Please join us in welcoming Roger Colton to MiceChat. He was lucky enough to attend the opening of a new exhibit at the Walt Disney Family Museum. Let’s travel down the tracks with Roger and Walt Disney himself . . .

“I Have Always Loved Trains.” – Walt Disney

Walt Disney1951
Image courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum

 

There is a new exhibition on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum.  Just in time for the holidays, it focuses on Walt’s infatuations with trains.

It’s no secret that trains always interested Walt Disney. From an early age, he got a hearty dose of railroading from his uncle, Mike Martin, who was a locomotive engineer with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. And he took up a railroad occupation as a news butcher one summer on the Missouri Pacific selling fruit, soft drinks and more aboard passenger trains.

Not hard to imagine that if he had not become an artist, life on the railroad might have been where Walt would have found himself. That spirit of adventure that took him to France in 1917 as an ambulance driver would have been right at home out on the rails. But good for us, as that love of railroading never left Walt.

When the pressures of the studio drove him to distraction, it was polo and ponies that found his attention. But as an injury ended that hobby, he needed something else to take its place. That is where trains came back into his world. And in a big way! Walt enjoyed model railroading, creating a Lionel layout at the studio. Right outside his office, it could provide just the distraction he needed.

And it also attracted the interest of like-minded railroaders at the studio, too. Like Ollie Johnston, who had his own live steam railroad. One that you could ride behind. Or Ward Kimball, who really set Walt to thinking. Ward was one of the first to own a full-size steam locomotive, rescued from a shortline railroad in central Nevada that was closing down. He invited Walt out to visit his railroad on one of the first steam-ups on his Grizzly Flats Railroad. From photos of the event, Walt was all smiles. Running the Emma Nevada back and forth the short distance took him back to those earlier days when he learned about operating a locomotive during breaks on the MoPac.

Walt used trains for gags in films, too. An early Oswald cartoon, Trolley Troubles,  featured all kinds of obstacles getting over the railroad. And “Mickey’s Choo Choo”  took the Mouse through his own set of obstacles along the way. Over the years, trains made their way into more animated short subjects and feature films. Live action too, saw trains as a part of the story. One in particular, “The Great Locomotive Chase”, had railroads at the heart of the tale.

After the war, Walt needed some serious distraction from the pressures of running the studio. He found it on one extremely memorable excursion to the 1949 Chicago Railroad Fair. A trip on which he was accompanied by Ward Kimball. Movies and photographs along the way and at the fair show Walt and Ward having the time of their lives. Be it running the various vintage locomotives or participating in the fair’s “Wheels Rolling” pageant, it is greatly apparent from the smiles that they both greatly enjoyed themselves.

Back at home, Walt took his passion for miniatures to a whole new step as he planned and built a scale railroad as part of the new family home on Carolwood Drive in Holmby Hills. The Carolwood Pacific Railroad featured an exact replica of a Central Pacific steam locomotive. Walt turned to folks at the studio, such as machinist Roger Broggie, to show him how to make use of various tools to create the train. It was a great pastime; building things on his own. He was especially proud of the four-wheel bobber caboose he constructed. Right down to casting the coal-burning stove inside. His daughter Diane recalled how he “borrowed” materials from her doll house to hand-make beds for the caboose.

So when it came time for Disneyland, trains were always considered as a part of the project. As Walt said, “It should be like nothing else in the world with a train running around it.” An early concept for a Mickey Mouse park across from the studio in Burbank featured a railroad running all around the property.

And finding distraction by railroading continued at Disneyland. In the apartment above the firehouse on Main Street, Walt kept a set of railroad pinstripe overalls at the ready. He could always slip offstage, change into the railroad costume and send a locomotive engineer off on a break, while he took time at the throttle of his railroad. How many Disneyland guests went for a ride on the railroad, never knowing that it was Walt who was running their train?

overalls
Walt’s Disneyland Railroad Overalls and Jacket. Photo by Roger Colton

 

The exhibit at the Museum offers a good look at this story. And it shows how Walt’s passion for railroading inspired and has been shared by others since. With plenty of concept art, images and artifacts from many of the railroad projects that the Disney company has completed. Including a look at some of the new and upcoming films that feature railroads! And don’t forget model railroads. The exhibit features three great model train layouts well worth seeing, too.

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The Grizzly Flats Depot and the Ward Kimball locomotive on a G Scale operating model railroad in the Exhibition. Photo by Roger Colton

 

Walt’s Trains – I Have Always Loved Railroading will be on exhibit until February 9th, 2015 in the Diane Disney Miller Exhibition Hall at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. A special admission package is available including the regular Museum admission as well as the Walt’s Trains exhibition. Prices are $25 for Adults, $20 for Seniors and Students, $17 for Youth (ages 6 to 17), and Children under age 6, admitted free with a paid Adult admission. Separate admission to the Walt’s Trains exhibition is also available at $10 per person.

The Walt Disney Family Museum is located in a historic brick building. The 40,000 square foot Museum was imaginatively re-conceived to house ten interactive galleries, featuring a glass-walled back exterior that frames a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Museum tells the story of the man behind the myth in Disney’s own voice and in contemporary exhibits that feature state-of-the-art technologies, listening stations, more than 200 video screens and a 14 foot model of Disneyland. Visitors can also enjoy the Museum store, and the 114 seat, Fantasia-themed theater, which shows Disney classics daily.
The museum is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesdays through Mondays. Closed on Tuesdays, and January 1, Thanksgiving Day, and December 25.

Admission for both the Museum and the Walt’s Trains exhibition can be purchased at the door, or online.

The Walt Disney Family Museum is located at 104 Montgomery Street on the Main Post of the historic Presidio in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.waltdisney.org.

Roger Colton
Roger Colton has been a fan of trains all his life. With family in the business of railroading it was only natural. He has volunteered at railway museums in California, Nevada and Hawaii. Along the way he has operated steam, diesel and electric trains as well as being involved in a number of restoration projects. As part of a great team, he offers tours on chartered private railroad passenger cars at Private Car Service. He is also a member of the Southern California Railroad Museum and was involved with several railway excursions the Carolwood Society operated. Disney is only one of many interests as well as trains. Others include history of the American West, World War II aircraft, classic film and television, and collecting/trading Disney pins. His online world included managing a member community for AOL, participation in various newsgroups and websites. He also writes his own blog - theblueparrot.info - on a variety of topics.