On September 9, 2026, a much-requested item finally arrived in the Premium Shop for the Valley: a full train set, with an actual locomotive, tender, and passenger car. But this isn’t just some random, generic train: billed as the Walt Disney World Railroad Set, the rolling stock (that’s the correct term for locomotives and other vehicles used on a railroad) in this set is inspired by and heavily based on the Walter E. Disney, a train operating at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida since the park’s opening day of October 1,1971 and remaining in operation today.
The Carolwood Pacific Railroad
It could well be argued that the Disney theme parks as we know and love them today would never have existed had Walt Disney not fallen in love with trains as a child. In the wake of WWII, when Disney studios were experiencing some difficulties recovering post-war, Walt Disney turned to model railroading as a form of stress relief.
Much to his wife Lillian’s dismay, Walt decided to build a 1/8 scale railroad in their backyard on Carolwood Drive in Holmby Hills, California. He called this mini-railroad line the Carolwood Pacific and it became a great source of joy not only for Walt but for many visitors to the Disney home, both adult and child alike. He christened the 1/8 scale live steam locomotive (the train engine) the Lilly Belle, in honor of Mrs. Disney, which may have cushioned the blow Walt’s train dealt to her garden at least a little.
Along the Carolwood Pacific’s circuit, Walt built a barn, its architecture based on the barn from his family’s farm where he grew up back in Marceline, Missouri. That childhood barn had been the site of some of the happiest moments of Walt’s childhood, and Walt called the Carolwood Pacific barn his “happy place” as an adult. The Carolwood Pacific barn served as a workshop, a storage facility for rolling stock, a control room for the railroad’s operation, and, perhaps most importantly, a place for Walt to relax and brainstorm about future projects. Within this “happy place”, Walt first envisioned what would later become Disneyland. In fact, the Carolwood Pacific barn was the birthplace of Imagineering.
In 1950, Walt Disney created a company called Walt Disney Miniature Railroad which was filed as a completely separate business entity from Walt Disney Productions. The original purpose of this company was to sell copies of the blueprints for the Carolwood Pacific’s Lilly Belle engine, which he helped design and build. In 1953, that company became known as WED Enterprises: the company that came to develop rides and attractions for Disneyland. In 1965, WED Enterprises was bought back by Walt Disney Productions and, in 1968, WED Enterprises officially became Walt Disney Imagineering.
Disneyland was the world’s first theme park to become a household name. Other theme parks had existed before it, though none on so grand a scale, and amusement parks had existed since at least 1583, but the latter were a very different sort of place than what Walt Disney envisioned as an ideal place for families to spend time together. The amusement parks of the 1930s and ’40s had far more in common with the Pleasure Island we see depicted in Pinocchio: there were rides, yes, but there were also games of chance, cigar stands, and booths selling alcohol. When taken in combination, these things often had the same effect on real people that they had on the boys in Walt’s film about our favorite wistful puppet-boy: the folks attending those amusement parks often behaved like jack asses! Parks like those were hardly the sort of place that Walt wanted to take his two daughters and he imagined that was likely the case for a lot of dads, so he decided the world needed something better: Disneyland.
Most people, including Disney’s investors, thought Walt had finally lost his mind when he proposed the grand endeavor of a theme park unlike anything the world had ever seen before. The goal of an amusement park is to thrill its customers; the goal of a theme park is to immerse its visitors in a completely different world, transporting them out of their everyday lives into something extraordinary. One might think of it this way: amusement parks provide patrons with potential tales to tell after they leave the park; theme parks not only tell their patrons a story, the very good ones make those patrons a part of the story that is being told. That story is delivered through careful theming (sorry, Joe Rohde….sometimes theme is a verb, after all; P.S. read his book!). Walt’s model railroad hobby, together with his work in animated film, helped make him a master of visually developing a theme through architecture and props.
When Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, two of its opening day attractions were narrow gauge trains: Casey Jr. Circus Train and the Disneyland Railroad. In the intervening 70 years between then and now, railroads have been included in every subsequent Disney Park, including Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland.
Engine No. 1 The Walter E. Disney
As stated at the head of this article, the train arriving in the Valley this week is heavily inspired by/based on Engine Number 1 at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida: the Walter E. Disney. Built in May of 1925, the Walter E. Disney is a 10-wheeler manufactured by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. This locomotive was imported to Florida from Yucatan, Mexico in 1969. Upon its arrival, it was restored to appear as if it had originated in the 1880s, rather than the 1920s. The tender (the car with the coal in it) and the passenger cars–called Narragansett-style excursion cars–were designed and built specifically for this train’s use at Walt Disney World.
Some folks have said that the trains which circle the Disney Parks are “Walt’s moving heart”. I just love that! Wherever you place your own WDW Engine No. 1 in your Valley, I hope it will remind you, as it reminds me, to keep that spirit of Walt Disney alive in your Valley and in your life: a kindly twinkle in the eyes, a heart full of hope and love, and a mind set toward perpetuating a brighter future.
(Any and all third part images included for entertainment and educational purposes only; no copyright or trademark infringement is intended nor implied.)
