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Before you get to the Unknown Magic that is the Conservation Station, you get to enjoy an informational and relaxing train ride. Enjoy.
Category: Wildlife Express Train
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We made Christmas cookies this weekend; Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blossom. Yum! Growing up, my mom used to bake cookies. I know everyone’s probably did, but my mom used to BAKE cookies. I remember one year she actually baked more than 150 dozen cookies. That’s over 1800 cookies. She started in late November and made cookies up to about a few days before Christmas. The worst part about it was that when I was younger, no matter how many she made, we weren’t allowed to eat any until Christmas Eve, when we would decorate our tree. The tree itself was another story; for my Mom, the bigger the tree, the wider the tree, the better. And we used tinsel, the silver strand stuff. “One piece at a time!” we were told over and over. The bottom of the tree when I was younger had a train under it. The big, “O gauge” set. I look at my tree now and think we need a train set or at least a monorail, but with the dog, it would be a problem. But I still think of trains when I think of Christmas, even if I don’t have one around the tree now. Walt Disney himself had a Love of trains. He actually built a miniature railroad at his house. The train itself was a 1/8 scale model, which means it was big enough for a grown man to ride on. The track was laid out in Walt’s backyard and covered about a ½ mile. The Railroad line was called the Carolwood Pacific, after the road that the Disney family lived on Carolwood. Drive. In The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, there is a room called the Carolwood Pacific Railroad Room. It actually houses a cattle car and gondola from Walt’s backyard railroad, and a miniature model of the No. 173 engine that was Walt’s Engine. The story is told that Walt started tinkering with the idea for Disneyland; he made the Railroad a central point of the park. Since then trains have played an important part of each of the Disney Resorts worldwide. In Walt Disney World, there are two railroads. The one the Walt Disney World Railroad, although a well known attraction, has a few Unknown Magics, the other the Wildlife Express Train is more of an Unknown Magic. Today I present to you the Unknown Magic of the Railroads at Disney World.
The Walt Disney World Railroad has four locomotives. Three are named for Walt Disney, his Wife Lillian and Brother Roy. The fourth is named for Roger Broggie, the man who built Walt’s miniature Trains for his house and also laid out the track for the Carolwood Railroad. The Locomotives were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Company and were salvaged from Mexico before being restored in Tampa. The train circles the outside of the Magic Kingdom except in one spot. Right around Space Mountain, the track actually skirts inside the attraction. To walk into Space Mountain, you actually walk under the Railroad tracks, without even noticing it. There are three stops for the railroad around the park, The Main Street Station, the Frontierland Station and The Toontown Station (Which as of this writing is closed down due to the Fantasyland Expansion.)
The Main Street Station isn’t just the place to catch the train. It is the official entrance to the Magic Kingdom. When you first enter through the gates and walk into the park, you pass underneath the Station itself. Once you pass through, you enter the Magical World of Disney. But underneath the Station there are other Magical Experiences waiting for you. If you wander about the “downstairs” of the Station, you will see pictures from the Carolwood set-up in Walt’s yard and also of other Disney Related train items. When you go “upstairs” in the Station, you’ll see the décor keeps with the idea that this is a turn of the century train station in a turn of the century town. In the lobby of the station, there is a shelf with luggage that is supposed to belong to people that will be taking the train. You have to find this shelf, because it is a fun Magical Experience, in that it shows objects that would belong to Disney characters. The Frontierland Train Station is built into the Splash Mountain attraction area. Last week I talked about the Unknown Magic of an inside joke, the wooden leg named Smith in the Frontierland Station. The Frontierland Station is also a cool place, because there is play area under the train trestle called the Laughing Place. This play area for Splash Mountain was built for the youngsters that were too short to ride on Splash Mountain. The train ride around the park takes about 20 minutes and is not only relaxing and a great place to take a rest without leaving the park, but is great for seeing things that you can only see when riding the rails around the Magic Kingdom.
The other train in Walt Disney World in Walt Disney World is the Wildlife Express Train. The Wildlife express train is very different from the Walt Disney World Railroad. It travels between the Harambe, Africa train station and Rafiki’s Planet Watch. The train cars have signs on them that say, no cooking on the train, this all helps with the feeling of being on a train travelling in Africa. As you ride these rails out to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, you will travel behind-the-scenes through several animal housing and care areas of Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park. Although different from the Walt Disney World Railroad, the Wildlife Express Train is just as much a Magical Experience in that you can see things you wouldn’t see without taking the train.
So, now you know, the Walt Disney World Resort offers a couple of Magical Experiences that were made possible by Walt Disney’s Carolwood Pacific Railroad. So the next time you ride the rails in Disney World, remember it all started with a train.
unknownmagicwithinwaltdisneyworld 