5 Disney Railroad

But today the original Disneyland Railroad stops on Main Street Station, New Orleans Square Sation (Frontierland Station until 1966), Mickey’s ToonTown Station (fomerly Fantasyland Station) and Tomorrowland Station. Making it 4 stops whereas in Florida’s Magic Kingdom, only 3 stops are available : Main Street, Frontierland and Mickey’s Toon Town Fair. French Railroad has 4 stations on Main Street, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Discoveryland which was added 7 months after opening along with a new engine.

All those stations prove themselves very useful for an observation trip around the park as well as a resting way to get from one point to another, especially during Parade hours. But Walt had to plus it and so he did. First, adding in 1958 Grand Canyon Diorama in what used to be a long boring tunnel. This huge gallery allowed guest to enjoy this American natural wonder thanks to Delmer J. Yoakum 306 feet panorama trompe-l’oeil and a bit of taxidermy. Then in 1966 the diorama was extended with Primeval World: another trompe-l’oeil but this time with dinausor Animatronics. Grand Canyon is also present in Disneyland Paris, whereas Tokyo can enjoy the Primeval World scenery on its short track. No diorama for Hong Kong and Orlando though.

Park attractions also come as handy Railroad attracions. Disneyland Railroad and Walt Disney World Railroad pass both through Splash Mountain. Whereas former EuroDisneyland Railroad gives you an inside peek of Pirates of the Carribean.  

We can note as well that Tokyo, though being solely an attraction show a lot of detailed scenery along the tracks and stands since its opening as among the most popular attactions of the park !

Because of all those attractions, starting with the arrival of the first diorama, Disney had to improve rider experience and give more credit to the scenery factor. To do so cars with rows all facing the right side of the train have been added. This makes the Disneyland Railroad train car pool very heterogeneous, having cabooze cars as well as passenger cars or even cattle cars on wich in the 50’s you had to stand ! In fact, most car designs we’re gonna discuss below can be found running on the motherpark’s mothertracks.

In Hong Kong Disneyland, you only find cars with rows facing the side, pretty much like Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Wildlife Express. Though all are very similar in design and only different in colors and window shapes, they show some great detail apperciation, from the woodwork to the beautiful stained glass windows. 

Disneyland Paris’ cars follow this same detail attention but with a unique seat arrangement pattern. To ease loading and unloading, one side is open, and each cars is segemented into three booths, all filled with a plain U shape bench facing the exit. 

Tokyo and Orlando though share a very similar design. All cars are  front oriented and opened on both size looking like a succession of wooden bench under XIXth century oil lamps. Those car design, not offering enough decorating material, look pale in comparison with the 3 other Disney Railroad carriages. But to their discharge, they’re very similar to the kind of train cars you could really ride during summer months in early century america.