In this 1956 shot, you can see that there are two parallel tracks. In the early days, the E.P. Ripley only loaded at Main Street Station, while the C.K. Holliday only loaded at Frontierland Station. The trains could pass each other at sidings around the two stations.
I am puzzled by the roadway that is running directly towards us. It almost looks like a backstage service road, but it seems that the public could walk along it if they wanted to.
I just read that the E.P. Ripley's firebox was converted to burn biodiesel in January of this year. Also, in March 2006 the Ripley was displayed at the annual "Fullerton Railroad Days" in Fullerton, California. This was the first time any of the locomotives has been displayed at a public event off-site.
The roadway is probably the same route taken by walking guests from Holidayland into the park itself. Holidayland would be to our right.
ReplyDelete1956 is too early for Holidayland (that opened in the summer of ‘57), but I believe the location is the same. This is the access road behind the Jungle Cruise. The Ripley has just passed the turnout for the passing siding that allows another train to pass a train stopped at the Frontierland Depot, which is to our right. I find it interesting that the passenger train is pulling into Frontierland for a stop; in the beginning, before a third station at Fantasyland was built and a third locomotive and trainset were added to the roster, the E.P. Ripley and the passenger train normally only stopped at the Main Street Station and the C.K./Holliday and the freight train usually called only at Frontierland.
ReplyDeleteHere's Chuck, surprising me with a comment on a blog post from 15 years ago! Looking at it now, I'm wondering why I cropped it to a "Panavision" ratio. Maybe there was some damage to the slide, I sure don't remember now. I wonder if they might have only run one train when crowds were low, in which case they might have stopped the passenger train in Frontierland, or the freight train at Main Street?
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