Two Leftuggies
I have a pair of nice leftuggies for you, served up hot and fresh! You have a choice of regular fries or sweet potato fries, or fresh fruit.
From August, 1959 comes this nice (and postcard-worthy?) photo of a Horse Drawn Streetcar as it headed south toward Town Square; I wonder if there was another streetcar heading north, since our streetcar is just coming out of the track split? There must be a better term than "track split", but my assistant can't come up with one. I love the look of Main Street here, still sporting its original colors, with no weird fake brick patterns to distract. Notice the signs overhead touting the latest additions to the park, I wish I had a complete set! There are also wonderful paper signs on the lamp posts, though you have to squint (and stand on your head) to see those.
This next one is dated "June 1966", and while the photographer was almost certainly trying to get a good photo of Mickey Mouse's floral portrait, we also get a swell view of the Freight Train, as well as the back half of a 1966 Pontiac GTO, possibly part of the 1966 "Spring Fling" giveaway. Looking online, a 1966 GTO in mint condition with low mileage could go for over $100,000 today, and one went for over $180,000.
28 comments:
Major-
I'm hardly a railway expert, but I believe that "track split" is called a passing loop; but the real experts should chime-in.
The poor 'ol Puffin Bake Shop - just beyond the Sunny View Farms Jellies & Jams - always hidden and out of sight. Its stripy awning the only clue it's actually there.
It appears there's a sandwich sign behind the GTO where we can sort of make out "1966 GTO..." which presumably was the Grand Prize of that giveaway to which you refer.
Thanks, Major.
#1- The guy on the right in the white shirt is playing the harmonica. He had a premonition of Disneyland from the year 2022, so It's a sad, bluesy sort of tune. He calls it "TRE". Some people say he's actually eating an ice cream bar from the Carnation shop. But I don't listen to those people.
#2- When this image first came up, I wondered what the heck a car was doing parked in front of Floral Mickey... and where did that patch of grass come from? Then I realized this was a display showcasing the soon-to-be-built re-creation of the Ford Magic Skyway from the 1964 New York World's Fair. The car is sitting on mossy rocks, overlooking what would eventually be a prehistoric diorama.
Then I read your commentary, Major..... Oh.... Never mind.
I think I've heard the spot where tracks split referred to as a "frog," but I'm not an expert, either!
In regards to the conversation yesterday, about the "Electricity" machines in the Penny Arcade, I found a pic that I took of one of the machines, back in 2011. It has "Electricity Will Do It" printed on it's dial. I remember there was a similar one that had "Electricity Is Life" on it's dial. At one point, both machines existed in the Penny Arcade at the same time. Then when they TRE'd (hey, that's my first time using the abbreviation!) the Penny Arcade and turned it into a shop, this one machine stayed behind. However, I don't know if it is still there today.
Scroll down to the second pic in the post:
Electricity Machine in the Penny Arcade
TM! You may not be a track “expert,” but you HAVE HAD more personal experience with those tracks than any of the rest of us. I’m still laughing about it.
;oD
—Sue
Wow these are nice! And a GTO to boot!
I think the split in the track is just called a "passing loop." The frog is what keeps the wheels on the track as the train (or streetcar) goes from one bit of track to the next. By the way, a lot of people call the part of a track where a train can turn off the main line "frogs" or switches" but the proper term is "turnout." Frogs and switches are both parts of the turnout.
And they said model trains would never get me anywhere! (which they won't if you try to ride on them.)
Great shots today, Major!
In North America, we call those “passing sidings;” “passing loop” is a UK term, and I think they call them “crossing loops” in Australia (although I am not 100% sure I am correct about that last). The “frog” is a point where two rails cross, so on the Main Street passing siding switches the frog is the piece of rail where the two inner tracks cross.
The Flower Market appears to be 101 this morning.
I may have told this story before, but I had a high school friend who had a 1965 GTO in 1986. Soon after he got it, we were out driving one night on a country road just outside of town when he decided to open her up and see what she could do. As soon as he hit the accelerator, I panicked and was only able to get out “No, wait - there’s a railroad crossing just ahe-” before we hit said railroad crossing at about 65 mph.
As a kid who had an SSP Smash Up Derby set and grew up watching Speed Racer and The Dukes of Hazzard, I always thought it would be fun to jump a car. Sitting as a helpless passenger in an uncontrollable steel box suspended in midair on a ballistic trajectory to a then-unknown point and subject only to Newton’s First Law of Motion dampened my enthusiasm for the car jump to a significant degree. We survived (any landing you can walk - or drive - away from is a good landing, right?), but my buddy’s stepdad was not amused with the results on the front-end suspension. Jumping a car is now officially crossed off the bucket list; the fact that I wasn’t driving at the time is completely irrelevant.
Ah, Main Street USA, where the trash cans are placed with mathematical precision one hot-dog munch apart.
Hearing all this rail talk makes me wonder if funicular railroads use the same terms.
Tokyo, thank you for that shocking picture, and in a family blog too! I remember that machine, I played both of them at various times.
Chuck, great story. Yes, any survived landing qualifies. My Dad had a little slogan in the plane, “Loseth Not Thine Airspeed, Lest the Ground Rise Up and Smite Thee”. Truer words, etc.
JG
Thanks, Chuck! That explains why I always say that in a British accent (and then immediately go for tea).
Great story about your car jump! When I was about six or seven years old, I was with my babysitter and her boyfriend in his car. I'm not sure what it was, but I remember it was black (or dark blue) and loud! I was in the back seat and he suddenly asked "Have you ever done a wheelie?" Being a really cool kid, I said, "Sure!" He then punched it and my life flashed before my eyes. Probably twice because there wasn't much life to run through at that point. I can remember being shoved back in the seat, and feeling like the car was going to totally flip over backwards! I'm sure those front wheels only left the ground for an instant, but it made a lifelong impression on me!
Good times!
These are nice Major. Lately you've posted a lot of earlier photos of the park and I love it. Thanks!
That photo of the GTO and the Autopia poster with Mickey and back round train in between is an unusual gem.
TM! I remember that machine too. One of two or three electric shock machines that we all tried. Thanks for that great photo.
Running late, will check in later hopefully.
Thanks one and all.
TokyoMagic!... this site gives quite the narrative on electric shock arcade machines, any one of the pics *may* even be the alternative Electricity is Life at DL...
https://penny-arcade.info/the-strange-the-unusual
Major, thanks for photos and I agree of course in the first one a collection of those overhead Disneyland 59 signs would be great to have, or even scroll through
Nanook, passing loops sounds as good as anything. I don’t have my Main Street Lessees guide handy, was the Puffin Bake Shop still there in ’59? And yes, for years the grand prize for the Spring Fling event was a hot car.
JB, ah the harmonica; I suppose those must be fun to play, but they aren’t much fun to listen to. I would just play “1000 Bottles of Beer” over and over. That car was parked there by third grade teacher Mabel Sullivan when she got a bit confused. It happens! Sadly for her, her brand new GTO automatically became the grand prize of the Spring Fling contest.
TokyoMagic!, listen, I know what a frog is, you can’t fool me. As for the Electric Shock machine, the one I used had knobs, sort of like doorknobs, rather than those cylindrical posts. It was much easier to grip them while I was biting my tongue off.
Sue, poor TM!, he should have never told that story!
Stu29573, if I had to vote, I’d vote for “passing siding”, because “loop” is too frivolous. It does seems as if we should be able to see bouquets of fake flowers on West Center Street, but maybe they are all further back? Your “Dukes of Hazzard” story is a good one, thankfully you weren’t hurt. Whenever I see somebody with a hopped-up car doing a burnout or whatever, I mostly think about the effect on the car. “You’re gonna wear out those tires!”. Yes, I am like somebody’s grandpa. Have you jumped motorcycle over a shark yet?
JG, I wonder how many hotdog munches away the Moon is? Buzz Aldrin probably knows. Angels Flight in downtown L.A. definitely has a passing siding, or whatever they call it. How many other funicular railroads are there in the U.S.? Wikipedia probably has a list. I recently learned that the famous “Chemosphere” house has a little funicular to bring guests from the street up to the house, which is unbelievably cool.
Stu29573, I’ll bet your babysitter’s boyfriend had a great laughing scaring the heck out of you! I always have to wonder if somebody like that eventually crashed their vehicle. There are plenty of videos of guys who decided to rev their engines while going down the road, and they begin to shimmy, and… oops.
DrGoat, I do have a LOT of 1950s scans in my folder right now, it just worked out that way. Sometimes they can be extra nice, sometimes they can be kind of dull. As you know! I didn’t really think about the juxtaposition of the Autopia poster with the GTO, was that a coincidence? If so, it was a good one!
LTL, I will have to check out that site a bit later, it looks interesting! Years ago there was an auction with at least one example of those lamp post signs, I couldn’t afford any, but I did save high-res jpegs of all of them!
I meant one example of EACH of the lamp post signs, not just one sign. Duh.
I'm pretty sure that the passing siding allowed them to run three streetcars at once, but why not four? It's all about capacity.
That electricity machine was still in the Penny Arcade when I was there!
I believe this shot would have been for Grad Night 1966, based on this Daveland blog.
I love the effect of the red car and the red car poster book ending the second picture!
“Passing loop,” “Crossing loop,” and “passing siding” all sound like steps in English country dancing.
Of course, when I first read "Red Pontiac GTO," my first thought was, "Hey, hey, it must be the Monkees," but they wouldn't have let a bunch of long-haired weirdos into Disneyland in '66.
LTL,
Thanks for that link. That machine on the left with the knight and the dragon with the door knob handles is exactly the one I described in yesterday's post! The dreaded dragon that always got the best of me.
Faint childhood memory of seeing the freight train on a first visit, but not riding it. After that, never saw anything but the open excursion cars. When I unfolded my beloved souvenir map on the bedroom floor, I noticed the three different trains (the third being the enclosed passenger cars) and wondered how I never caught any but the excursion cars.
Read somewhere that the freight cars were discontinued because guests felt insulted, mooing sarcastically. I thought they were really cool. Giant-sized toys.
At some point the passenger cars went away as well. They certainly looked posh, but offered limited views and likely cost more to maintain. Now the excursion car seating faces into the park, probably a result of the Grand Canyon diorama being on that side.
The “frog” is the part of a railroad track switch that swivels from left to right allowing the wheel flanges to transfer to the other direction. The piece looks like a stretched out letter “Y” maybe resembling a frog with its legs stretched out. In the passive streetcar tracks I’m not sure it has a “frog” track piede since the conductor pulls the reigns directing the horse to the left or right pulling the horsecars wheels over to the pass siding.
I’ve seen 3 horse drawn streetcars operate at one time at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World…. But never four. I always understood it was because at any time one of the streetcars was out at the CYCLE SHOP being given its precise scheduled maintenance.
Major : a long long time ago I had the opportunity to purchase a decent amount of those lamppost “new attraction” shields for a very decent price. I passed and bought other attraction posters - at the time also at a decent price.
DBenson, the freight cars are actually still running today at Disneyland. They were converted into the side-facing Holiday Red set of cars, the 200 series, in response to the customer complaints you referenced. Aside from the red-striped awning, they are distinguishable from the 1966 Holiday Green (400 series) and Holiday Blue (500 series) by the boxcar-shaped framing and remaining horizontal slats on the left (berm) side of the former cattle cars and the solid wood sides of the former gondolas. Holiday Green and Blue are made up of identical cars with striped green or blue awnings and matching side panels.
So technically the switch “frog” is more of a flarred “V” shape almost a flamboyant “X” lol. And they can be stationary - like the horse drawn street car tracks.
Not all switches are constructed identically, and the discussion above illustrates the confusion in terminology that can create. Some switches have stationary frogs while others have movable frogs (also called a “swingnose crossing“) as Mike describes above. To add to the confusion, the larger and most noticeable set of rails that move as most switches are realigned are called “points” or “switch rails” and are a different part of the switch than the frog. The problem that a moveable frog solves is the removal of a gap between rail segments at the frog as the train switches tracks, creating a smoother ride and less wear and tear on the equipment. A switch with a stationary frog will usually have movable points, although there are exceptions (see ”Abt switch”), while a switch with a moveable frog will also usually have movable point as well.
It’s been 13 years since I have been to Disneyland and probably 27 since I took a close look at the switches on Main Street. After zooming in on today’s photo, watching a POV video of the streetcar in action from 2015, and trying to dig up what memories remain, the movable rail segments on Disneyland’s street railway are not built like a traditional switch. The segments are very short and consist of a single, swinging segment on each rail (you can see the at about 2:08 on the linked video above). They are quite like a swingnose crossing, so I understand the use of the term “frog” in this specific application.
It’s not shown in the video, but I seem to recall something about the switch realigning to the correct rail as the streetcar hits the points/frog on the switch. Mike, are the points/frogs built so that they always spring back into the same “resting” position after a car traverses the switch, ensuring that the horses are always going the same direction around both the Hub and Town Square? I guess I should ask if they were originally built that way; I seem to recall reading or seeing something after the track was replaced a few years ago about the routing changing to wear the wheels equally on all flanges. No time to look it up now.
Sorry, MIke - missed your next comment above as I was typing my manifesto. :-)
And I apparently didn’t read your comment before that very carefully, because you explain how the conductor pulls the reins to direct the horse.
I need more decaf…
Also referring to the "electricity" machines from yesterday...
http://gamestudies.org/articleimages/119_Figure_4.jpg
Sue, ha, ha! Yes, I've had a close and personal encounter with those streetcar tracks. In fact, they were so attached to me....they didn't want to let me go!
JG, sorry, I didn't mean to "shock" you! ;-)
DrGoat, I don't remember the "Knight" version of the electric machines. I wish they would return that space on Main St. to a FULL arcade, and bring all of the vintage machines back!
LTL, thanks for that link. Yes, the other "shock" machine from the Penny Arcade is listed on that site. It's the one that has "Electricity Is Life" on it's dial, and "Electricity The Silent Physician" inside the glass case housing the mechanism.
Major, didn't you know....prior to using the "electricity" machines, you were supposed to ask the person in the change booth for a piece of rubber hose to bite down on!
Andrew, I'm glad to hear that the one electricity machine is still there, even if the shocking sensation has been turned way down!
Tokyo, LOL.
LTL, thanks for that link, some fascinating stuff there. Those crazy vending machines, eh?
I remember Electricity is Life, Electricity the Silent Physician, and there was one that claimed to measure one’s prowess as a lover. I impressed my girlfriend with that one when I ran it all the way up. She didn’t know I couldn’t let it go.
This has been an amazing thread of esoteric knowledge.
Thanks everyone!
JG
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