The 6 Lives of the Fort Wilderness Railroad

Not quite like a cat…but the railroad did have six lives!

by David Leaphart, author of Walt Disney World Railroads Part 1 Fort Wilderness Railroad and Fort Wilderness Railroad Gallery Companion

visit David's website at www.steelwheelonsteelrail.com

Unlike the WDW Railroad in the Magic Kingdom, the Fort Wilderness Railroad (FTW RR) had six lives. The WDW Railroad layout, engineering, and operation are pretty much the same as the opening day in 1971. The FTW RR began operations in the late spring of 1973 and ended operations in February of 1980. But during that roughly 7 years of operation, the railroad passed through 6 different lives.

I’ve named the 6 lives as:

• Trial Period – Late Spring 1973 to Mid-Summer 1973.
• Pre-Opening – Mid-Summer 1973 to January 1974.
• Transportation – January 1974 to Spring 1975.
• Attraction – Spring 1975 to January 1976.
  not operational – January 1976 to May 1976.
• River Country Transport – May 1976 to Summer 1977.
• River Country Attraction – Summer 1977 to February 1980.

Each of these lives has its own story, but the one most folks seem to remember is Life #5. This was the highlight of the railroad’s operation in terms of the number of cast members, number of trains running at a time, and guests riding the railroa

Just prior to the railroad taking on this life, the track was re-built. Oh, did it need it! It was getting pretty ugly. The poor job of laying the track in the first place was finally taking its toll. So George Britton from the Magic Kingdom headed a crew that pulled the rail, re-laid it with tie plates, and did rail bending for
the curves. Unfortunately, the money was not available to completely re-do the track. This would be the railroad’s downfall come February 1980. That’s a whole story by itself!

So, in May 1976, the railroad opened ready to work with the buses and trams to get guests from the front parking area at the Gateway Depot (now Outpost Bus Depot) to the newly opened River Country. The biggest noticeable change was the relocation of the Settlement Depot closer to the Tri-Circle-D Ranch. This eliminated the need for guests to navigate the Fort Wilderness Trail-Big Pine Road intersection while also cutting down on the walking distance to River Country.

In the other lives, usually one maybe two trains ran concurrently. During River Country Transport, usually three trains ran at the same time and the fourth was added during busy times. This really added to the excitement at the Fort for the railroad. Lots of guests riding the train, lots of cast member wearing striped overalls, and lots of whistle sounding across the countryside.  

During this time, a lot of guests were transported. Fully loaded the train would hold 90 guests, while the trams held 150. So Disney experimented at one time by adding an extra car to the train to get more
capacity. What a mess! The train was too long to fit into the depots, and guests had to squeeze into and out of the fifth car. Easy to say this didn’t last too long. But an interesting note here for the railfans…the locomotives were so well designed that adding a sixth car full of people was no big deal. The locomotives pulled all six cars without any noticeable change by the engineer.  Pretty neat!

In the summer of 1977, the cast members were starting to realize that Disney management felt the logistics of transporting people to River Country was not really working with the train as part of the picture. So, the trams and buses were left to this job, and the train moved into its sixth and final life as simply an “attraction.” Usually one train ran from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. Admission was free with a River Country ticket, otherwise it was 50 cents.

Hope you enjoyed some of the tidbits about the railroad during this fun time over its six lives! This is a poster you might find interesting about this Life #5 – River Country Transport.