Walt Disney World Railroad
| Walt Disney World Railroad | |
|---|---|
| Park | Magic Kingdom |
| Land / area | Main Street, U.S.A. / Frontierland / Fantasyland |
| Type | Heritage steam railroad |
| Opened | October 1, 1971 |
| Designer | WED Enterprises
|
| Status | Operating |
The Walt Disney World Railroad (WDWRR) is a narrow-gauge heritage railroad encircling Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Florida. Its trains of genuine steam locomotives, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works between 1916 and 1928 and rescued from a Mexican railway, run a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) loop around the park on 3 ft (914 mm) gauge track, stopping at stations in Main Street, U.S.A., Frontierland and Fantasyland. It opened with the park on October 1, 1971, and functions both as an attraction in its own right and as a practical way to cross the park; a full circuit, the "Grand Circle Tour," takes about twenty minutes.
History
Walt Disney's love of trains had produced the Disneyland Railroad in California in 1955, and a railroad was always planned to ring the Florida park. Rather than build replicas, Disney sent machine-shop chief Roger Broggie and colleague Earl Vilmer to Mexico in 1969, where they found steam locomotives being retired by the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán, a narrow-gauge system whose 3 ft gauge matched Disneyland's. Five Baldwin locomotives were bought and shipped to the Tampa Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, where between 1969 and 1971 they were stripped down and rebuilt: four returned to service with new boilers, new cabs and tenders, and cosmetic work returning them to a turn-of-the-century American appearance, while the fifth, too deteriorated to restore economically, supplied parts.
The railroad opened with Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971, initially running between Main Street and a single park circuit; stations were added as the park grew. A Frontierland station opened in 1991, and a third station served Mickey's Birthdayland from 1988, evolving through Mickey's Toontown Fair before being rebuilt in its present form in Fantasyland's Storybook Circus area in 2012.
The railroad has had two long closures in recent years. It shut in December 2018 so that the track bed could be rebuilt where the TRON Lightcycle Run coaster crossed the line, reopening on December 23, 2022, with trains passing through a new tunnel beneath the coaster and a refreshed recorded narration. In July 2025 it entered a shuttle mode, running back and forth between Main Street and Fantasyland only, to clear the Frontierland section for construction of the park's expansion beyond Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Locomotives
Four locomotives run on the line, each named for a figure in Disney company history, and each pulling a set of five open-sided excursion cars built for the park, seating roughly 360 passengers per train.
- No. 1 Walter E. Disney — a 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler" built in 1925, named for Walt Disney.
- No. 2 Lilly Belle — a 2-6-0 "Mogul" built in 1928, named for Walt's wife, Lillian Disney.
- No. 3 Roger E. Broggie — a 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler" built in 1925, named for the Imagineer who found and restored the fleet.
- No. 4 Roy O. Disney — a 4-4-0 "American" built in 1916, the oldest of the four, named for Walt's brother and company co-founder.
The locomotives were converted during restoration to burn low-sulfur fuel oil rather than coal or wood, and are maintained at a roundhouse and workshop behind Fantasyland, which guests pass — and can glimpse — on the stretch between the Fantasyland and Main Street stations.
Route
Trains run clockwise from the elevated Main Street station, which overlooks Town Square and the park entrance, through wooded backstage areas and over the Adventureland service roads, with views of the Jungle Cruise river and the Indian camp scene staged beside the tracks. From Frontierland station, beside Splash Mountain's former site, the line runs along the Rivers of America side of the park's western edge before turning east behind Fantasyland. The Fantasyland station sits in Storybook Circus; from there the train passes the roundhouse, crosses in front of Space Mountain and beneath TRON Lightcycle Run, and returns to Main Street. A recorded narration points out the lands, attractions and backstage sights along the way.