Rail transport in Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
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Rail transport can be found in every theme park resort property owned or licensed by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, one of the four business segments of the Walt Disney Company.[3][4] The origins of Disney theme park rail transport can be traced back to Walt Disney himself and his personal fondness for railroads, who insisted that they be included in the first Disney park, the original Disneyland (a key component of the Disneyland Resort) in California in the United States, which opened on July 17, 1955.[5][6] The Disney tradition of including transport by rail in, and adjacent to, its parks has since been extended to other Disney properties with the opening of Walt Disney World in Florida in the United States,[7] Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan,[8] Disneyland Paris in France,[9] Hong Kong Disneyland Resort in China,[10] and Shanghai Disney Resort in China.[11] The Disney theme park chain is the largest on the planet by annual attendance with over 155 million visitors in 2019, and the rail systems located inside its properties play key roles as modes of transportation and as attractions for its visitors.[12]
Each Disney theme park resort has a rail transport system serving its general resort area, whether it is a monorail system located inside the Disney resort properties in the United States and Japan,[13][14][15] or a conventional rail system connecting external rail networks to the Disney resorts in France and China.[16][17][18] The Disneyland Monorail System in California was the first monorail system in the United States; the Walt Disney World Monorail System in Florida, with an estimated 150,000 passengers per day, is one of the busiest monorail systems in the world.[19][20] Both Disney park resort properties in the United States, as well as those in Japan and France, contain theme parks that feature genuine steam-powered railroads.[21] The Disney park chain has one of the world's largest private collections of operational steam locomotives, with seventeen in total spread across the globe.[21] Additional rail systems within the theme parks in both United States resorts and the Hong Kong resort resemble steam-powered railroads, but their locomotives are powered by internal combustion engines.[22][23][24] Other rail transport modes found in Disney parks include horse-drawn streetcar rail lines within both resorts in the United States and the resort in France,[25][26][27] replica vintage electric rail lines in California and Japan,[28][29] and a people mover in Florida.[30]
Disneyland Resort[edit]
| Name | Location | Image | Motive power type | Track gauge | Opened | Closed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disneyland Monorail System[13] | General resort area[13] |  | Electric (busbar)[31][32] | Monorail[13] | June 14, 1959[33] | – | First operational monorail system in the United States.[19] Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark status.[34] Valid admission to Disneyland is required to ride this monorail.[35] |
| Disneyland Railroad[36] | Disneyland[36] |  | Steam[37] | 3 ft (914 mm)[38] | July 17, 1955[37] | – | Design inspired by Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Railroad and Ward Kimball's Grizzly Flats Railroad.[39][40] |
| Main Street Vehicles[25] | Disneyland[25] |  | Working animal[25] | 3 ft (914 mm)[41] | July 17, 1955[37][42] | – | Besides the tramway with horse-drawn streetcars, non-rail, old-fashioned motor vehicles are also part of this attraction.[25] |
| Casey Jr. Circus Train[43] | Disneyland[43] |  | Internal combustion (gasoline)[22] | 2 ft (610 mm)[44] | July 17, 1955[45] | – | Based on the anthropomorphic locomotive character Casey Junior from the Disney 1941 animated feature film Dumbo[45] |
| Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland[46] (formerly Rainbow Caverns Mine Train)[45] | Disneyland[47] | .jpg) | Electric (battery)[48] | 2 ft 6 in (762 mm)[48] | July 2, 1956[45] | January 2, 1977[49] | Replaced by the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad mine train roller coaster attraction[50] |
| Viewliner Train of Tomorrow[51] | Disneyland[52] | – | Internal combustion (gasoline)[51] | 2 ft 6 in (762 mm)[52] | June 10, 1957[51] | September 30, 1958[52] | Replaced by the Disneyland Monorail System[52] |
| PeopleMover[53] | Disneyland[53] |  | Electric (track-embedded spinning tires)[53] | People mover[54] | July 2, 1967[54] | August 21, 1995[54] | The former line's elevated track infrastructure is still present at the park.[54] |
| Jolly Trolley[55] | Disneyland[55] | .jpg) | Internal combustion (diesel)[56] | 3 ft (914 mm)[57] | January 24, 1993[58] | December 2003[59] | The former line and ride vehicles are still present at the park as static displays.[55] |
| Red Car Trolley[28] | Disney California Adventure[28] |  | Electric (battery)[60] | 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge[60] | June 15, 2012[61] | – | Non-operating overhead wires are in place to recreate the appearance of a heritage streetcar line.[62] |
Route diagrams[edit]
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Walt Disney World[edit]
| Name | Location | Image | Motive power type | Track gauge | Opened | Closed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walt Disney World Monorail System[14] | Magic Kingdom and Epcot resort areas[14] |  | Electric (busbar)[63] | Monorail[14] | October 1, 1971[64] | – | One of the world's busiest monorail systems with an estimated 150,000 passengers each day.[20] No purchase of any kind is required to ride this monorail.[65] |
| Walt Disney World Railroad[66] | Magic Kingdom[66] |  | Steam[67] | 3 ft (914 mm)[68] | October 1, 1971[69] | – | All four locomotives, originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works, were purchased from the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán.[68] |
| Main Street Vehicles[26] | Magic Kingdom[26] |  | Working animal[26] | 3 ft (914 mm)[70] | October 1, 1971[71] | – | Besides the tramway with horse-drawn streetcars, non-rail, old-fashioned motor vehicles are also part of this attraction.[26] |
| PeopleMover (Magic Kingdom)[30] | Magic Kingdom[30] | .jpg) | Electric (track-embedded linear induction motors)[30] | People mover[72] | July 1, 1975[72] | – | An early concept model for Epcot can be seen during the ride.[30] |
| Fort Wilderness Railroad[73] | Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground[73] | – | Steam[73] | 2 ft 6 in (762 mm)[74] | January 1, 1974[75] | February 1980[76] | Numerous operational problems, poor design, and high costs led to the closure of this railroad.[77] |
| Wildlife Express Train[78] | Disney's Animal Kingdom[78] |  | Internal combustion (diesel)[23] | 3 ft (914 mm)[23] | April 22, 1998[79] | – | Despite the dated and weathered appearance of the trains, they are actually brand-new models built by Severn Lamb.[80] |
Route diagrams[edit]
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