The Disneyland Railroad (DRR), formerly known as the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, is a 3-foot () narrow-gauge heritage railroad and attraction in the Disneyland theme park of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, United States. Its route is long and encircles the majority of the park, with train stations in four different park areas. The rail line, which was constructed by WED Enterprises, operates with two steam locomotives built by WED and three historic steam locomotives originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The ride takes roughly 18 minutes to complete a round trip on its mainline when three trains are running, and 20 minutes when four trains are running. Two to four trains can be in operation at any time, three on average.
The attraction was conceived by Walt Disney, who drew inspiration from the ridable miniature Carolwood Pacific Railroad built in his backyard. The Disneyland Railroad opened to the public at Disneyland's grand opening on July 17, 1955. Since that time, multiple alterations have been made to its route, including the addition of two large dioramas in the late 1950s and mid-1960s. Several changes have been made to its rolling stock, including the conversion of one of its train cars into a parlor car in the mid-1970s, and the switch from diesel oil to biodiesel to fuel its locomotives in the late 2000s.
The railroad has been consistently billed as one of Disneyland's top attractions, requiring a C ticket to ride when A, B, and C tickets were introduced in 1955, a D ticket to ride when those were introduced in 1956, and an E ticket to ride when those were introduced in 1959. The use of E tickets stood until a pay-one-price admission system was introduced in 1982. With an estimated 6.6 million passengers each year, the DRR has become one of the world's most popular steam-powered railroads.
History
Attraction concept origins
thumb|left|The [[Central Pacific 173|Central Pacific No. 173 locomotive served as the basis for the 1:8-scale design of Walt Disney's Lilly Belle locomotive and was later used as the basis for the 5:8-scale design of the DRR's first two locomotives.|alt=A black-and-white image of an old steam locomotive and tender bearing a resemblance to the DRR's No. 1 locomotive and tender]]
Walt Disney, the creator of the concepts for Disneyland and its railroad, always had a strong fondness for trains. As a young boy, he wanted to become a train engineer like his father's cousin, Mike Martin, who told him stories about his experiences driving main-line trains on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. As a teenager, he obtained a news butcher job on the Missouri Pacific Railway, selling various products to train passengers, including newspapers, candy, and cigars. Many years later, after co-founding the Walt Disney Company with his older brother Roy O. Disney, he started playing polo. Fractured vertebrae and other injuries led him to abandon the sport on the advice of his doctor, who recommended a calmer recreational activity.
By 1948, Disney's interest in model trains was evolving into an interest in larger, ridable miniature trains after observing the trains and backyard railroad layouts of several hobbyists, including Disney animator Ollie Johnston. In 1949, after purchasing of vacant land in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, he started construction on a new residence for himself and his family, and on the elaborate gauge ridable miniature Carolwood Pacific Railroad behind it. The railroad featured a set of freight cars pulled by the Lilly Belle, a 1:8-scale live steam locomotive named after Disney's wife Lillian and built by the Walt Disney Studios' machine shop team led by Roger E. Broggie. The locomotive's design, chosen by Walt Disney after seeing a smaller locomotive model with the same design at the home of rail historian Gerald M. Best, was based directly on copies of the blueprints for the Central Pacific No. 173, a steam locomotive rebuilt by the Central Pacific Railroad in 1872. Walt Disney's backyard railroad attracted visitors interested in riding his miniature steam train, and on weekends, when the railroad was operating, he allowed them to do so, even allowing some to become "guest engineers" and drive the train. In early 1953, after a visitor drove the Lilly Belle too fast along a curve, causing it to derail and injure a five-year-old girl, Disney, fearing the possibility of future accidents, closed down the Carolwood Pacific Railroad and placed the locomotive in storage.
Prior to the incident that closed his railroad, Disney consulted with Roger Broggie about the concept of including his ridable miniature train in a potential tour of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, north of Downtown Los Angeles. Broggie, believing that there would be limited visitor capacity for the attraction, recommended to Disney that he make the train bigger in scale. After financing for Disneyland was secured and all of the parcels of land at the Anaheim site were purchased, construction of the park and its railroad began in August 1954. In order to cut costs, a sponsorship deal was arranged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF), and when it was finalized on March 29, 1955, the DRR was officially named Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, paying $50,000 per year. The DRR was known by that name until September 30, 1974, when the AT&SF's sponsorship ended due to the discontinuation of their passenger train business.
Prior to the start of construction of the DRR, in the hope of saving money by buying already-existing trains for the attraction, Disney tried to buy a set of gauge ridable miniature locomotives from William "Billy" Jones, but after Jones declined his offer, Disney decided that he wanted the railroad's rolling stock to be bigger and made from scratch. For this task, Disney again turned to Roger Broggie, who was confident that he and the Walt Disney Studios' machine shop team could use the design for Disney's 1:8-scale miniature Lilly Belle locomotive and enlarge it to build the DRR's locomotives. The scale of the design for the DRR's passenger cars, based on the narrow-gauge passenger cars at the Travel Town Museum, was nominally 5:8-scale when compared to the size of rolling stock.
Through WED Enterprises, a legally separate entity from Walt Disney Productions, Disney retained personal ownership of the DRR and financed the creation of two trains to run on it in time for Disneyland's opening day. The names of both trains contained the word Retlaw, which is Walter spelled backwards. The first train, referred to by Disneyland employees as Retlaw 1, would be pulled by the No. 2 locomotive, which was given a turn-of-the-20th-century appearance with a straight smokestack (typical of coal-burning locomotives), a circular headlamp, and a small cowcatcher. The No. 2 locomotive would pull six 1890s-style passenger cars designed by Bob Gurr, consisting of a combine car, four coaches, and an observation coach. The second train, referred to by Disneyland employees as Retlaw 2, would be pulled by the No. 1 locomotive, which was given a late-19th-century appearance with a spark-arresting diamond smokestack (typical of wood-burning locomotives), a rectangular headlamp, and a large cowcatcher. Final assembly of the locomotives and their tenders took place at the Disneyland site in the DRR's new roundhouse, which was built in one week by a construction crew directed by Park Construction Administrator Joe Fowler, a former US Navy rear admiral. The two original DRR trains cost over $240,000 to build, with the two locomotives costing over $40,000 each.
thumb|left|A set of Oahu Railway and Land Company passenger cars were used as the basis for the 5:8-scale design of the DRR's passenger cars.|alt=A set of old, green passenger cars
Before the opening of Disneyland, a station in the Main Street, USA section and a station in the Frontierland section were built for the DRR. Main Street, USA Station, an example of Second Empire-style architecture, was built at the entrance to Disneyland using an original design that incorporated forced perspective elements on its upper levels to make it appear taller. Frontierland Station was built based on the design of the depot building located on the Grizzly Flats Railroad, a full-size narrow-gauge railroad owned by Disney animator Ward Kimball in his backyard. Besides the depot building, the DRR's functioning water tower was also built at Frontierland Station.
Railroad-building expert Earl Vilmer created the track layout and operations for the DRR. The Retlaw 1 passenger train pulled by the No. 2 locomotive only serviced Main Street, USA Station while the Retlaw 2 freight train pulled by the No. 1 locomotive only serviced Frontierland Station, and with sidings at both stations, each train would operate simultaneously and continue down the rail line even if the other train was stopped at its station. The steam trains of the DRR were the first of Disneyland's attractions to become operational.
On July 17, 1955, Disneyland and its railroad opened, and the day began with Disney driving the DRR's No. 2 locomotive and its passenger train into Main Street, USA Station with California governor Goodwin J. Knight and AT&SF president Fred Gurley riding in the locomotive's cab. They were greeted at the station's platform by the park opening ceremony's host Art Linkletter, actor Ronald Reagan, and several television camera crews broadcasting the festivities nationwide. The DRR eventually became one of the most popular steam-powered railroads in the world with an estimated 6.6 million passengers each year.
Additions in the late 1950s
thumb|right|The DRR's No. 2 locomotive (E.P. Ripley) pulling the Retlaw 1 train in July 1955|alt=A black-and-white image of a train parked in front of a railroad station with the logo of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway visible on its roof
Shortly after the Disneyland Railroad opened, A, B, and C tickets were introduced in Disneyland for admission to its rides, and C tickets, the highest-ranked tickets, were required to ride the DRR. These tickets were joined by the higher-ranked D ticket in 1956, and D tickets from that point forward were needed to gain access to the DRR. The shelters were added after the DRR's track on the western edge of its route, and the depot building standing next to it, were moved outwards. By the time this new station was added, the DRR's system of having one train assigned to a single station and using sidings to pass trains stopped at stations was abandoned and replaced by the current system where each train stops at every station along the railroad's route. Fantasyland Depot was removed by July 1966 when the It's a Small World attraction, originally built for the 1964 New York World's Fair, was installed.
By 1957, the DRR was becoming overwhelmed by ever-increasing crowds; Disney determined that a third train was needed. Instead of having another locomotive built from scratch to pull the train, Disney believed that costs could be saved by purchasing and restoring an already-existing narrow-gauge steam locomotive, and the job of finding one was given to Roger Broggie. With the assistance of Gerald Best, a suitable locomotive was found in Louisiana; it had been built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1894, had previously been used as a switcher at a sugar cane mill in Louisiana owned by the Godchaux Sugar Company, and was initially used by the Lafourche, Raceland & Longport Railway in Louisiana. This locomotive became the DRR's No. 3 locomotive and it went into service on March 28, 1958, at a cost after restoration of more than $37,000. Joining the No. 3 locomotive when it went into service were five new open-air Narragansett-style excursion cars with front-facing bench seating collectively referred to by Disneyland employees as the Excursion Train, which was designed by Bob Gurr and built at Walt Disney Studios.
On March 31, 1958, the No. 3 locomotive participated in the inauguration ceremony for the DRR's Grand Canyon Diorama, which features a foreground with several lifelike animals, a background painted by artist Delmer J. Yoakum on a single piece of seamless canvas measuring long by high, and musical accompaniment from Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite. Located inside a tunnel on the DRR's route, the diorama was claimed by Disneyland to be the longest in the world, and during its inauguration it was blessed by Chief Nevangnewa, a 96-year-old Hopi chief. Despite safety concerns voiced by Ward Kimball related to the lack of seats on these train cars, Disney, for the purpose of authenticity, had insisted that there be no seats on them; he wanted the passengers to feel like cattle on an actual cattle train. After Walt Disney concurred, Broggie once again began searching for a narrow-gauge steam locomotive to purchase and restore. Best was able to determine that the locomotive had been built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925, that it had previously been used to pull tourist trains on the Pine Creek Railroad in New Jersey, and that it had been initially used by the Raritan River Sand Company in New Jersey.