One of Walt’s most famous edicts about Disneyland, whilst it was still in the design phase, is that it would be “surrounded by a train”.
The Disneyland Railroad (formerly the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad) opened with the park in 1955. Equivalent Railroads have been opening day attractions at Walt Disney World (WDW), Tokyo Disneyland (TDL), Disneyland Paris (DLP) and Hong Kong Disneyland, with one planned for the forthcoming Shanghai park.
With the exception of TDL’s Western River Railroad, all Railroads circle the park and have stops by the park entrance. There is so much that can be written about all five Railroads (not to mention the other train rides at the parks, such as Big Thunder Mountain, Casey Jr. or the Wildlife Express Train) but this article will focus solely on the basics, specifically referring to WDW and DLP.
THE NOMENCLATURE
DLP’s Railroad is now known as the Disneyland Railroad, although it opened as the Euro Disneyland Railroad in 1992. Although the attraction changed its name in the mid-1990s, the trains themselves didn’t lose the word “Euro” until early 2002. The word wasn’t removed from the water tower by Frontierland Depot until 2009, and the initials EDRR are still visible on the iron railings at Main Street station.
The trains are called George Washington (with its carriages named after places important in Washington’s life: Mt Vernon, Boston, Philadelphia, Yorktown and Valley Forge), C.K. Holliday (with carriages named after the top vacation locations from yesteryear: Coney Island, Atlantic City, Chesapeake, Long Island and Niagara Falls); W.F. Cody (with carriages named after Western US cities: Silverton, Durango, Denver, Wichita and Cheyenne) and Eureka (with carriages named after Californian cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Diego and Sacramento).
WDW’s Railroad is called the Walt Disney World Rail Road. The trains are called Walter E. Disney, Lilly Belle, Roger E. Broggie and Roy O. Disney, but the carriages do not have individual names.
THE STATIONS
Main Street Station was an opening day attraction at both resorts. Taking this stop as a starting/ending point, the trains in WDW currently call at the following stations: Main Street Station, Frontierland Station (which opened in its original position in 1972, and in its new location in the early 1990s); Fantasyland Station (which opened in 2012, replacing Toontown Fair Station, which had replaced Duckberg Station); Main Street Station.
The route at Disneyland Paris is as follows: Main Street Station; Frontierland Depot (which opened with the park in 1992); Fantasyland Station (which opened with the park); Discoveryland Station (which opened in July 1993 to coincide with a new post-show to Star Tours); Main Street Station.
The Main Street Stations are the only ones not to use the title of their land in their nomenclature, seeing as neither feature “U.S.A.” in their official name. In terms of theming and location, there are many ways in which both versions of this stop are similar. For example, both are located above the entrance to the park, both are themed to a small town station from the turn of the twentieth century, both have featured prop fire buckets which many Guests believe to be there in case of a genuine emergency and both feature announcements solely made in English.
Three other details which set Main Street Station in Paris apart are: the viewing area for the parade (although this is often shut), the maroon band organ in the centre of the platform and the stained glass windows representing landmarks which can be found in the other lands of the park. From left to right, these windows show the Orbitron (Discoveryland), Sleeping Beauty Castle (Fantasyland), Captain Hook’s Galley (Adventureland) and the Mark Twain passing Big Thunder Mountain (Frontierland).
In Disneyland Paris, the stop in Frontierland is the only one in the park to not feature the word “Station” in its title; it is officially named Frontierland Depot. Its look is based on the original design for the Frontierland Station in California (still visible the other side of the tracks from New Orleans Square Station), which in turn was based on the one which appeared in the 1948 Disney film So Dear to My Heart.
Both Frontierland Depot in DLP and Frontierland Station in WDW feature a telegraph key which taps out part of Walt Disney’s 1955 dedication to Disneyland. The former has a water tower for replenishing the tenders of the Railroad trains; in WDW the water tower can be found at Fantasyland Station.
THE GRAND CIRCLE TOUR
Both Railroads travel solely in a clockwise direction and have 3ft narrow gauge tracks. The length of the onstage portion of the tracks is 7817ft in Florida and 7217.8ft in Paris. Due to the difference in distance travelled, one would expect WDW to have the longer “Grand Circle Tour” (i.e. getting on at a random station, riding the Railroad past all stops, then getting off where one boarded) yet this lasts approximately twenty minutes in Florida and thirty in France.
The WDW Grand Circle Tour features glimpse of outdoor animatronics in WDW not visible from anywhere else accessible to Guests. It also passes through Splash Mountain, and gives an up-close view of Big Thunder Mountain. The DLP Grand Circle Tour goes through Pirates of the Caribbean and an equivalent of Anaheim’s Grand Canyon Diorama.
Other than when a station is shut for a refurbishment, generally Guests can embark or disembark at any stop of the Disneyland Railroad in WDW. In DLP, this is not always the case, especially off-season and/or early or late in the day. It has been known for Guests to only be allowed to board or exit at the station in Main Street, U.S.A. A variant on this (which usually occurs when staff is limited) is where Guests can only board at that station but can disembark wherever they wish.
Another time when the DLP Railroad has specific boarding requirements are when the park runs “Good Morning Fantasyland” character breakfasts. This means Guests can get to a restaurant in Fantasyland, without having to go through Main Street, U.S.A., which may not have opened to the public yet, and may still be full of maintenance staff.