Thursday, July 07, 2011

Main Street Station, 1957

Here's a great view of Main Street Station from the entrance to the park, with the E.P. Ripley and the old yellow passenger cars. And posters! Two beauties that I don't have are the pink Main Street Station/Santa Fe & Disneyland RR poster and the very rare Art Corner poster.


There's nothing extraordinary about this photo, but I like it anyway. The family crossing in front of the Horse Drawn Streetcar is a cute detail... maybe this is their first visit to the park. Love the Surrey, and the way Town Square looks so neat and tidy.

13 comments:

Nancy said...

the best way to start the day...arriving at Disneyland!! loving the posters as always

thanks for the smile :-)

Chuck said...

Look at the crowds! It must have been an excrutiating 7-minute wait to ride Peter Pan that day.

Connie Moreno said...

Nancy, I agree.

Chuck, you cracked me up!

Major, great photos. LOVED that first shot. OK, I have a question that has probably been asked before but I'm thinking that was before I discovered you. What ever happened to those yellow train cars?

Pilsner Panther said...

The top one's a little blurry (it looks like the train was in motion, either pulling in or pulling out of the station), but it's a gorgeous shot! The lineup of classic posters only makes it better.

Thufer said...

Poster envy.

What a beautiful view of City Hall.

Major Pepperidge said...

Glad you guys liked these! Yeah, that first one isn't as crisp as I'd like, but what can you do. Chuck, I know, wouldn't it be great to see the park the way it was then, AND with the small crowds on some days? Nancy and Thufer, as you know I am all about the posters. Well, maybe not ALL about...!

Connie, the yellow train cars are now in the possession of a collector in the San Luis Obispo area. One blogger recently wrote about them here:

http://aracuanbird.blogspot.com/2011/05/riding-disneyland-history.html

JG said...

These are fun. I like the second one with the family setting out on their day. It feels so familiar.

I can't really remember the posters in front of the railroad, just in the tunnels. Do you know when they stopped doing that?

I admit when I first started looking at Disney blogs I did not understand the poster mania, but now after looking at many of them on-line, I see what the fuss was about. I guess they just didn't register to me much before, too busy looking at the buildings.

Notice in the background of the city hall, how large the trees are already after two years. Those must have been large when planted. Also see how carefully they are arranged to serve as the backdrop for the building. A similar effect occurs behind the little mining village at Nature's Wonderland. All the vistas are planned and backed up with plantings or architectural effects to limit your views to the place at hand.

Nothing was accidental, it seems.

JG

stu29573 said...

Actually, those trees in back of Town Hall were wind breaks in the original orange groves. They left them in order to have fuller growth trees when they built the park. Great planning, really!

Capt. Tomorrow said...

The combine in the first picture is now owned by the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society and is on display with Walt's Barn at Griffith Park. Go see it! In the second picture, not one ugly stainless steel outside vendor cart in sight. BEAUTIFUL!

Vaughn said...

Also, one of those old yellow cars was reconditioned into the "Lily Belle:" a v.i.p. lounge car that, I think, is still being used occasionally there at Disneyland.

JG said...

@stu, et. al.

Good to Know, it's even better somehow knowing that the trees were there already.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

I sure have some smart readers!

SundayNight said...

That picture with the family is beautiful. A sunny day, Mom and Dad, and Disneyland. What more does a little kid want?