The Walt Disney World Railroad (WDWRR) is a heritage railroad and attraction located within the Magic Kingdom theme park of Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. A 3-foot () narrow-gauge railway, its route is in length and encircles most of the park, with train stations in three different park areas. The rail line, constructed by WED Enterprises, operates with four historic steam locomotives originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It takes about 20 minutes for each train to complete a round trip on the WDWRR's mainline loop. On a typical day, the railroad has two trains in operation; on busy days, it has three trains.
The WDWRR's development was led by Roger E. Broggie, who also oversaw the construction of the Disneyland Railroad in Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The attraction's locomotives were acquired from the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán, a narrow-gauge railroad system in Mexico. After being shipped to the United States, they were altered to resemble locomotives built in the 1880s and restored to operating condition. Each locomotive was also given a set of passenger cars, which were built from scratch.
The WDWRR opened to the public for the first time on October 1, 1971, the same day that the Magic Kingdom park opened. Since then, the WDWRR has become one of the world's most popular steam-powered railroads, with about 3.7 million passengers each year. On July 7, 2025, the WDWRR went into shuttle mode for the first time since the early 1990s, running one train between the Main Street, U.S.A. and Fantasyland sections to accommodate the Beyond Big Thunder Mountain expansion in the Frontierland section.
History
Discovery in Mexico
thumb|left|A typical [[locomotive on the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán in Mexico, where the locomotives for the WDWRR were found|alt=A black-and-white image of an old steam locomotive and tender]]
The development of the Walt Disney World Railroad (WDWRR) from the late 1960s to its opening in 1971 was overseen by Roger E. Broggie, vice president and general manager of Mapo, Inc., WED Enterprises' research and manufacturing branch. Broggie previously supervised the building of the Disneyland Railroad in Disneyland in Anaheim, California. From his experience with the railroad at Disneyland, Broggie determined that it was better to use existing steam locomotives, rather than building them entirely from scratch like the Disneyland Railroad's first two locomotives.
In 1968, he contacted rail historian Gerald M. Best who recently wrote Mexican Narrow Gauge, a book containing information about locomotives that could be obtained from a railroad boneyard in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, owned by the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán. This was a narrow-gauge system, the same gauge as the Disneyland Railroad.
In 1969, Broggie, along with fellow Disney employee and railroad-building expert Earl Vilmer, went to Mérida to investigate. They determined that four locomotives built by Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) could potentially be salvaged, along with a fifth locomotive built by American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (formerly Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works), which was on display in front of the railroad company's headquarters. Broggie paid a total of US$32,750 for all five locomotives ($8,000 for each of the four locomotives in the boneyard plus an additional $750 for the fifth locomotive). The locomotives, along with an assortment of brass fittings and other spare parts given away for free, were immediately shipped by rail back to the United States.
Restoration in Florida
The five locomotives and spare parts acquired by Roger Broggie were sent to the Tampa Ship Repair & Dry Dock Company in Tampa, Florida, to receive the aesthetic and mechanical restorations necessary to run on the planned WDWRR. At the time, this was the closest facility to the Walt Disney World site in Bay Lake, Florida with the space and equipment needed to accommodate full-size railroad rolling stock. Here, Transportation Superintendent Earl Vilmer, who had accompanied Broggie on his trip to Mexico, along with Project Engineer Bob Harpur and the facility's Machinist Supervisor George Britton, were tasked with the project's completion.
The general idea for the restoration was to make the locomotives appear as if they were built in the 1880s. This would include new diamond-shaped smokestacks and square-shaped headlamps. The original, dilapidated boilers of the four locomotives built by BLW were replaced with new, smaller boilers built by Dixon Boiler Works in Los Angeles, California. Their worn-out wood and steel cabs were replaced with new ones made of fiberglass, and they were given new tenders, which used the trucks from the originals. The locomotives' fireboxes were also modified to burn ultra-low-sulfur diesel oil instead of bunker oil. The restoration cost of the four BLW locomotives and their tenders was around $125,000 each. Afterwards, the remains of the ALCO locomotive were stored out of use at WED Enterprises in Glendale, California, until they were sold to an unknown locomotive broker in the mid-1980s. The first completed set of five passenger cars was delivered to the Magic Kingdom park during April 1971 and the first completed locomotive arrived on May 15, 1971, several months before the park's opening. Like the steam trains running on the Disneyland Railroad during Disneyland's opening day on July 17, 1955, the steam trains for the WDWRR were the first attraction in the Magic Kingdom park to be finished, and they have been operating in the park ever since it opened on October 1, 1971. D tickets were required to ride on the WDWRR until 1982 when they were discontinued in favor of the pay-one-price admission system, allowing visitors to experience all of the park's attractions, including the WDWRR. George Britton, who was instrumental in getting the WDWRR's locomotives refurbished, became the railroad's foreman from the time the railroad opened until his retirement on April 6, 2006. He eventually died on October 10, 2022. The WDWRR would eventually become one of the most popular steam-powered railroads in the world with about 3.7 million passengers each year. Between 1976 and 1977, the Auto-Train Corporation sponsored the WDWRR.
For the first few months after the WDWRR opened to the public, Main Street, U.S.A. Station at the Magic Kingdom park's entrance, modeled after the former Victorian-style Saratoga Springs station in Saratoga Springs, New York, was the only stop for passengers along its route, making only complete round trips possible. On May 1, 1972, the first Frontierland Station opened near the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café in the Frontierland section on the park's western edge. It was one of the last changes made to the WDWRR prior to the retirement of Roger Broggie on October 1, 1973.
The WDWRR's third station, Mickey's Birthdayland Station, opened on June 18, 1988, in the Magic Kingdom park's brand-new Mickey's Birthdayland section adjacent to the Fantasyland section in the park's northeast corner, and the railroad was briefly renamed Mickey's Birthdayland Express to promote it. This also created a new connection between the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland sections for park guests.
In November 1990, the original Frontierland Station was demolished to make way for the new Splash Mountain log flume attraction. During construction of the Splash Mountain attraction, the WDWRR was temporarily renamed Backtrack Express and operated a single train in a shuttle mode along the section of track between the Main Street, U.S.A. and Mickey's Starland sections. Additionally, some of the passenger car's seat benches were flipped in the opposite direction to accommodate passengers who do not want to face forwards while the trains are going in reverse. The original water tower in the Frontierland section was also removed and the current one was built in the Mickey's Starland section. Main Street, U.S.A. Station is where the train arrive with Disney employees dressed up as Disney characters on board. They disembark the train after it stopped for them to greet the guests.
thumb|left|The WDWRR's Mickey's Toontown Fair Station in 2008 prior to its transformation into Fantasyland Station in 2012|alt=A red steam locomotive at a circus-themed train station
In mid 2004, Mickey's Toontown Fair Station was demolished and completely rebuilt with a much shorter canopy. On February 11, 2011, the Mickey's Toontown Fair section closed to make way for the new Storybook Circus area, part of a new expansion of the Fantasyland section. Mickey's Toontown Fair Station was demolished and the current Fantasyland Station, built on the former's site, opened on March 12, 2012. The new station's area was nicknamed Carolwood Park, paying tribute to Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Railroad. In April 2012, the water tower and maintenance buildings adjacent to Fantasyland Station were re-themed to match the station's new design. These were the last additions made to the WDWRR before the death of Bob Harpur in November 2012.
In August 2018, a billboard sign promoting the upcoming TRON Lightcycle / Run roller coaster attraction was added next to the WDWRR's track in the Fantasyland section. On December 3, 2018, the WDWRR temporarily closed to accommodate construction of the TRON attraction in the Tomorrowland section. On December 23, 2022, the WDWRR reopened with a new tunnel adjacent to the TRON attraction. While the WDWRR was closed, many of the wooden railroad ties along the route were replaced with composite plastic ties for another 25 years of track maintenance. The stations in the Main Street, USA and Frontierland sections were repainted with new colors. The water tower at Fantasyland Station was completely refurbished. The electricity power at all three WDWRR stations were redone. During a media preview for the attraction's reopening the previous day, the Magic Kingdom employees were offered to board the new WDWRR ride experience.
On January 23, 2023, the Splash Mountain attraction containing one of the WDWRR's tunnels permanently closed to be rethemed as the new Tiana's Bayou Adventure log flume attraction. Additionally, the portion of the ride finale inside the tunnel was covered up. The passengers disembarking at Frontierland Station have to take a detour to the entrance stairs. Around December, Frontierland Station began to be rethemed and renovated to match the future Tiana's Bayou Adventure attraction. In January 2024, the new staircase exit at Frontierland Station opened and it temporarily replaced the original staircase entrance, which was completely demolished. The new entrance stairs at Frontierland Station opened on April 23, 2024, followed by the opening of Tiana's Bayou Adventure attraction on June 28, 2024.
From January to September 2025, the Main Street, U.S.A. Station's upper-level balcony was completely refurbished with new flooring tiles and new paint. On July 7, 2025, the WDWRR resumed shuttle-mode operation, running between the Main Street, USA and Fantasyland sections, to accommodate the Beyond Big Thunder expansion in the Frontierland section with Frontierland Station temporarily closing.