Day 10 - Thursday the 12th - Part 1 - Steam Train Tour
Another big day ahead! Buddy has been a train fan since he was a toddler, loving all things trains! I remember hearing about "
Disney's The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour" when he was little and always wanted to take him on it, but it had a minimum age of 10. He was 11 now, so this was a long time coming!
We checked with everyone else in the group a couple months earlier to see if anyone wanted to join us. My dad and Uncle Steve expressed interest, so we turned out to have a group of 4 guys on the tour.
The tour went from 7:30 to 10:30am, so we got up early and headed out before everyone else... and we planned to meet up with them later in the day. So, the next part of the TR is from the perspective of Buddy and me, and then Stephanie will follow up with a few posts about their morning.
The tour was supposed to start at 7:30am sharp and they don't wait for anyone who is running late, so they encouraged us to arrive at the gates between 7 and 7:15am. Our plan was to hop on the monorail around 6:50am or so. That's an early start. Good thing we didn't stay out too late last night!
We arrived at about 7:05am and we were the first group to arrive for the tour. So we hung out for a few minutes.
And then after a few others showed up, our tour guide, Leanna, started passing out name tags and headsets.
The headsets used some sort of wireless technology to pick up Leanna's microphone. Which was nice because it made it easy to hear her when there was a lot of ambient noise from the park and or trains.
We started off by heading inside towards the Main Street train station. When we first entered the park, she insisted that we not use cameras or video because there were maintenance workers and vehicles scattered about. And it's policy to not let people take photos of the park in this state. We probably spent about 45 minutes in the train station. She walked us through and explained the history of trains in WDW and how they acquired each of the steam locomotives, how they got their names, when they were put into service, etc. A lot of the posters, photos, and memorabilia scattered around the station was used to support the stories. Pretty interesting stuff!
After we had been in the park for for a few minutes, the maintenance workers had all left and we were able to take photos. Wow, this is even more empty than when we came before the rope drop on Monday!
Before the opening ceremony, we all walked out into the main circle to see the train pull up from inside the park. We could hear the music and stuff, it was pretty exciting. And a first for me, to see the opening fireworks from inside the park!
And a couple minutes later, the guests swarmed in. I'm sure they were headed for Anna and Else and/or 7DMT.
And a few minutes after that... It was time to head up to the train platform.
We headed to the last passenger car.
Are we having fun yet? You betcha!!!
Interestingly, the first train of the day is not for general passengers. I knew the train always pulled in with the characters all riding on it and waving to the guests as it pulls into the station for the daily opening ceremony. But I didn't notice that the cars that the characters ride on don't have any rails on the left side of the train. This is so they can stand on the edge and wave at the guests as they arrive without being partially hidden. But this isn't safe for kids and stuff, so this first train makes its way back to the roundhouse without any passengers.
So, with that being said, the train chugged along and took us to the back of the park so that the locomotive could swap its passenger cars. She told a lot of stories, such as the fact that Pirates of the Caribbean was added the park after the train track was already in place. Most of the Pirates ride is actually outside of the train track's circle, and the point when you go down the drop on the ride, you are actually going below the tracks. And then... a little ways before the Storybook Circus Train Station, there is a track switch. The train passes it going forward, and then backs up on the line.
Interestingly, they made us put our cameras away as we made our way backwards through this junction line to the roundhouse. After we arrived at the roundhouse, we were OK to take photos again.
We were on the Roger E Brogie. It dropped us off, and then pushed its cars back into the roundhouse. (Funny, this roundhouse isn't round.)
They decoupled it from the train cars, and then it moved forward to switch tracks and then pick up a normal set of passenger cars.
Interestingly, they said that the locomotives don't have brakes of their own. (They rely on the brakes of the cars that they pull.) So, there is an art to moving backwards at just the right speed to stop in time for the cars.
Next we focused our attention on the Walter E Disney.
We learned about the various preparations required to get the trains ready each morning, and watched them start the fire in the engine. Pretty darn cool!
After that, Leanna took groups of four of a time to go up and see inside the locomotive more closely.
I knew that we'd be up very close to everything inside the locomotive, and that it would be hard to capture everything up so close, so I put the fisheye lens on my camera. I goofed around with it for a few minutes before it was our turn.
It's fun how the lens makes straight lines curvy. You wouldn't know it, but I'm only a foot or two away from my dad in this next photo. (Look at the shadows.)
Oh, and the other thing worth mentioning is that the trains lived on the ground floor of the roundhouse, but the monorails are kept directly above them. We didn't see any monorails back here, but it was pretty cool to see all the monorail lines and switches above us!
Next it was our turn!
We got to see how the various controls worked up close. Too cool!
Soon after that, the train was ready to go, and it was time to head back into the park and pick up our first passengers. We got to see the train blow off it's extra steam before we got on the main line. Seeing the shadow of the steam across the ground was pretty darn cool!!!
We made our first stop at the Storybook Circus train station and a bunch of guests boarded the train with us. They also refilled the train with water and then we made our way back to the Main Street train station. From there, we headed down for refreshments and bathroom breaks down by the City Hall.
Minnie and Pluto waived as they passed by.
Finally, we headed back up to the second floor of the train station for a final presentation on the history of Walt Disneys lifelong passion for steam trains and how he decided to make them an integral part of
Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. Pretty cool stuff!
All in all, the tour was really awesome and I'm glad we went on it. Everything was great. Leanna, was nice and did a good job, but she wasn't really a train enthusiast and wasn't able to answer a lot of the questions. But at least she didn't pretend when she didn't know, which is appreciated. If you are even slightly interested in steam trains, I would encourage you to take this tour!
After the tour, Buddy and I parted ways with my dad and Steve. We had a date with Space Mountain coming up soon!
The meal at Ohana looks awesome! It looks like you all very much enjoyed your family time. 
I think I've changed my dining reservations at least 50 times! It's going to just be my husband & I, for 12 nights, and therefore, we can do whatever we want. No one else to please. Every time I read a food report, I change my mind again, LOL. 
It's the
