The Pirates of the Caribbean Construction

Now this attraction needs no introduction, we all have ridden it and appreciate it as one of the most creative attractions in the park. Walt had a hand in all aspects of it but passed away before it opened. So despite what some think, he did see it. I have seen very few changes over the years to this attractions and for good reason. It's a masterpiece as it sits. When the pirates movies came out they made a few changes and did some other tweaks for the politically correctness crowd but I think a show is a show and shouldn't be altered for those reasons. I mean add to it but add to it because it's time to, don't add to it because some movie made way too much money!. Here are a few clips of the early days and Walt himself does some explaining here. One of the only things I really miss from this ride are the fireflies that used to be everywhere in the bayou. They seem to have ejected these from existence for no apparent reason. Come on, bring em on back, they're cheap enough to run using a few fans to blow air creating the appearance of flying insects.

Adventures Through Interspace

I used to call it the eye ride when I was a kid. I loved that ride but in the early days the visits were a bit weird for me. I always thought the machine really shrunk you because you could see it right there. The big people go in and then you could see them after they shrunk, tiny beans in little omnimovers, the evidence was irrefutable. Well apparently other older kids of the day had other ideas on how to utilize this dark ride which we won't discuss in this blog, but exciting nonetheless. Here is a good little clip showing a lot of the ride as it was before being turned into Star Tours later in the 80's.

Forgotten Disneyland Clips

This guy put together a rather creative little set of clips that shows some little known secrets of the park. I knew maybe 75% of them already, but I learned a few things watching them. He definitely has a few original undocumented ones in there that are quite interesting. Go ahead and check out these other two clips if you like the first one. Part 2, Part 3 Interestingly enough these clips also include some nice elevator muzak for your enjoyment.

The Skyway Ride

No, I will never forget going up the narrow little Fantasyland staircase up into the cute Swiss chalet and seeing cable cars going around a giant wheel driven by a huge electric motor. I think this was one of the most fascinating rides for me when I was younger, little did I know at the time that they used almost standard ski resort type lift mechanics. I couldn't believe they were safe. They would disconnect from the cable on the fly and reconnect automatically. It was amazing. I remember looking behind the walls and seeing giant overhead tracks with tons of hanging cars stored back there. It was too cool. I also remember the guys that were loading people always did it fast, opening the door, getting you in and slamming the door behind you and off you go swinging out over nothing. Quite creepy when you are 8 years old. Here is a clip showing Florida's setup complete with Autopia cars running below. It also shows a non destroyed Tomorrowland like you wouldn't find today in Disneyland. See both clips to see the haunting remnants of what was once a high tech, high capacity highly functional and popular guest transport that Walt himself dedicated in 1956.

A Fantastic Haunted Mansion Ridethrough

This is a great map made for Counter Strike. In fact is has a striking resemblance to the Haunted Mansion. The youtube clip doesn't do it justice, but anyway it's not about that. It's more about the fact that someone took the painstaking time to go through and put this together from scrach.
I really like the ballroom scene, attic and graveyard more than anything. Enjoy!

The Wonderful Peoplemover

Hey, we not only remember this wonderful ride that was put in at Disneyland in 1967, we are constantly reminded of it's existence every time we visit the park because all the tracks are still there that once supported this rolling attraction. In the 90's Imagineering executed a bad idea and installed a new thrill ride call Rocket Rods. This ride was plagued with problems from the start and eventually had to be shut down because of the maintenance nightmare that it was. Well here is a little video clip that shows the history of the people mover complete with all the 60's and early seventies elevator music that played when you rode it. Now this was a good ride to see the park and relax and get away for a while. I do miss it and hope they put it back in some shape or form on the existing track someday soon.

Frontier Land in Color

Here is an absolutely fantastic clip showing the park in a slightly different perspective. You usually don't get to see this kind of footage of the original Frontierland area. This clip shows great aerial views of the Fort, Rainbow Ridge, the Mark Twain and some absolutely RARE footage of the inside of the old mine train ride that spanned the land prior to the late 70's installation of Big Thunder Mountain. Wow even the bushes are small. It's great to see good quality early footage.
If you like this clip see Part 2

Mary Blair - Disney Artist, Colorist and Imagineer

Mary Blair is one of the people mainly responsible for the creation and decoration of the Small World attraction and today being the day that the ride re-opens to the public, we should have some Mary Blair career video clips for you. Here is a great fly through of many examples of her awesome 60's style.

It's a Small World Re-opens Today at Disneyland

You know It's a small world wasn't born at Disneyland, it was created for the 1964/65 worlds fair in New York. It was sponsored and lived in the Pepsi pavilion. After the fair was over it was transferred to Disneyland and installed. It's original name was not even what it is now, It was originally "Children of the World". When the Sherman brothers wrote the famous tune "It's a small World" Walt quickly changed to the new name. The ride was one of the first indoor boat rides and feature boats that run along a canal into a show building that is now located somewhere between the Cartoon Spin and the Disneyland steam train roundhouse. So once again they utilized show buildings that were outside the berm of Disneyland. This technology allowed much more room for attractions at the Park. There are 4 more "Small Worlds" around the world. The following are a few clips that show the ride in it's original and planning states are are very interesting.

Disneyland 35th Anniversary

Some of the Original MC's came back for this 35th anniversary. Ronald Regan and Art Linkletter were there for the opening in July of 55 and they talk in this clip about how they were well aware of this massive construction going on in Anaheim. They jumped at the chance to work with Walt on that famouse day.

Behind the Scenes Three Little Pigs

Hey checkout this little pig ditty. Ward Kimball, Walt Disney and others hash out a song for the three little pigs. Even though this is quite the staged clip it shows a flow of how they come up with ideas in a session. Walt realized that when he put 5 talented animators together that the outcome would be interesting. He obviously encouraged free flow of creativity in the studio, maybe that's why the final movies came out full of so many gags and fun.

Ward Kimball Coming out of the Roundhouse

This is a cool little clip of the Ward Kimball coming out of the Disneyland roundhouse. I noticed the engineer opens the blow down valve, this releases high pressure steam causing scales and junk to come out of the boiler so it doesn't build up and cause trouble. The Kimball is the newest engine to join the Disneyland fleet totaling 5 now.

Ward Kimball on a 50's Gameshow

This is funny, I haven't seen much of ward Kimball outside Disney clips so this is a treat. He talks to Groucho about his backyard setup and Groucho absolutely plays off that. They are hilarious and worth every second in this silly clip. Ward has good timing being an animator and it pays off in one comeback on to Groucho.

Lillian Disney Acceptance speech

Has anyone ever seen any video of Mrs. Disney? I haven't. I noticed that she has always stayed out of the tv spotlight as much as possible. But In this 1986 acceptance speech of her husband Walt Disney's TV hall of fame award she speaks briefly. There must be some more video of her out there. If anyone knows of any let me know so I can put it up on the blog.

Building Walt's Dream

Here is some extremely rare footage of Disneyland before they actually broke ground 1 year before it opened in 1955. It's called Walt's Reel, and features Walt and Roy checking out and explaining the details of the layout for Disneyland to various people inside and outside Disney. His brother Roy was pretty camera shy and is rarely seen on camera. Although here he smiles like he knew it was all going to work out in the end. Roy by the way provided all the financing brains behind the huge project. He was the one who had to convince the banks to break out their checkbooks and that Disneyland would be a moneymaker. Walt and Roy were tired of going to the banks for loans to cover the payroll in between movies and always wanted some other source of income to keep the studio afloat during slow times in between pictures. Well Disneyland turned out to cost a lot more than they originally expected and it took a lot of work to convince the bankers to keep shelling out the dough.
If you enjoyed this clip see the rest here Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Walt's Lilly Belle at the Nixon Library

Here is a little clip I located that I enjoyed seeing just because you don't see much footage of the small engine outside books or Disney documentaries. The minature 1/12th scale Lilly Belle was the inspiration for the larger sized E.P. Ripley that runs at the Park and was present for opening day in July of 1955.

1925 Doble Steam Car

I know this site is for Disney and Train fans and I should probably keep it to just that but I happen to also be a car fan and I thought this was so absolutely cool that all the steam guys out in the world, if they haven't seen it might find it interesting.
Now Jay Leno is one of the biggest car collectors around Los Angeles and has a very diverse interest spanning from electric all through gas to steam powered cars.
Here is one of his coolest vehicles I've ever seen. Check it out and tell me it wasn't cool to put it up.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse was the creative vehicle that took the Walt Disney Company to new exciting heights. In 1928 Steamboat willie was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon featuring synchronized sound. People wanted Mickey so the Walt gave them Mickey in all kinds of hilarious little cartoons. Walt had a pet mouse that inspired this character and Mickey's original name was supposed to be Mortimer mouse but Lilly Walt's wife suggested Mickey might be a more fitting name.

Operation Wonderland

In this rare video James Melton meets Walt Disney as he's zooming around the studio lot on his 1/12th scale miniature steam locomotive. It was around the time that Walt built The Lilly Belle locomotive for his backyard railroad. This was the railroad that was the base of inspiration for the creation of Disneyland. The park trains were scaled up from this small miniature. Walt was a strong believer in miniature and anytime anyone had an idea for something he always wanted to see a small 3d model of it so he could get a real look at it and see what it would look like from the visitors point of view.
Anyway, this little 2 part clip takes us on a trip through the Disney studio and follows the layout, design and production of Alice in Wonderland. It shows some rare footage of Walt on his train which you may enjoy and some more vintage footage of life around the studio.
There is some cool footage of some live action scenes used for animator reference. The live actors play out the scenes basically in front of the animators who draw what they see and bring it all to life. If you enjoyed this check out Part 2

Disney Animator - Ollie Johnston

Disney's Ollie Johnston was one of the nine old men of Disney animation. He was with Walt from the early days of the studio and made his impression on the world of animation. Unfortunately he passed away in the last year or so. He will be missed but some of his favorite pastimes are still with us on video. Here is some very rare footage from his backyard railroad in La Canada. After his death his family donated the little train station that he had in his backyard to the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad museum in Griffith Park, CA where it can be seen one Sunday a month by the general public.

How Disney Cartoons Are Made

Here is an old gem from the late 30's. This documentary is very cool because it shows some of the old animation studio back in it's heydays. These where when the characters and backgrounds were hand drawn and individually photographed. Later when I worked at Disney we had a computerized CAPS system that took of the work out of the color setup. This video refers to some of the female employees as "pretty girls" So it's definitely from a different time. Disneyland was some 15 years out in the future and wasn't even a project at this time. This is when disney was raising money by breaking box office records with some of this early cutting edge animation, namely "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", which was a box office smash hit. Now without some of these early smash hits Disney may have never gotten wealthy enough or popular enough to get projects like Disneyland going.
Anyway checkout the cool little documentary here.

Pirates of the Caribbean Simulation

This guy spent around 2500+ hours doing a pretty good simulation of this famous ride at Disneyland.
This is quite frankly one of the best recreations I've seen in quite a while. Good job DJClayduck for working so hard on this and also for putting your own spin on it too. I also have to award you for your sound. Although there are alot of sounds available on different Disneyland CD's it looks like you may have recorded some of this stuff yourself.

We Can't Forget Ward Kimball

Ward Kimball was by far one of the best contributors and creators of animation in Disney History. He was certainly one of Walt's closest railroading pals who found out early on that the way to get close to the boss was to talk about trains. Many people don't know Ward had a giant full sized Engine and some 600 foot long track in his backyard. He is also an avid collector of trains and as you'll see in this vintage video he's one unique fellow. Ward says he was a marked baby because when his mother was giving birth to him she looked out the window and saw a big train go by. If you like this video check out the additional parts Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Disneyland Dedication in 1955

I thought that it was important to mention that Disneyland was not always here. in July of 1955 the place was opened just a year after construction started. An amazing feat but it was well planned. There were problems the first day but they were sorted out, little things like wheather to have bathrooms or drinking fountains. Well Walt decided to have restrooms and have the visitors drink soda. It was a good decision for obvious reasons. Anyhow here is a famous clip that I always find fun to see.

Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room

The Tiki Room has always been a little bit different than most other attractions at Disneyland, it's a little off the norm as far as things go and for good reason. It opened in 63' and was the first show to use audio animatronic figures to entertain the public. Walt was a little ahead of his time with this one, it was completely computer controlled, had more than 150 talking devices and was the first fully air conditioned building in Disneyland. It was originally supposed to be a sit down restaurant and was installed at a time when Polynesia and Tiki were very popular. This attraction was financed by Walt personally and was not owned by Disney Studio's and so to recoup he charged $0.75 admission.
On a side note, I was in the Tiki room last weekend and a friend of mine pointed out that we could eat in there. Now although I've seen the show many times since I was young and I always overlooked this as allowing no more than just a Dole Whip while watching the show. This time we tested it out. We went and got full Bengal BBQ and layed low in a corner next to the wooden funny eyed Tikis. It was a little awkward eating a full dinner in there but it did get some envied looks and questions like "That smells good" Where did you get it? So it was good free advertising for Bengal BBQ, and I finally heard the announcement "Eat whatever you want during the show".

Expedition Everest

I have to give props to the guys who built what may be one of the best modern rides besides (tower of terror) at any of the disney parks. This ride is under rated. It is a Mine Train style rollercoaster mixed with more technology than anything previous. It's goes faster, goes in reverse, switches tracks during the ride, and passes by some of the best and largest audio animatronic characters yet created at a Disney park.
Check out this making of series. It's fascinating and can't be overlooked. If you enjoy this video, see Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Walt Disney World's Steam Loco #4

Here is a nice shot of the Roy O Disney chuffing around the Walt Disney World property.
The reason I put this up is mostly for the sound and all the steam. Thats what makes a steam engine fun. I've learned from running our engine at my local steam club that a steam engine is really quite silent until you put a load of passenger cars behind it or it pulls on a hill. Then it starts to chuff and make all the fun sounds a loco should make.

Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Barn at LALS

What Walt Disney's estate sold around 00' The Disney family made a deal with Michael Broggie's Carolwood Historical Society and the Los Angeles Live Steamers to dismantle and relocate Walt's Holmby Hills, CA backyard railroad centerpiece known as "Walt's Barn" to Griffith Park. This Barn features many of Walt Disney's railroad items that he had collected through the years. Take a visit, It's a fascinating way to spend an hour or two.

The long lost America Sings Part II

The long lost America Sings

I found some decent video that shows an attraction that I miss from the 70's and 80's. This attraction had great music, audio animatronic characters, a rotating theater, and a good rest from the heat of a California summer day, but unfortunately met it's final fate in April of 1988.
I miss this and wish it was still with us. It sat for years not doing much more than being a functioning back office for park employees. Finally the decision was made to repurpose most of the characters in this attraction for a new $100 million dollar ride in Bear country called Splash Mountain. Splash must have gone way over budget for Disney to decide to do this.

Part II of the Disneyland contruction report

Disneyland contruction progress report

Walt kept close tabs on the park's construction using film equipment readily available from the studio and also tapping studio talent as he does in this video. He uses a studio expert in time lapse photography to setup cameras on top of a huge tower in the middle of the Disneyland construction site.

Disneyland Monorail Dedication Ceremony

Here is an interesting little clip showing some of California back in the day on the way down to Disneyland for a very important opening ceremony.

Groudle Glen Railway

Santa Train on the Isle of Man in the UK

Jerry Lewis meets Walt Disney

Jerry lewis tries to figure out who the mystery challenger is on a 1956 TV show called "What's My Line" Hillarious!

To all who enjoy Steam trains and all things Disney, this site is for you. I will be writing articles or linking to images or videos that I find interesting and will hopefully captures your imaginations.