The Walt Disney World Railroad is a 3-foot narrow-gauge heritage railroad and attraction located within the Magic Kingdom theme park. The rail line, constructed by WED Enterprises, operates with four historic steam locomotives originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The railway opened to the public for the first time on October 1, 1971, the same day that theMagic Kingdom park opened. It has become one of the world’s most popular steam-powered railroads, with about 3. 7 million passengers each year.
About Walt Disney World Railroad in brief
The Walt Disney World Railroad is a 3-foot narrow-gauge heritage railroad and attraction located within the Magic Kingdom theme park. The rail line, constructed by WED Enterprises, operates with four historic steam locomotives originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The WDWRR’s development was led by Roger E. Broggie, who also oversaw the construction of the Disneyland Railroad in Disneyland in Anaheim, California. On a typical day, the railroad has two trains in operation; on busy days, it has three trains. It takes about 20 minutes for each train to complete a round trip on the main line loop. The railroad closed temporarily on December 3, 2018, due to the construction of the Tron Lightcycle Run roller coaster attraction near the Tomorrowland section of the park. It has become one of the world’s most popular steam-powered railroads, with about 3. 7 million passengers each year. The attraction’s locomotics were acquired from the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán, a narrow- gauge railroad system in Mexico. After being shipped to the United States, they were altered to resemble locomotive built in the 1880s and restored to operating condition. Each locomotive was also given a set of passenger cars, which were built from scratch.
The original, dilapidated boilers were replaced with new ones made of fiberglass, and were given new tenders, which used the original parts from the originals. Many of the smaller parts on the trucks were successfully refurbished and retained. Replicas of their builder plates were also modified to burn diesel oil. The oldest locomotive, built in 1902, was the oldest of the five to be purchased and determined to be too old to be restored to be used on the attraction. It was the only locomotive that could not be refurbished, and was sold for US$32,750 along with a fifth locomotive built in front of the railroad company’s headquarters. The locomotive and spare parts were sent to the Tampa Ship Repair & Dry Dock Company in Tampa, Florida, to receive the aesthetic and mechanical restorations necessary to run on the planned WD WRR. At the time, this was the closest facility to the Walt DisneyWorld site in Bay Lake, Florida with the space and equipment needed to accommodate full-size railroad rolling stock. The railway opened to the public for the first time on October 1, 1971, the same day that theMagic Kingdom park opened.
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This page is based on the article Walt Disney World Railroad published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 23, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
