Penny Trains Oh yes! We had electric mowers too. What we should have had was stock in extension cord manufacturers!
Oh yes! We had electric mowers too. What we should have had was stock in extension cord manufacturers!
I've been using an electric mower over 15 years now, and never ran over the extension cord.
I cut it in half with the electric edge trimmers. Popped a circuit breaker in the house, too.
Those are some fantastic pictures of the S.F&D.R.R. ! I am glad they did not build Disneyland in Burbank, don't know where they would have put it. That whole area is chock full of fun stuff ! Across the freeway from Disney studios is Traveltown, with many great old steamers on display. Next to that is the Los Angeles Live Steamers ( they have a Disney loop , by the way. ). Down from there is the L.A. zoo. I understand there was a time a narrow gauge train ran from Traveltown to the Zoo. From what I understand( and this was before my time), it was the train from the Oahu Railway, number 85, an outside frame 4-6-0, and the coach and combine, which are still displayed at Traveltown. The 85 has gone back to Hawaii, the last I heard it went to the Lahaina, Kaanapali, and Pacific, in Maui, to be rebuilt. I have pictures of 85, and the Hawaiian tank engine at Traveltown, before they went back to Hawaii. Unfortunately, the termites have gotten to the coaches, and most of the wooden cars on display.
Burbank also has the Equestrian center, and many places where you can rent a horse for an hour or two. My daughter and I used to rent a horse from one of the stables, and ride up into the hills of Griffith Park on the trails above Traveltown. One time my horse "Slick", an old ,broken down and worn out looking horse, got it in his mind to run! I pulled back on the reins, but it did no good. Fortunately, we had a horse handler with us who rode up and tamed the beast !
I did not know WDW had another railroad. My visit to WDW was very short, we didn't see much. We had gone cross country on Amtrak, staying in Youth Hostels, headed to NYC to catch a plane to London, and to explore Europe. This was the worry free days of '76 and '77. But got all over Europe on a Eurail Pass ! And Britain on a Britrail Pass.
It may have changed a little !
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Those Segways give me the willies, they remind me of the old-fashioned push lawn mowers.
Ever have to use a push mower? Ugh! Thank God for Briggs and Stratton!
Maybe we'll have more fun with ol' squidy as Halloween gets closer. But for now, here are some pics of the Santa Fe and Disneyland RR engine house.
Not so grand as Walt originally planned:
This sketch was created by Herb Ryman while he and Walt spent a weekend furiously mapping it all out before Walt had to meet with investors on Monday. This is the sketch that sold a lot of bankers and sponsors on the idea. Over on the left was Walt's ideas for a roundhouse where the Jungle Cruise would end up. Whereas the Jungle Cruise is where Space Mountain ended up 25 years later. That plan was the evolution of this one:
The original idea (well, not THE original idea) was to build the park on the plot of land accross the street from the Burbank studio.
Fortunately the plan outgrew the parcel and they didn't have to tear down the park when the freeway at the bottom of the photo came through!
The engine facilty was enlarged in 1959 to accomnodate the "second level" of the Disneyland train layout.
The Ward Kimball (or Maud as I knew her) leaves the shop.
I thank the photographer with the zoom lens that got these pics!
Fuel oil delivery?
Switching coasts, some pics of the Walt Disney World Railroad.
Ummmm.....
Last spike ceremony:
Bought, but not restored:
Walt Disney World's "other" railroad: The Fort Wilderness Line.
Yes, those really are trolley cars behind the tender!
Fort Wilderness RR station:
I'd rather have the train!
That "thing" in the photo with the whale is obviously made of rubber, but this one aint!
The Humboldt Squid: diablo rojo. The stuff that nightmares are made of!
Though most of them certainly don't get big enough to drag down a submarine!
Penny Trains I just couldn't resist researching that!
I just couldn't resist researching that!
Yep, nine-out-of-ten sperm whales prefer giant squid as a snack than anything else in the ocean!
Just ask 'em, they'll tell you!
"Thar she blows!" "BUUUUUURRRRRRP!!!!"
It has been so long since I've seen this film, I only remember the Nautilus, and the cool look of the film. I remember I liked it, but that's about it.
Peter Lorre ? Wow, need to go back and check it out again !
Walt's animated films used many familiar voices, he used a lot of the same people over again. Check out the stork in Dumbo. Sounds like Winnie the Pooh, doesn't it ?
Sterling Holloway.
Love the train scenes in Dumbo !
Great shots and research Becky! The story I read about the giant squid fight was when they originally shot it with a clear sky and a red background the squid just didn't look real. Walt came up with the idea of the raging thunderstorm. With the rain slashing down in buckets and the lightning flashing the squid looked MORE than real, it was downright terrifying! Best looking movie giant squid ever, much better than the one in the 1960 film "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea," which was a pretty good film in it's own right.
Here's a story for everyone. A man I worked with in the 80's was a World War Two navy veteran, served on the carrier USS Lexington. One day while they were steaming a guy yelled "Holy smoke! Lookit what's going on off the port side!"
Everyone ran across the flight deck, and lo and behold there was a sperm whale fighting with a giant squid! Both rolling and flailing on the surface, eventually the whale won, and ate the squid!
Guess what? Next time they were at anchor and had a swim call nobody went in the water!
As Joe said, "The moral of the story is, you don't know what's down there!"
Firelock76"20,000 Leagues" is an absolute masterpiece.
You'll get no arguments from me, it's my favorite movie!
Ever hear of the "Sunset Squid Fight"??????
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l22tsktu8D8
Peter Ellenshaw created spectacular storyboards for the film that had the fight with the giant squid taking place at dusk under a blood red sky. Unfortunately, the backdrop people created a very "watercolor" version and it looked awful.
The original squid was also a mechanical nightmare.
There were cables everywhere and it started falling apart when it got wet.
It was decided to do the sequence in a raging thunderstorm.
The squid mark 2 used hydraulics and looked considerably more natural.
It's amazing how much of this film was shot indoors.
And it was an "indoors" that was built especially for this film. Hence the danger to the Disneyland budget.
And here's to the designer of the coolest submarine in movie history, Harper Goff:
By the way, one of the New Guinea cannibals had "EAT AT JOE'S" painted on his forehead and he was followed by this guy:
...who had "I ATE JOE" painted on his head.
Postwar Paul"The Disney Brothers" studio. And there was a picture in those special features that showed a 3 rail setup in the studio's lobby.
I've heard of that layout from several sources but I've never seen a photo.
So where do things go after they leave a Magic Kingdom? Well, we've seen the grave of the Nautilii and the ticket kiosk at Ward Kimball's house, so here are some more!
The Marceline Autopia.
When they closed the Midget Autopia (also known as the Fantasyland or Junior Autopia) in 1966, Walt donated it to Marceline Missouri.
It ran there until the cars were just too worn out (1977).
Track remnatnts remain to create an unusual walking path through the park.
One of the cars is on display at the Walt Disney Hometown Museum.
Which of course is located in the Santa Fe depot.
Wanna see a Moonliner? Well, there are 3!
One is at Disneyland (known as "Moonliner III") but it's a lot smaller than the original:
The other two are in Kansas City.
One is at the Airline History Museum.
This version is known as "Moonliner II" and resided on the roof at TWA from 1955 to 1961. When TWA ended it's sponsorship of the ride (Douglas became the sponsor from 1961 to 1966) it was sold to John May for display at his RV manufacturing plant: SpaceCraft (get it? ). It sat there and was in sad shape 25 years later.
Then Dan Viets bought it and restored it to the condition you see it in at the Airline History Museum. It was on display for awhile in Marceline first though.
The third Moonliner was built in 2006. It was fabricated out of aluminum and weighs 2,200 pounds. Why was it built? "Moonliner IV" as it's known to Disney fans, was built as a replacement for "Moonliner II" when the TWA world headquarters building was restored.
It didn't make a whole lot of sense after a big budget restoration of the 50 year old M2 to put the steel model back up on the roof. So the lightweight replacement was constructed.
And Kansas City has it's Moonliner back.
The building is now on the register of historic places and is the offices for Kansas City-based Barkley Evergreen & Partners, the largest employee-owned advertising agency in the United States. And they have a shiny new logo.
"20,000 Leagues" is an absolute masterpiece.
Turner Classic Movies ran it one night last year, needless to say I watched it, and I'll tell you, I'd forgotten how good it really was. Not just a kid's film, it's got a lot more depth to it (no pun intended) than people realize.
I remember a movie critics backhanded compliment from the 70's...
"So well done it's hard to believe it's Disney."
Well. WE believe it, don't we?
Walt was a brilliant, and very successful film maker.
I am feeling the need to take another look at "20 Thousand Leagues "
Not unusual for filmmakers to revise, alter and adapt novels they're going to make into movies. Sometimes the novel as it is and taken verbatim is extremely difficult to make a film from.
Mel Brooks gave a pretty good opinion of the process concerning the novel "Frankenstein" and the 1931 movie of the same name, and he was serious and not joking. If I remember correctly he said...
"Frankenstein" the novel, and "Frankenstein" the movie are both works of genius! First, the novel. Who would believe a 19 year-old girl could come up with something like that? However, "Frankenstein" the novel is impossible to make a good movie out of, so the adaptation they did in 1931 is also a work of genius!
Walt wasn't the first, and he sure won't be the last.
One more thing from the special features:
Walt was a " story" man. He would gather his animators together, and proceed to act out the scenes. He clearly had a vision of exactly what he wanted.
For the "Jungle Book", he advised his team Not to read the book. " Leave the story to me". His imagination is what we see in the movies made during his lifetime.
And, they say that Walt found it amusing that after the huge success of "Snow White", all the banks were extremely eager to loan him money!
Fantastic! Thank you, again! In the special features for " Snow White" they spoke of the hand to mouth existence of the Disney studios before "Snow White". They told about the long hours of Walt, and his animation team, and Walt actually crashing and sleeping in his office. How that all changed after the film came out ! A feature length animated film, in color! And, in 1937 !
Then, they were able to move into the new studio in Burbank.
Also, in the early days, they referred to it as "The Disney Brothers" studio. And there was a picture in those special features that showed a 3 rail setup in the studio's lobby.
Postwar Paulgo back to Disneyland
Okey dokey. Let's look at yesterday''s vision of the future.
The World Clock
The little ball on the side told you the minutes past the hour listed around the top.
The sun and moon told you which side was in daylight.
It was the original entrance to Tomorrowland.
It was also supposed to let you figure out the exact time anywhere on earth to the minute. Except you had to do extra math for Newfoundland which is an hour and a half ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
The Dutch Boy Color Gallery 1956-1960
Futuristic, but beyond teaching kids about primary colors it likely didn't help tell anything about the future (other than that corporate advertising would get crazy by the end of the 20th century).
But they did have coloring books.
Monsanto Hall of Chemistry 1955-1966
House of the Future 1957-1967
Let there be plastics!
This looks pretty close to a future that did happen:
But the mini portable on the cabinet there was your best bet for getting a picture in those days!
Kaiser Aluminum Hall of Fame 1955-1960
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1955-1966
Just as he had done with Snow White (when he told Roy to sell his car to get financing) Walt bet the farm on 20k. It nearly bankrupted the studio and ate up a lot of the funds that were allocated for building Disneyland. But it was a blockbuster of course, and Disney ended up with a lot more money for Disneyland. Naturally, the sets went on public display.
The Golden Arrow:
This one I wish I could have seen!
Firelock76 All those concerts on the Mark Twain, I had no idea. As I said, looked like one hell of a party!
All those concerts on the Mark Twain, I had no idea.
As I said, looked like one hell of a party!
here's a footnote:
the engine Walt is buying, 6000 King George V, was built at Swindon works in '27. It is a Great Western "King" class. A 4 cylinder engine, most powerful 4-6-0 in Britain. Thirty built between 1927 and 1930. King George V was displayed in the U.S. As an example of British engineering, and workmanship.
Got that out of my system, let's go back to Disneyland, shall we?
Firelock76 the "Firehouse Five" were playing on the "Mark Twain," complete with some New Orleans vocalists.
Before there was a New Orleans Square, there was New Orleans Street and big name jazz acts routinely gave floating concerts from the deck of the Mark Twain.
Dixieland at Disneyland 1963:
Kid Ory and the Young Men from New Orleans:
The Albert McNeil Choir
Al Hirt
Firehouse Five Plus 2
River Bank Seating and Bleacher Stands
Firehouse on a different day:
There was also a bandstand at the water's edge where the Disneyland Strwhatters played.
Here's something where if you blinked you missed it:
Yes, that's a McConestoga wagon!
49 served.
You could also get your fry fix at the Harbour Galley.
No fish to go with your er, umm, "chips" though.
Multi-cylinder steam locomotives made a certain amount of sense in the European view, it wasn't just the Brits who had them, but also the Germans and the French as well. A multi-cylinder design lessened the weight of moving machinery and made the locomotive easier on the track, there was less pounding and dynamic augment.
The disadvantage though, and remember nothing comes free, was increased maintanence costs, those muti-cylinder locomotives were harder and more time-consuming to work on. However, since labor costs were cheaper in Europe and most railroads on the continent were government-run they didn't have the profit drive that American railroads had. Certainly they wanted to make money, but it wasn't quite the concern that American 'roads had.
ALCO pushed some three-cylinder designs here in the US in the post World War One era, but the only ones that really caught on were the Union Pacific's 9000 Class 4-12-2's. I'm sure the UP's shopmen groaned a bit when one of them showed up for servicing. Just about all American 'roads wanted nothing to do with multi-cylinder locomotives, the philosophy being "Get 'em in, get 'em serviced, get 'em out!" A locomotive in the shop wasn't out making money.
And the British locomotives with inside cylinders? Those were used in areas with tight clearances, very common on British lines, putting the cylinders inside the frame got them out of the way of possible damage.
Penny Trains This is purported to be a photo of the backhead of the Bachmann model. I can't speak to it's accuracy but the rectangular windows in the photo you posted look right. Everybody knows about Ward and Walt, but they don't know about coconspirator Ollie Johnston: Really fine modeler! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollie_Johnston No Carolwood Pacific if not for Ollie and Ward! Walt and Ollie: That's not Lilly Belle! Walt bought the "King George the V" from the Bassett-Lowke showroom in London. Strangely enough, another future Disney legend, Harper Goff, had tried to buy the loco the same day! Goff later joined Disney and was one of the geniuses behind Disneyland. He's also responsible for the look of the Nautilus and later he designed the sets for Willy Wonka. Oh, and he was also the banjo player for the Firehouse Five + Two: Ward takes Salvadore Dali for a ride: Walt takes Ward for a ride on Dick Jackson's home railroad: Ollie Johnston's depot bears a definite resemblance to the G.F. station: Well, the Bachman model has a different back head than the picture of Walt and Ward. Not sure which engine this is. Would that be a Great Western "King" class Walt is purchasing? I love those Great Western engines! Love the "Castle" class. One thing many Yanks don't realize, or have trouble wrapping their heads around: Many of those British engines had 3 or 4 cylinders! 2 on the outside, and 2 between the frames ! Toss that one around in your mind for a few minutes! Different engineering, different mindset. I was aware of Ollie Jonson from the Special Features of some of these classic animated movies. They speak of the "9 old men" at Disney.
This is purported to be a photo of the backhead of the Bachmann model.
I can't speak to it's accuracy but the rectangular windows in the photo you posted look right.
Everybody knows about Ward and Walt, but they don't know about coconspirator Ollie Johnston:
Really fine modeler!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollie_Johnston
No Carolwood Pacific if not for Ollie and Ward!
Walt and Ollie:
That's not Lilly Belle!
Walt bought the "King George the V" from the Bassett-Lowke showroom in London. Strangely enough, another future Disney legend, Harper Goff, had tried to buy the loco the same day! Goff later joined Disney and was one of the geniuses behind Disneyland. He's also responsible for the look of the Nautilus and later he designed the sets for Willy Wonka. Oh, and he was also the banjo player for the Firehouse Five + Two:
Ward takes Salvadore Dali for a ride:
Walt takes Ward for a ride on Dick Jackson's home railroad:
Ollie Johnston's depot bears a definite resemblance to the G.F. station:
Well, the Bachman model has a different back head than the picture of Walt and Ward. Not sure which engine this is. Would that be a Great Western "King" class Walt is purchasing? I love those Great Western engines! Love the "Castle" class.
One thing many Yanks don't realize, or have trouble wrapping their heads around:
Many of those British engines had 3 or 4 cylinders! 2 on the outside, and 2 between the frames ! Toss that one around in your mind for a few minutes! Different engineering, different mindset.
I was aware of Ollie Jonson from the Special Features of some of these classic animated movies. They speak of the "9 old men" at Disney.
Their fortunes and success really took off after the huge success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves". I think Walt " bet the farm" on this movie.
You know, Ward Kimball must have made some pretty good money working for Disney to afford a collection like that.
And "The Firehouse Five!" I remember seeing them on one of the "Disney's Wonderful World Of Color" TV shows back in the early 60's. It was one of the Disneyland showcase programs and the "Firehouse Five" were playing on the "Mark Twain," complete with some New Orleans vocalists. Makes sense, a "Dixieland/ New Orleans Jazz" concert on a a paddlewheeler.
They were GOOD too! Looked like one hell of a party!
Where do old ticket booths go?
Apparently they end up at Ward's house!
Firelock76 Look at that backhead, so clean you could eat off it! Who says steam has to be dirty? It's beautiful, isn't it ? I am wondering if this is Emma Nevada ? Very few controls: throttle, water glass, "try cocks", and the Johnson bar with Walt's foot on it. The " try cocks" are the 3 valves arranged diagonally on the right side of the boiler. The early engines did not have a water glass, only try cocks. You would crack each valve to see if water or steam came out. Then, you could judge the water level in the boiler.
Look at that backhead, so clean you could eat off it!
Who says steam has to be dirty?
It's beautiful, isn't it ? I am wondering if this is Emma Nevada ?
Very few controls: throttle, water glass, "try cocks", and the Johnson bar with Walt's foot on it. The " try cocks" are the 3 valves arranged diagonally on the right side of the boiler. The early engines did not have a water glass, only try cocks. You would crack each valve to see if water or steam came out. Then, you could judge the water level in the boiler.
I guess I'll just have to enjoy them whenever, and wherever I can !
We all love to run trains, don't we ?
When I was young, Model Railroader magazine had ads from "Little Engines" in Lomita, Ca. I used to dream of building a live steamer. I would buy their catalogues and dream of the day. I went to a few live steam meets, but it has always been out of reach financially. Still is !
Detail of Emma
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