Grizzly Flats Railroad

Baldwin Steam Locomotive Emma Nevada

Ward Kimball on his Grizzly Flats Railroad

Route length:

Main route: 0.152 km
Total: 0.274 km

Gauge :

914 mm ( English 3-foot track )

Legend

	0.000
		Residential building
		garage
		Grizzly Flats train station
	0.152	Engine shed

The Grizzly Flats Railroad (GFRR) was a narrow-gauge railway owned by Disney animator Ward Kimball behind his home in San Gabriel , California . The railroad had a total of about 274 m long tracks with a gauge of 3 feet (914 mm). It was the first full-size backyard railroad and operated from 1942 to 2006.

history

In 1938 acquired Disney - Cartoons draftsman Ward Kimball, a lifelong railroad fan, a passenger car from the Carson and Colorado Railway , the 1881 from the Barney and Smith Car Company had been built. He originally wanted the car to house his model railroad collection from his home in San Gabriel , California, but his wife Betty suggested that he have a locomotive to pull the car as well. A suitable copy could be acquired by the Nevada Central Railroad for 400 dollars, which they sold for scrap price. It was an 1881 Baldwin Locomotive Works 2-6-0 steam locomotive . Originally named Sidney Dillon , it was renamed from Kimball to Emma Nevada , after the opera star of the late 1880s. Over the course of several years, Kimball, his family, and friends worked to get the Emma Nevada into working order. The railroad started operating in 1942.

In the years that followed, Kimball added a freight car, cattle car, caboose, and a second locomotive. The second locomotive was a 0-4-2T steam locomotive built in 1907 by Baldwin Locomotive Works and originally operated on the Wiamanalo sugar plantation in Hawaii . Kimball renamed the locomotive from Pokaa to Chloe after one of his daughters . Unlike the Emma Nevada , which was coal-fired to create steam, Chloe was heated with wood. Kimball manufactured an open car with 4 benches from around 1975 and two closed passenger cars built around 1993. Kimball gradually added several buildings to the GFRR, including a roundhouse, water tower, windmill, and depot building. The depot building was owned by Walt Disney, who originally used it as a set for the 1949 Disney film So Dear To My Heart . Kimball died in 2002, but his family continued to operate the GFRR until 2006.

Disneyland inspiration

Kimball shared his railroad hobby with Disney animator Ollie Johnston , who owned a garden railroad , and Walt Disney. On October 20, 1945, Disney took part in one of Kimball's “steam-ups,” which were parties on his property that put the train into operation. During the party, Disney got the chance to drive the Emma Nevada locomotive . This was the first time he had been in a train driver's cab since working on the Missouri Pacific Railway as a teenager. Disney eventually decided to build its own backyard railroad, which it named the Carolwood Pacific Railroad . His own garden railroad and Kimball's narrow-gauge railroad inspired him to build the Disneyland Railroad within the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. The Disneyland Railroad depot building in Frontierland was built using the same blueprints as the GFRR depot.

Rail vehicles

GFRR's Chloe locomotive at the Orange Empire Railroad Museum, 2009

In 1992, Kimball began donating the GFRR's rolling stock to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris , California. The last remaining wagons on the GFRR and the Chloe locomotive have been exhibited in the museum since 2007. The GFRR depot building and water tower were taken over by Pixar film director John Lasseter , who dismantled the buildings and rebuilt them on his private Justi Creek Railway .

Individual evidence

↑ Grizzly Flats (3-Foot Gauge) . Orange Empire Railway Museum. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
^ Cory Gross: The Madness of Ward Kimball . In: Network Awesome . April 9, 2011. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved on August 11, 2017.
^ Dana Amendola: All Aboard: The Wonderful World of Disney Trains , 1st edition, Disney Editions , 2015, ISBN 978-1-4231-1714-8 .
^ ^A ^b Michael Broggie: Walt Disney's Railroad Story: The Small-Scale Fascination That Led to a Full-Scale Kingdom , 4th. Edition, The Donning Company Publishers , 2014, ISBN 978-1-57864-914-3 .
↑ Kevin McFarland: Pixar's Best Director Is Also Its Most Underrated . In: Wired . June 23, 2015. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved on February 8, 017.

34.118714 -118.074664Coordinates: 34 ° 7 ′ 7.4 " N , 118 ° 4 ′ 28.8" W.

[OERM-1] Grizzly Flats (3-Foot Gauge) . Orange Empire Railway Museum. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017.

[2] Cory Gross: The Madness of Ward Kimball . In: Network Awesome . April 9, 2011. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved on August 11, 2017.

[3] Dana Amendola: All Aboard: The Wonderful World of Disney Trains , 1st edition, Disney Editions , 2015, ISBN 978-1-4231-1714-8 .

[Broggie-4] A ^b Michael Broggie: Walt Disney's Railroad Story: The Small-Scale Fascination That Led to a Full-Scale Kingdom , 4th. Edition, The Donning Company Publishers , 2014, ISBN 978-1-57864-914-3 .

[5] Kevin McFarland: Pixar's Best Director Is Also Its Most Underrated . In: Wired . June 23, 2015. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved on February 8, 017.