Among his many, many, many interests, Walt Disney was
passionately in love with trains. Rail enthusiasm is a fairly common
hobby, of course, but even among the many people with the inclination
to build model railways, only a slim handful are dedicated enough to
build an actual
steam-powered rideable one in their backyard. Small
wonder, then, that one of the inaugural attractions Walt planned for
Disneyland was a train ride even more impressive than the Carolwood
Pacific. Or that many more trains joined it in the years that
followed.
This is a post about those trains. That's all—no deep philosophy or
scathing opinions, just some warm and fuzzy feelings toward this
surprisingly common attraction type. Think of it as part After-Action
Report and part Sentimental Paleontology, with a big dollop of See Ya
Real Soon added to the mix.
To be clear, I'm only talking about trains that are presented as
trains. The Space Mountain vehicles technically qualify as trains
but are presented as rockets.
All abooooaaaarrrrrrd!
