Did you know that Walt Disney built and ran his own railroad — the Carolwood Pacific Railroad — before opening Disneyland?

Walt Disney’s fascination with and love of railroads goes back to his childhood.  His father & uncle worked on the railroads.  When Walt was a teen, he worked as a news butcher, selling newspapers, candy & cigars to rail passengers. The story is that he would sneak into the locomotive and say to the engineers, “I’ll give you a cigarette if you show me how the train works.” The engineers took a liking to him, and taught (aka, tolerated) him in the locomotive.

Disney later said of this time, “My railroad career was brief, exciting, and unprofitable.”

At 22, Walt and his brother, Roy, started the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which later became the Walt Disney Studio.  But his love of trains remained.  

As the Walt Disney studio grew, Walt moved into larger offices and built a model train in his office.  In 1947, he was showing off his train to 2 of his animators:  Ollie Johnston and Ward Kimball.  They both had built trains in their back yards that you could ride.

So, of course, Walt wanted to know more.  He wanted to see the trains, ride them, and most importantly, he wanted one himself.

In 1950, he bought 5 acres of land on Carolwood Drive in Holmby Hills, built his dream house, built a barn and started on his railroad.  He designed the route, the switches, but he wasn’t a machinist.  

So to build the actual steam locomotive, he asked the head of Disney’s machine shop, Roger Broggie, if he would build it, and Roger agreed. So the project began.

It should be noted that this barn is considered to be the birthplace of Imagineering, and Roger is the very, very, very first imagineer.

The steam engine was a 1/8th scale replica of the Central Pacific Railroad Steam Locomotive No. 173. While building it, Roger took Walt on as a machinist apprentice, teach Walt how to become a machinist. Walt eagerly participated in building the steam engine.

When it was completed, the railroad was dubbed the Carolwood Pacific Railroad and the Steam Engine was named the Lilly Belle, in honor of Walt’s wife, Lillian. Walt ran it for family & friends from 1950 through 1953, when Walt turned his attention full time to the larger project of Disneyland.

The barn where Walt built his railroad, developed imagineering, and worked on his ideas for Disneyland is in Griffith Park.  It’s open once a month, it’s free to the public, and it has a wealth of memorabilia, exhibits and photographs.

I recently visited, and what a wonderful surprise!

If you like trains or Disney, the barn and its exhibits are definitely for you.

Here’s my adventure at Walt Disney’s barn in Griffith Park.

The barn is open on the 3rd Sunday of every month, from 11:00 am til 3:00 pm. For more info, check out the Carolwood Foundation’s web site.