This Is The Coolest Thing

[Memph1s]

Am I seeing this correctly? The car has it's own site? Wow...if I wasn't stuck at home with two sick boys, I know where I would be going right now...to see a piece of history....

It looks like there is a tent at the very back of the site. I am very tempted to make the 3 1/2 hour round trip to check this out myself.

Hope your guys feel better soon.

 

[Shan-man]

If I was that close, there'd be no stopping me! Heck, I used to drive nearly that far for a Chic-fil-a fix when I lived in Kansas City and the nearest one was Wichita!

 

[FlaFortCampster]

Here's the scoop folks and this comes from someone who is writing a book on Walt Disney World railroads, including a chapter on the Fort Wilderness Line, so his sources are very good.

"This is indeed one of the Brevard Zoo cars. He was able to work a deal with them about a year ago. The good deal is that he was able to get the lead car with the alternator system. The car is even complete with wheelsets! He could place it on tracks today. He did the refurb and did a great job! " From D. Leaphart

WOW! I hope this is still there in a few days. I SO want to see this. I'd like to peresonally thank the gentleman for saving some of the Fort's history. I wonder what the Fort higherups thought?????

 

[gillenkl]

amazing! thanks for posting!

 

[railmail]

Too bad that I don't get to see this kind of railcars when I'm at work on the railroad. He has done a wonderful job on this beauty.

 

[PrincessNP]

I think he is doing the best thing.....keeping the railcar intact and touring it around to people who can really appreciate it! What an amazing piece of history.

Tell us about this person who is doing the book on railroad cars. Do you know the name of the book?

Tell the railcar man that he should bring it back in Decemeber and decorate for Christmas. All of us DISers would love to see that!

 

[SandrA9810]

Well now I know what I'm going to do after I drop Kari off at work. maybe he'll be at his site.

 

[Shan-man]

Tell us about this person who is doing the book on railroad cars. Do you know the name of the book?

The fellow writing the book is David Leaphart (that is his quote above). FlaFortCampster knows more so I will let her add more detail.

 

[daddyphat808]

That is so cool! Props to him!

 

[DisCamper]

Yes the car has its own site they are staying in the site next to it. I will post more pics later

 

[daddyphat808]

I hope they gave him the site! Displaying a true piece of Fort History! If not that is even more generous of them to send the time and the money to purchase and restore the train car. But to also display it for all to see!

 

[FlaFortCampster]

The guy writing the book on Walt Disney Railroads my be found here, his website.

Please see www.steelwheelonsteelrail.com for updates on my new book, Walt Disney World Railroads...

As Shanman said, his name is David Leaphart. He has posted on this forum recently asking for input from anyone who had pictures, stories or information on the Fort Wilderness Line. He is the one, through one of his Fort sources, that found out about the Fort Wilderness car.

This car is truly a treasure for all to see, as the other surviving cars and especially the engines are under legal restrictions. What the restrictions are, who knows. But I'm afraid part of the deal was that they would never be put on public display again. The engines are all in very good hands as are some of the cars. One of the cars is over at Typhoon Lagoon and is a shell of it's former self. And some of the cars ended up in the trash heap.

I truly hope this guy is still there later this week so I can see it in person. Don't you know that Walt, who loved trains, is smiling down on this saved piece of Fort history.

 

[SandrA9810]

Well I got a bit of the scoop today.
He purchased the car four years ago from Brevard Zoo. It is the front car, and you can tell because it's the one that creates the power for the rest of the cars. Disney sold one of the trains to the Brevard Zoo after sitting for 20 years in the disney graveyard. About 5 years or so later the Zoo sold them for purchasing computers or something (they left them sitting as well and never went through with the plans). Most of the original paint was still on it, so you definatly knew it was the Fort train. Of course after all this sitting in graveyards, it was rusted out. He purchased it for about 3,000$ and took a whole summer to refurb it. For each time to have a crane pick up the car and place it on the trailer was about 200$, so he decided to build a trailer with railroad ties, so if it's ever taken off it could be placed on a track.
He also has a display set up of some pictures from Disney in 71, as well as a paper from Orlando Sentinal about WDW. And the paper about the Zoo getting the cars.

He has spoken to Disney about giving them the car back, placing it at the Settlement, where the RV trailer used to be. He even said he'd work on the weekends to tell the story of the Fort Train and how he ended up with that one. He doesn't live far, just over in melbourne, and this is the first time he's brought the train to Disney. He does pull it in the Melbourne Christmas Parade. No Disney did not allow him to have a site for free. He's had several Fort Cast Members ask if he'd come back for christmas with it decorated. But they won't give him a site for free.

He checks out Tuesday Morning, so if you wnt to chat with him you better go tomorrow. It has been quite the spectical, even bus drivers have stopped to snap a picture of it. He said yesterday he had some guy try to buy the car from him for quite a bit of money, but he's not interested in selling it, he'd rather have it someplace that can appreciate the history of it.

That's my scoop...

 

[DisCamper]

 

[daddyphat808]

That is so cool and thanks for the back story! The fact that he did so much work makes it even more special!

 

[ntsammy5]

I never saw the train operating - this is a a real treat. I wish Disney would do something to encourage him to stay a while and let more people enjoy it. If he's on the DIS, I'd like to invite him to come to the GG in late October. I'd LOVE to see this.

 

[ynottony99]

Thanks for the detective work. Great job.

 

[bama_ed]

I hope that the WDW management is smart enough to take him up on his offer and work out some kind of deal to bring the FWRR car back to the Fort. The spot up there near the petting zoo and Pioneer Hall where the RV used to be would be a perfect spot for it.

Management may want to squash the idea since the train's operation and subsequent removal could be seen as a "failure" (which it was in a sense) that they don't want to be reminded of. But hopefully enough time has passed that the sense of nostalgia will more than counterbalance the sense of failure.

And, since they've put a railroad theme on the revamped main pool (although the design on the water tank slide is beautiful but not authentic) then they could continue to strengthen the railroad theme by having this car and a nice picture display about the FWRR for all to see.

Now if we could just find somebody to buy River Country, fix it up, then sell it back to Disney, we'd be set....

Bama ED

 

[SandrA9810]

No, He's not on the Disboards. But he did say he heard that pics got out on the internet. I told him that's how I found out about it and would be reporting back to the net. Maybe he'll do a little research on the net and find us. I would so totally let him park that thing at my site.

 

[DisCamper]

I talked to train guy today he was so happy I started this post. He said he had more people travel here because they saw it. He tried to work a deal with Disney for Christmas he would bring the train in and display it at Pioneer Hall; could Disney comp him a site while the train was here. Disney said NO.