What ever it was that made is special for you; it is something to be recalled fondly. If you can still enjoy that classic experience today, that’s fine as well.
But what if you tend to be like me and have seen much of those “classic moments” fade away?
Well, you could be like a group of older gentleman I saw at the LA Farmers Market complaining about all the changes and how you can’t get a decent cheesecake here. Old farts… save a seat for Al, he’ll be along shortly.
Or you can share what made that special. Let others know what you feel the way you do about it.
Case in point: I’m a fan of Disney and it’s railroads. (Gee, how did that happen?) When I first came to the Park, there was more than a fair share of railroad attractions. Start with the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, still running it’s original passenger and freight trains, almost like they had been over ten years before on Opening Day. The Natures Wonderland Railroad carried passengers out to the Painted Desert from Rainbow Ridge. The Main Street Horsecars still go up and down from the Station to the Hub, too! Casey Junior carries circus animals (I was and am always partial to the Wild Animal cages.) around the hills of the Storybook canals. And perhaps most importantly, the Alweg monorail system still allows adults to get a quick cocktail just outside the Park!
Throw in a quick glimpse into Walt’s backyard railroad, the Carolwood Pacific, with the steam locomotive, “Lilly Belle” on display at the Main Street Station of the Disneyland Railroad, and you’re pretty well covered.
So what’s not to like? Well, how about everything that’s not like it was? The Santa Fe dropped its sponsorship in 1972 (after giving up passenger service to Amtrak), and the passenger train was quietly retired to sit in the back of the Roundhouse, gathering dust and wood rot. One car was renovated in 1976 as a private car for VIPs and named the “Lilly Belle”.
But how about the Freight Train? It still runs today, very much like it always has, complete with the cupola caboose bringing up the rear end markers. Ask nice and the Conductor might even let you ride inside. Just like old times…
Give you that one. But what about the end of the line for the Nature’s Wonderland Railroad? No more Mine Train ride. No, just the “wildest ride in the wilderness”! Big Thunder Mountain may be just a roller coaster in drag to some, but for this rider, it is a runaway train. Now as much as I’ve had my share of railroad experiences, a real runaway train is something I cannot count among them. But I do know several guys who can, and one of them loves Big Thunder even more than I do!
At the time of his real-life run-away train incident, it was one of those moments when you check your shorts and thank your maker you’re still breathing. Years later, it’s one of the most humorous tales he and I know. * (Not to make light of run-away trains and the severity of the consequences, I assure you. I know far too many where the result was tragedy, not comedy.)
Some of the things I will miss I can say I was lucky enough to enjoy while they lasted. Taking folks for a ride with the steam locomotive engineers and fireman was always welcomed. A once in a lifetime trip aboard the “Lilly Belle” around the Park with good friends was another classic moment — complete with an angered woman shouting, jumping up and down, and waving at us as we passed the Small World plaza! We still laugh about it.
So, shall we save you a seat so you can carp and whine about “your” beloved Disneyland? Or can you try to make every trip worth it’s own memories? It’s the latter for this writer.
* The story of the Runaway Train…
An eccentric gentleman had a great fondness for the good old days of steam power. So much so, that he bought an old sawmill and built a railroad to serve it, complete with steam locomotives. Up in the woods of California’s north coast, there was a place somewhat unspoiled, where this guy found the right piece of property for his dreams.
It would be a challenge, but that’s what he liked. It would be a real up and down railroad with steep grades that his steam locomotives had been built for. (They were a Heisler and a Shay — both geared for greater pulling power on steep grades at slow speeds).
The railroad actually had been part of a lumber company railroad once upon a time. At the bottom was a trestle built of wood that no one would walk across, let along run a train over. Parked just in front of the bridge was a pair of old wood cabooses, used as a place to sleep by the crew that came from all over to runs the trains and work the mill. The place was kind of a hobby-oriented theme park, a place to play with technology from an earlier time. And if you were young and enthusiastic, you tended to overlook a lot of things.
One day, two of the brighter youths were working on the Heisler with a few cars of logs going up the hill to the sawmill, with the old gentleman at the throttle as engineer. Now remember that the north coast tends to be on the wet side, rain forest and all that. Coastal fog creeps in and tends to hug the hills. Very ethereal at times.
Having set the stage, the train headed up the hill to the mill. Slow and even was the pace as the geared locomotive did its job clinging to the rails. Those rails were fairly rusty and wet, and in some places covered with all of the usual compost you would expect to see in a rainforest. It was as if the date was somewhere in the 1890’s instead of the 1970’s.
As the locomotive neared the top of the hill, the adhesion of the wheels with the rails broke free. As the wheels began to spin, the engineer adjusted the throttle to slow the spinning and turned on the sand to create traction. But, Mother Nature had her own physics lesson in mind and the train began to slip back down the hill. Slowly at first, but it only took a few seconds for the momentum to change and the train started back down the hill.
Now depending on which of the bright volunteers is telling the tale, their young lives flashed right before their eyes as the train picked up speed going down the hill. One was tending the fire by controlling the flow of oil into the firebox as the other watched. The faster the train went, the higher their levels of panic increased. Visions of the train in a heap under the wreckage of the trestle ahead and them under it all being scalded to death by the high-pressure steam escaping from the damaged boiler were clear in their minds. One or both contemplated jumping from the locomotive cab in hopes of safety. Looming ahead were the cabooses and the less than solid trestle, and it looked like the train was not going to come to a stop anytime soon.
And then in an instant, there was a moment when it all came to a close. While they had been experiencing a few time-lapse seconds of panic, the engineer had managed to slow the locomotive enough so that there was an ear-shattering sound as the locomotive banged against the cabooses and came to a stop.
As the two youths sat there, with hearts beating a mile a minute, and ready to check their shorts, the old gentleman took it all in stride. He grinned a smile of satisfied proportions, and exclaimed, ” That was fun! Let’s do it again!”
And after a suitable period to get their bearings, the train went back up the hill and the logs were delivered to the sawmill.
Today, the sawmill is quiet, rusting in peace. The steam locomotives went to other homes. The old gentleman is still with us, but mourns the past and the lost opportunities. He’s a nice guy, but definitely out there.
And the two youths? Well, one is a partner in a company that restores vintage racecars. And he has gone fast enough to scare himself in many of those cars. The other is working for the State of California, restoring steam locomotives. And they both will deny this story ever happened… once they stop laughing about it!
About the Author or “So… who is this guy, anyway?”
Roger Colton is a member of a pioneer family. Both sides of his family tree contain ancestors who came to the West for a variety of reasons. One notable left England in search of a new life having apprenticed in the trades of both a stone mason and a brewer. Others left the career as miners in Nova Scotia, only to end up in the Silver State doing the same thing. Another took his family to eastern Oregon to try his hand at farming. Ironically, another found prosperity in dairy farming along California’s Central Coast.
His grandfathers have their share of tales to tell as well. One great-grandfather left the life of a vaquero and went railroading (hence this tale). His maternal grandfather went to two Rose Bowl games as the quarterback for the Stanford football team under the legendary coach Pop Warner.
Courtesy of the US Army, Roger was born just before Christmas of 1958 in the Luftwaffe Hospital in Wiesbaden, West Germany. His father was a GI attached to the first Mobile Missile deployment to the European Theater. His mother worked in the Air Force weather office. (2001 saw a return visit and tour of the Rhine along with other parts of Germany and Austria.)
His first train ride was in West Germany. In the US, his first train experience was the ride in the cab of the diesel locomotive with his father and great-grandfather. Living on the San Francisco peninsula, he watched trains of the Southern Pacific, including the last years of the famed “Coast Daylight”.
His first Disney experience came in the summer of 1965 with a family visit to the “Happiest Place on Earth”. Notable firsts included Club 33 in 1997, Walt Disney World and the Adventurer’s Club in 1999 (Kongaloosh!), and Disney’s California Misadventure in 2001. He is currently a Disneyland Annual Passholder, but don’t hold that against him.
As a child of the mass media age (once related to Marshall MacLuhan by an uncle’s marriage), Roger has produced videos for community access television on railroading and air racing. He has been published photographs and articles in national magazines. Between 1989 and 2000, he was a Community Leader for America Online, responsible for the Television Viewers community. Among the fandoms he supported were The X-Files, Quantum Leap and Space: Above & Beyond.
Married to wife, Michele, since 1986, there are no children, just the furry child “Cruiser”, (a demanding, orange lump of a cat) to dominate his home life. Both Roger and Michele are currently employed by the California State Automobile Association. Roger has been with Automotive Services since 1979, and Michele with Travel since 1998.
Private Car Service can be reached by e-mail: pullman@privatecarservice.net or by phone at (925) 321-0023. Their web pages at located at www.privatecarservice.net
A final public excursion from Emeryville to Reno will be operated February 1 & 2, 2003. Details are available on the website.