My wife wanted to take a trip to Disney World this past Christmas, especially after seeing the holiday shows last year. I remembered from a past garden railroad convention in Florida, that they had a special steam train tour, so after checking into it further, I was very enthusiastic about the trip to Florida last December.

I checked the web and found the official name of the tour was Disney's Magic Behind Our Steam Trains. You must make reservations by calling (407) WDW-TOUR. The cost is $40.00 per person and the duration of the tour is 3 hours. The tour does require park admission to the Magic Kingdom, in addition to the tour fee. The tour is limited to 20 people per day. I suggest Thursday as the best day, because the tour guide on that day is the one that wrote the script for the tour, and is very knowledgeable on the Walt Disney World Railroad.

The tour starts promptly at 7:30 just outside the main gate of the Magic Kingdom. You are then escorted inside the park to the train station at Main Street. You will get a few photo opportunities here, of the train, as well as a view inside the park WITH NO ONE THERE! After a brief explanation of the train operation, you board the train and ride to the shops. You get a short glimpse inside the shop, a tour of the locomotive cab, lots of photo opportunities, and experience one of the locos being fired and readied for service later that morning. The park's monorail service facility is on the second story of the steam loco shop, so you can see some of that and may even see an arrival of a monorail train for some service.

The tour guide will give you the history of Walt Disney and explain his love of trains. He grew up alongside a track and service facility in Missouri. He later built a ride on model at his home in California, to which he had his lawyers draw up a right-of-way deed for his wife to sign! You can find information on this railroad if you do a search for Carolwood Pacific Railroad. Walt Disney went to the 1949 Railfair in Chicago (the one that the Rio Grande sent loco #268 in the bumble-bee scheme). He returned with the idea to build a full size railroad, later to become Disneyland! He had help fabricating trains for this park, but when he decided to open a park in Florida, he went in search of real trains. He found them in Mexico and brought them to the US and restored them to better than new condition. They now operate on the Walt Disney World Railroad in Orlando. There you can see a 4-4-0, a 4-6-0 and two 2-6-0's. All have been converted to oil fired. The 4-4-0 is one of only 4 known narrow gauge 4-4-0's to still exist in the US (and only 3 of those operate).

The tour ends with a ride back to the park with a photo stop where you can pose with the conductor and loco. After a restroom break, a final lecture is given about Walt Disney and his trains, highlighting a few of his friends that have been instrumental in helping establish the Walt Disney World Railroad in Orlando. You are then presented with a special 'Magic Behind the Steam Trains' pin and be sure to note that even the backing has the Mickey Ears on it! After the tour, you are free to enjoy the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day.

While at Disney, be sure to visit Epcot and see the garden railroad at the Germany pavilion that is sponsored by LGB of America. They have several European style trains running through a replica of the German countryside. There is a cog line that climbs behind the main layout. Several footpaths and human bridges allow you to get several different viewpoints around the layout. The Wilderness Lodge has a train themed public room in their villas section. Here you will find several train photos, a fire grate with train on it, a few g-scale Bachmann and Hartland trains on display and a few original pieces of Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Railroad. This is worth the time to visit and just sit around the fireplace and take in the ambience of the room!

Deborah and I pose with our tourguide at the end of the trip.

1916 Narrow Gauge 4-4-0.
Note the extra spacing between the drivers, this is typical and indicated a narrow gauge engine. This is not present in the 'General'.

Walt Disney's original Carolwood Pacific Railroad cars. These were from his ride on railroad at his California home.