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia.

The railroad rosters four complete trainsets. A regular train consists of a steam locomotive, tender, and five passenger cars with a capacity of approximately 365 passengers and 2 wheelchairs. The tender has a capacity for 1,837 U.S. gallons (6,953 L) of water and 664 U.S. gallons (2,513 L) of fuel oil. The tender needs to be topped off with water every two or three trips around the park at the water tower which is located at the Mickey's Toontown Fair station.

Each of the four locomotives is named after staff members who contributed to the efforts of the Disney Company and Walt Disney World.

Engine #1:
"Walter E. Disney" - This loco is named for the man himself, Walt Disney (1901-1966). Walt loved railroads and his parks have always displayed his love for trains.

Built: 1925
Wheel Configuration: 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler"
Serial Number: 58444
Locomotive Colors: Red
Coach color: Red
Driver Diameter: 44 inches (111 cm)
Locomotive and Tender Weight (dry): 67000 pounds (30,390 kg)

Engine #2:
"Lilly Belle" is named after Walt Disney's wife Lillian Disney (born Lillian Marie Bounds) (1899-1997). "Lilly Belle" is also the name of the scaled-down steam locomotive Disney ran in his own backyard and the parlor car of the Disneyland Railroad.

Built: 1928
Wheel Configuration: 2-6-0 "Mogul"
Serial Number : 60598
Locomotive Color: Green and red
Coach color: Green
Driver Diameter: 44 inches (111 cm)
Locomotive and Tender Weight (dry): 61000 pounds (27,669 kg)
Lilly Belle has been retired from day to day passenger service and has been made the show train. All cars on her train except for the last do not have the new side plates. She is steamed up for the opening show where she brings Mickey Mouse and company to the front entrance. She is then brought back to the roundhouse and put on standby. Should one of the other trains have a problem, Lilly Belle would be attached to the other train's cars, since it takes several hours to add or remove the siding.

It should also be noted that Lilly Belle was built in 1928, which would make her as old as Mickey Mouse.

Engine #3
"Roger E. Broggie" - This locomotive is named after Roger E. Broggie (1908-1991), who led the effort of acquiring the locomotives for the Walt Disney World Railroad and helped build Disney's own Carolwood Pacific Railroad. Roger Broggie was also the original Disney Imagineer who worked on the Epcot Project.

Built: 1925
Wheel Configuration: 4-6-0 "Ten Wheeler"
Serial Number: 58445
Locomotive Colors: Green, red
Coach color: Yellow
Driver Diameter: 44 inches (111 cm)
Locomotive and Tender Weight (dry): 67000 pounds (30,390 kg)

Engine #4
"Roy O. Disney" - The Number 4 locomotive is named after Walt Disney's older brother and business partner, Roy Oliver Disney(1893-1971). Roy saw to the completion of his brother's dream after Walt's death in 1966 and completed the construction of then named "Disney World." Roy renamed the resort in Walt's honor to "Walt Disney World" and died just shortly after the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971. Roy was originally offered to have the 4-6-0, Roger Broggie, named after him, so that the Walt Disney and Roy Disney engines would be alike but he refused because he "didn't want to be compared to all the great things Walt has done."

Built: 1916
Wheel Configuration: 4-4-0 "American"
Serial Number: 42915
Locomotive Colors: Green, Red
Coach color: Blue
Driver Diameter: 46 inches (116 cm)
Locomotive and Tender Weight (dry): 51000 pounds (23,133 kg)

The railroad operates daily, taking its first passengers at 9 a.m. year-round. In the past, for safety reasons, it was closed during the fireworks show due to its proximity to the staging area (about 100 yards (91 m) or so behind Fantasyland). Currently the policy is to remove the trains back to the roundhouse one hour before fireworks. The trains do not operate during special events such as Mickey's Pirate and Princess Party, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

A round trip around the MK on the WDWRR is approximately 20 minutes.

Each train is manned by three Disney Castmembers, a Conductor, an engineer, and a fireman. The engineer is charged with operation of the locomotive and the fireman is responsible for maintaining the fire as well as water level in the boiler. The conductor is responsible for the safe operation of the train.

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Last Updated: May 18, 2009