Fort Wilderness Railroad - Overview

This article is a work in progress and will be updated/added to over time.

Edited 8/27/11 with thanks to David Leaphart for sharing his research, knowledge and love of the FWRR!

STATS

Scale: full scale

Length: 18 ft, 3 in

Weight: 22,700 lbs

Track Gauge: 30 in

Track Length: 3.2 miles (The length of the operating loop of track after River Country opened was 2.7 miles)

Max Speed: 10 mph

In the Summer of 1973, the Fort Wilderness Railroad began operation. While originally included in the plans for the opening of the resort in 1971, Disney delayed the railroad in a cost cutting measure.

Edit: According to David Leaphart, author of Walt Disney World Railroads Part 1 Fort Wilderness Railroad the railroad project was not begun at Fort Wilderness until 1971 as it was not a priority for opening day. "Fort Wilderness had always been a second thought to Disney and it's a small miracle that it was even included in the park at all."

Also referred to as the Wilderness Line Steam Train, the 4 steam engines were designed and built by the research and prototype manufacturing division of Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) in California, known as MAPO. Robert McDonnell designed the overall graphics and look for the engines and cars. The completed trains were transported to Florida on flatbed trucks.

The 4 trains were identical, were full scale, and were based on the Olomana, with the closest "commercial" locomotive being Baldwin's Masuola. These engines were quite a bit smaller than the full size engines running in the Magic Kingdom, which runs on a 36” gauge track. The compact size of these small engines meant they were well suited to navigating the tracks around Fort Wilderness.

Each engine ran on steam and used diesel fuel to stoke the fire. These engines were known as “saddle tankers” as the water for the engine was stores in a tank which wrapped around the boiler. Fuel was carried behind the cab in a small tank. Two operators were required in the cab – an engineer and a fireman. Engineers on the railroad have reported that they could make two rounds of the railroad on one tank. It was good practice, though, to fill up on each round.

Each train consisted of a locomotive and 5 passenger cars. The cars were entered from the back with seats on each side of a center aisle.

The trains traveled at a maximum speed of 10mph. The 3.2 mile long, 30” gauge track was the longest train route at any Disney park at the time – more than double the Magic Kingdom’s 1-1/2 mile loop. It took approximately 30 minutes to make a round trip around the resort.

The cost of riding train changed over the many lives of the train. It ranged from free to $1.00. The hours of operation also varied during the six lives of the railroad. However, the latest the trains operated was 9:30pm while it served as River Country transport along with the buses and trams.

The trains ran every day (except for the pre-trial period in 1973), but how many trains ran concurrently varied over its life. In 1980 all operations of the train ceased for good.

Speculation as to the reasons for discontinuing the train service ranges from poor track conditions which led to frequent derailments; to poor water and fuel capacity often stranding engines. In fact, the railroad was shutdown because of one major factor - bad track. The track was not laid correctly from the beginning and this was finally the railroad's downfall. In 1980, Disney was going to completely refurbish the track, but the cost was in the millions of dollars and they decided to not invest in the railroad. The water and fuel capacity on the locomotives were not really factors, nor was stranding.

The trains were put into storage, although plans surfaced in the early 1990’s to run a track between the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness. Unfortunately the plans were reportedly scrapped because of the cost.

Two of the passenger cars were used for ticket booths at Pleasure Island for a time, but were eventually replaced with permanent ticket booths. One of the ticket booths was apparently moved to the Typhoon Lagoon parking lot at some point.

All four locomotives are currently in private hands on the West coast.

While both trestles were removed, there are still sections of track that can be found around the Fort Wilderness resort. The old roundhouse still exists and is the laundry facility at the resort. The track and interior exhausts are still intact.

The Gateway Railroad Depot was located on the current site of the Settlement Bus Depot. The old depot was removed and rebuilt with a higher roof to handle the buses. Near the still existing "brown building" at the depot was the site of the water tower.

Be sure to check out these FWRR threads on our forum!

http://www.fortfiend...__20#entry80212

If anyone has additional information/images to add or any corrections to any information here, please PM BradyBzLyn12