Walt Disney World Railroad, Heritage railroad in Magic Kingdom Park, Florida, US
The Walt Disney World Railroad is a heritage railway in Magic Kingdom Park, Florida, operating four restored steam locomotives on a 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) loop around the park grounds. The line connects three stations and lets visitors move between different park areas or simply enjoy a relaxing ride around the entire circuit.
In 1968 Roger Broggie learned of four Baldwin Locomotive Works engines and one ALCO engine in a Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán boneyard in Mérida, Yucatán; he bought all five for US$32,750 in 1969. Restoration at the Tampa Ship Repair & Dry Dock Company rebuilt them to look like 1880s locomotives, with new diamond smokestacks, square headlamps, Dixon boilers and fiberglass cabs. The line opened with the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971.
The line's only station at opening, Main Street, U.S.A., was modeled on the Victorian-era depot at Saratoga Springs, New York. Frontierland station opened on May 1, 1972, and Fantasyland station followed on June 18, 1988, when the railroad was briefly renamed the Mickey's Birthdayland Express. Since 1999 a separately priced tour lets visitors walk through the locomotive roundhouse.
Passengers can board or exit at three stations across Magic Kingdom: Main Street USA, Frontierland, and Fantasyland. Trains depart regularly every 20 minutes or so, and the ride takes roughly a quarter of an hour for the full loop.
The No. 4 locomotive carries the smokestack of a 1902 ALCO engine bought with the four Baldwin locomotives in Mérida; that fifth engine was too worn to restore, so its parts were cannibalized. The twenty open-air Narragansett-style excursion cars were built new, not imported.
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