Carolwood Pacific Railroad

Backyard railroad

In 1949, Walt Disney moved his family to 355 N. Carolwood Drive, adjacent to the still city-owned bridle trail and stream, in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles. Inspired by his animators Ward Kimball and Ollie Johnston who had backyard railroads, Disney launched construction of a 1:8-scale live steam locomotive, rolling stock such as gondolas and a caboose, trackage, and a small storage barn modeled in miniature from one in Marceline, Missouri of his youth.

The locomotive was patterned after the Central Pacific No. 173, a historic wood-burning engine brought aboard ship from the East Coast "around the Horn" and assembled in California to begin construction of the transcontinental railroad eastward through the Rocky Mountains. To keep the initials identical on the CPRR No. 173, he named his railroad the "Carolwood Pacific", in reference to his residential location on Carolwood Drive.

A total length of 2,615 feet (797 m) of railway track circled the house, looped and crossed, with turnouts, gradients, a trestle 46-foot (14 m) long, overpasses, and an elevated dirt berm. Lillian Disney was supportive of her husband's train hobby, although she vetoed a track through her flower beds, causing him instead to install a 90 ft (27 m) "S" curved tunnel beneath them. The tunnel would subsequently serve as the storage area for most of the rolling stock.

Steam locomotive

Disney admired the beautiful proportions and overall appearance of Central Pacific No. 173, which became the prototype of the 1:8-scale "live steam' working model fabricated by Roger E. Broggie in the Walt Disney Studios machine shop. Southern Pacific draftsman David L Joslyn provided the sixth-scale drawings, based on the CPRR No. 173's specifications which were found in a warehouse of the railroad's old company records, and Disney himself spent many hours building parts for this engine, such as the smoke stack, the flagpoles, and other small parts. However, most of the precision machining was done by studio technicians. On each side of the cab, the locomotive was labeled Lilly Belle to honor his wife Lillian Disney.

Like the prototype, the working live steam locomotive was an "American" type with a 4-4-0 (Whyte notation) wheel arrangement. A miniature live steam engine of this type is large enough for the engineer to ride upon the tender, and can pull many cars carrying passengers around the track. The caboose was used for carrying the brakeman, and special attention was paid to its interior by Disney, who fabricated many of its details, including miniature magazines cut from back issue order forms pasted on cardboard then feathered at the edges, and a miniature cast iron pot-bellied stove which he advertised for sale in model railroad magazines.

Walt Disney's barn

Walt Disney controlled the track of his backyard Carolwood Pacific Railroad from a special barn. It was the central headquarters for the railroad's operations, with a central control console which included a fully functional signal system utilizing the block signalling lights on the control panel indicate the presence of a train in a particular track segment and update the signals accordingly. The barn also served as the storage facility for his caboose.

The barn was also a place where Disney retreated when needing to relax or develop new ideas.

A predecessor to Disney theme parks

The Lilly Belle first ran on the Carolwood Pacific Railroad on May 7, 1950. Disney used the train to entertain his daughters, their friends, and the children of friends who would visit for dinner, and sometimes the adults themselves. Soon the whole neighborhood was showing up to the house on weekends for train rides. He spent thousands of hours working on and tinkering with his train.

The backyard railroad is credited with being part of his inspiration for the creation of Disneyland, first of the Walt Disney company theme parks. The first designs included a full-scale live steam railroad that circled the park, a design feature which was retained in each iteration and was finally built around the finished project in Anaheim, California. The existence of the Carolwood Pacific Railroad in Disney's backyard first became widely known to the outside world in the publicity relating to the opening of Disneyland in 1955. In an episode of the Disneyland television show detailing the "behind the scenes" creation of cartoons, sections of track were placed temporarily in various locations within the studios, and Disney aboard the Lilly Belle was filmed transporting the audience as a "vehicle" to establish new locations.

Walt Disney personally owned Retlaw ("Walter", spelled backwards) which operated the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad franchise, as well as the facsimile steamboat Mark Twain at Disneyland. Cast members of the railroad, the Viewliner, and later the Monorail, had their paychecks personally signed by him. His attention to the Carolwood Pacific waned with his operation of his new full sized toy trains. Retlaw was the very last holdout franchise to concede ownership and sell to the Disneyland Resort.

More than 60 years since Disneyland opened, Disney's love of railroads has become an integral part of the Disney tradition. In addition to the original Disneyland in California, there are now railroads circling the Magic Kingdom in Florida, Disneyland Paris in France, and Hong Kong Disneyland in Hong Kong, as well as a scenic train ride attraction at Tokyo Disneyland in Japan.

Disney's fascination with mass transportation led to the now eponymous Disneyland Monorail System attraction, and its full-fledged transportation system sister Walt Disney World Monorail System in Florida which both serve as a true form of mass transportation serving more than five million guests annually.

Legacy

When the Holmby Hills home was later re-sold, Walt Disney's historic barn was about to be demolished to make room for a mansion of maximum square footage. In 1998, through the efforts of the Walt Disney Family Foundation and others, the barn was purchased by Disney's heirs and relocated on permanent loan to an enclave within the Los Angeles Live Steamers (LALS) Railroad Museum at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

With the exception of a cedar shake roof which was replaced with fire-safe shingles, 98% of the barn is original. Disney shaved in the mirror and basin, washed his hands with the Boraxo dispenser, and sharpened his pencils with the grinder on display. He telephoned the house on the antique butterstamp phone, and operated the track switches from the control board near the telegraph key.

The Carolwood Pacific Historical Society docents and volunteers open the barn to the public for self-guided tours and are on hand to answer questions. Inside are displays of Walt Disney's trains, plus artifacts from Disneyland, LALS (of which Walt was a member), and other Disney railroad-related memorabilia. The barn is open to the public only at the east entrance to 5200 Zoo Drive, on the third Sunday of each month from 11am until 3pm.

The LALS mainline track is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in length, allowing member model railroaders to operate, enjoy, and then store their own equipment. Because it is an enclosed private club located on public property, LALS must periodically provide free rides to the general public. The public entrance on the west is open Saturdays and Sundays from 11am until 3pm, unless there is a private special event. To enjoy trains rides provided by LALS, guests of Walt's Barn must first exit and then walk along Zoo Drive to the west entrance.

Since 2009, Carolwood Pacific's Lilly Belle and much of the railroad's rolling stock has been on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, along with thousands of other artifacts of Disney's life and career.

A mini-museum devoted to Walt's love of railroads, including several pieces of rolling stock from the Carolwood Pacific, is located in the Villas at Wilderness Lodge, at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Locomotive No. 2 Lilly Belle at Walt Disney World Resort is named in honor of its Carolwood Pacific namesake. On October 21, 2003, Walt Disney World railroad steam engine No. 3 was rededicated the Roger E. Broggie in honor of the late, longtime Disney Imagineer, who had been named a Disney Legend in 1990. Broggie had apprenticed Walt as a machinist as they built the original Lilly Belle for Walt's backyard Carolwood Pacific Railroad.

As of 2013, when the house built to replace Disney's residence was on the market for US$90 million, the tunnel from the railroad was still in place.