There is something nostalgic and dare I say romantic about trains. I can remember hearing the whistling of the train when I’d spend the night at my grandma’s house when I was a little girl. That love of trains was rekindled when I visited the The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge the other day and was reminded of the amazing train collection we have on display for our guests. The train treasures come from the personal collection of Walt Disney, a man with such a passion for trains that he had a backyard one-eighth scale railroad, named the Carolwood Pacific Railroad, at his house on Carolwood Drive in California.
The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is the ideal home for this miniature live steam railroad as the hotel transports guests back to the time of the great American West and the golden age of railroad travel. Although it’s tucked away in the Carolwood Pacific Railroad Room at The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, the perfectly preserved cattle car, gondola and piece of track from Walt’s original set, as well as additional train memorabilia, are worth seeking out.
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I love this room, my fiance and I love to sit in the window seat and pass the hours away chatting about nothing.
Mary….the Magic Behind the Steam Trains tour is awesome. They give a history of the trains at WDW and Walt’s history with trains. When they took us “backstage” to the roundhouse, they asked my son, who at the time was 12 to throw the switch…..the look on his face was bigger than I have ever seen it. It is wel worth the time!
Hi everyone, these are G scale replicas made by Hartland Locomotive Works in Indiana. They made a limited run of the Lilly Belle locomotive in the photo, and I think there is one for sale on Ebay right now if anyone is interested. They run about $300-400 but are really well made and they do run on LGB, Aristocraft, and other G scale or Large scale track.
I was just at the Villas of Wilderness Lodge, I wish I had known. How could these great bits of trivia be included in the DVC Welcome Home packet? I would love to see that happen, I’m so sorry I missed this.
Has anyone taken the Magic Kingdom “Train Tour”?
Where is this room? Can anyone view it?
The train on display at Wilderness is a G scale replica. Walt’s origial steam train and cars are now located at the new Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. There did used to be a train that ran around Fort Wilderness campgrounds. It was all built by Disney Imagineers but they had numerous problems with the locomotives and the track so they closed it down. There is lots of good information at the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society website. If you ever get to hear Michael Broggie speak about Walt and his loves of trains and Michael’s father, Roger, who was one of the original imagineers, it is a great story!!!
From my many visits to Disney World and staying onsite at the one and only Fort Wilderness Cabins. From my understanding there used to be a railroad built in Fort Wilderness and was retired years later
Just to note, as a Villas at Wilderness Lodge DVC member who loves to visit the Carolwood Pacific room (formerly the Iron Spike room), the cars in the pictures are not the Carolwood Pacific cars. Those cars are larger, and as noted in the article, are a cattle car and a gondola, no engine, flat car, or caboose. And I love to think of people sitting on top of the cars riding around Walt’s backyard, as is shown in “Walt: The Man Behind the Myth.”
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