This first card is an "unofficial" Disneyland card, but what a card! As you can see, it's a fabulous aerial view of the Mine Train as it passes through The Living Desert. Look at how close Fantasyland is, just over that line of trees. The little train is just about to pass that mine tunnel, which I am thinking is where some of the trains might have been stored at night (?). The track loops around and eventually vanishes into the entrance to the beautiful Rainbow Caverns.
This is the only "lenticular" postcard I have ever seen for Knott's Berry Farm. There is no date, but I am guessing "late 1960's". As you can see, it shows a scene from the botched train robbery; lawmen stand solemnly while the undertaker prepares to scrape up the thief's corpse from the ground. Some fun! The 3-D effect is pretty good, but it would be even better with that blue Na'vi chick from "Avatar".
Here's a somewhat-scarce postcard advertising Disneyland's Casa de Fritos. It's a pretty ugly card, apparently somebody just took a photo of a billboard and voila! Instant postcard. But I am always happy to see the Fritos Kid ("Hey Klondike!"), and find myself staring at that platter of mysterious food (lets' see, there's Fritos, rice, and... brown things) the way I stare at a car wreck on highway 101.
Huh so that might be - or was intended to represent more exactly - a dinner at Casea de Fritos? I think (tink, I tink, in honor of Tink's regained popularity) that brown square in the center is tamale in husk.
ReplyDeleteCool NW postcard! The desert... it's aliiive! A living desert. In living color.
Yep, I think the brown things are tamales alright. What I think is interesting is how the billboard is in a little disrepair at the botton. Couldn't they have taken a picture of a GOOD billboard?
ReplyDeleteThe mine train rocks, and will always rock. It would have been cooler if they could have woven Big Thunder through it! Oh well...
Wow that Mine Train Postcard is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThat "mine tunnel" that a lot of people think is a spur line to a maintenance facility for the trains is actually just for show; all it does is lead to backstage. The trains were in fact switched off the line in the Rainbow Caverns to a spur line right behind the Fantasyland theater. You can still see that "tunnel" today, though it's been buried half way in concrete.
This is definitely a later shot, the vegetation has grown considerably, and the SF & DLRR line has been moved outward leaving a trail of dirt.
The Mine Train photo is fascinating, not the usual angle. In past photos on Google Earth (the current one is hard to see close-up) it appears that the "storage tunnel" is still there (sorta of behind the north-west side of Casey Jr. and the south-east part of the Hunchback Arena). I always wondered what that tunnel was for, I wonder is its the same one?
ReplyDeleteNeato Knott's 3D card, wow!
I always thought the Casa De Fritos postcard was a "drawing" of a billboard, not an actual photo! That makes it even more cool.
NICE Post - Thanks!
Does anybody remember the giant Fritos machine where you could get a gab of Fritos for 5 cents? (Yes, I'm dating myself...) The Fritos Kid would move as soon as you dropped your nickle into the slot and then out would come your bag of Fritos. It was one of my favorite things to do in the Park as a kid, LOL.
ReplyDeleteoops, I meant a BAG of Fritos...
ReplyDeleteThat first picture of the Living Desert is wonderful! It really shows off that back loop well. I think that mine entrance in the upper left is access to the mechanical room that supports the geysers and bubbling mud pots.
ReplyDeleteKnott's Dead Bandit Postcard? -- You just you try that today. You will have the "Banditos Rights" people on you faster than you can say "Frito Lay".
Speaking of Frito Lay, they really needed someone to get that food to actually look like food, instead of Main Street boot-scrapings. "If you wouldn't eat it yourself, don't serve it to others."
Curiously, I find my Google Blog word verification password today is "eatedup". Really.
Connie, I never got to see that Frito machine, though I have seen photos of it. I would have loved it!
ReplyDeleteKatella Gate, sometimes those verification things really are unintentionally funny.
Sam, thanks for the info about the phony "tunnel".
being a postcard collector myself...I LOVE THESE!
ReplyDeletesuch a pretty picture of the desert, one of the best ive seen
the Knott's one is very cool...still cant get over the fact that the train is just out there where the guests could walk right in front of it if they werent paying attention :-S
i "Eat Delicious MEXICAN FOODS" every time we go to DL...that is one restaurant (tho is now sans The Frito Kid and his magic Fritos dispenser) that we never miss! :D
That Knott's card is very cool. I've never seen that one before.
ReplyDeleteI just found in my stuff one of those Knotts cards plus a second different one of an Indian Chief
ReplyDeleteVery cool, Dan! I'd love to see it, could you put it on your blog?
ReplyDeleteThe areal of the Living Desert is a favorite of mine. I have one large image of this post card but would like to get the original some day or at least a super-resolution scan of it. It's such an important view from a modeling standpoint.
ReplyDeleteI have another photo which is more of a straight-down shot that has similar modeling potential.
Some of the blueprints show the short tunnel represented in that area. I would not be surprised if new equipment or equipment that needed to be taken out for maintenance might go out via that spur and tunnel. It would probably be easier than getting a truck behind the Rainbow Caverns warehouse show building.
I'd love to know if trains were simply parked in the caverns after closing. I don't think 4 trains could fit in the spur shown near the Fantasyland Theater as shown in some photos.
There are so many operational details I'd like to better understand which were not covered in the SOPs for the attraction.
James Keeline