Steam Engines Tour

[snyderla]

DH and I are planning to do 2 tours on our next trip. It's my 9th trip, never been on a tour. We will be there April 3-10th, so as part of an attempt to avoid crowds we are going to try them. Something different to do this time, since our "main reason" for going is to see DS perform at EPCOT with his HS choir. We want to do the Backstage Magic Tour and DH wants to do the Magic Behind Our Steam Engines tour. Has anyone done that one, and can you tell us about it? We checked out the tours section here at the DIS, but would like a little more info, too.

Thanks
Lori

 

[disrailfan]

Snyderla:

The magic behind the steam trains tour was awesome. I actually did that tour on my own last December (2002). I showed up early to the Magic Kingdom (7:30) adn they (John the Engineer) came out and gave us all name tags and checked us in. (park Admission is required for the day as you are in the park when it opens)

They take you into the Main Street Station and he explains many of the artifacts that are hanging on the walls in the train station and explained how the buildings compare in size and to their counterparts in DL.

Once that is completed a train comes around to the station and picks everyone up. They take volunteers to do seom special things like flip the toggle switch in the back of the back car to notify the Engineer that all are aboard. They then take a very slow ride around through all of the park until you reach the switch just before Toontown. They clear that switch and the conductor selects another volunteer to actually throw the switch. This was the volunteer opportunity I took. They then back slowly up to the shops in the backstage area of the Magic kingdom.

Back there they show the place in which they keep all four locamotives and the cars. you also get a good close look at a set of monorail tracks that come overhead that lead into the repair and mainetnance shops for the monorail in the backstage area.

They are very anxious to answr any questions that you may ask and when I did it they have the Lilly Belle out cold and we could climb allo ver it to take pictures of the locamotive.

they then load everyone back on the train and you get to be a part of the opening ceremony when they bvring characters from toon town to the Main street station for the park openeing. (Well at least we did that day)

I will tell you they tell you that there are no cameras along but they did allow us cameraqs and to take as many pictures as we wanted.

Enjoy the tour as I enjoyed it and would recommend it for anyone that is even a little bit interested in trains. I am sure that there have been some enhancements to the tour as they always make changes to them especially considering this was a recently new one.

Hope this helps!!!

 

[JoeMikeB]

I took the Magic of the Steam Trains tour in September and thoroughly enjoyed it, but then I am a railfan. It was interesting that on our tour there was a train operator from Busch Gardens, an engineer on Union Pacific, and a brakeman from Burlington Northern Santa Fe. The first question asked or our tour guide, a former NYPD officer, "What did it take to get your job?"

The tour has already been described by Disrailfan and there is little I can add to that except after the tour proper, our guide spent nearly an hour and a half at the Main Street Station telling us the entire story of Walt's passion for trains, and the detailed history of each of the locomotives, where and how they were found and chosen, transported from Central America, rebuilt into what you see today, how each was named and when they were placed into service.

 

[snyderla]

Thank you both so much! DH had a birthday on 12/24 and that was part of my gift to him, but he wanted to know a little more and this will really help!

 

[elgerber]

My dh and ds (10) just did this on December 9th. They both really enjoyed it. Definitely take your camera, my dh got a priceless photo of my son leaning out the window of the cab of the Roy Disney engine. Very cool. They also give you a very nice pin when you finish, very limited, you can only get it when you take the tour. My son got to throw the switch to get the engine into the roundhouse. He was in heaven.

Erika