Theme park trains

MilesWestern

Active Member
Ok, I just found out that the 3-foot gauge equipment at Knotts Berry farm is indeed ORIGINAL COLORADO NARROW GAUGE EQUIPMENT!!! :thumb:
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
While I think that it is great that the equpment has been salvaged/restored and operates on somewhat of a daily basis, at the same time it seems a real shame to sentence equipment like that to a dinky little circle of track outside of LA. Still, better than nothing I guess.
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
Well, once again, we did the Disneyland thing over Thanksgiving and I took a few more RR related pictures worthy of sharing.
First up, a fun little store but not much in the way of train stuff. I liked the play on words for the name though...
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Last trip, I took a picture of the front end of this train. This year, the back...
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Last time, the monorails were not running due to overhauls. This is the first I have seen of them since then...
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If you make a special request, they will allow you to sit in the cab with the engineer. This we did and made one complete circuit. Sure was a great view but too dark for any pictures to turn out except this one of the control panel...
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I asked the engineer if he'd take a picture of me sitting in his seat but he said he wasn't allowed. In Disneyland, there are only two stations so the monorail there is more of a ride than a people transporter. At the second station, I popped my head out the door and took this shot looking back down along the train...
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Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Are you still in So Cal or was this last pic posted after you got back to Az.? If you are still in So Cal on the weekend, the Orange Empire Railroad Museum is a fun place to visit. They have an interesting collection of old trains and trolleys with a passenger train running about 3 miles down toward Perris and back. There is also a caboose train running that consists of an sw7, I think, pulling 3 cabooses. You can climb up and ride in the cupola which is a fun view that we don't often get of trains. There is also a loop of track where they run a couple of street cars on weekends.
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
Yehhh, we're back home already. We did visit the Orange Empire Railway museum in November of 2004 though for a day out with Thomas. We got to do all of the things you mentioned and had a blast. Hard to believe that was 4 years ago already.
 
N

nachoman

Don't forget about the local park trains - gee do they still even exist?

There are the McCormick-Stillman park trains, the Goldfield Supersition railroad, the old tucson train...

And of course the old legend city train I hear was quite popular a few decades ago:
http://www.legend-city.com/
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Glad to see the Monorails at Disney Land are back up and running, havnt been there since they were down for the New Finding Nemo Ride lol
 

nkp174

Active Member
It's sort of listed on here...but I'll try to summarize the REAL Colorado ng equipment at Knotts.

They have two C-19s...RGS 41 and D&RGW 340. They originally purchased a 2-8-2 as well...K-27 2-8-2 #464. The 464 was too big for their line, so they sold it and she now operates on the Huckleberry RR near Flint, Mi.

The galloping goose, #3, is one of three that were rebuilt with Waynes Bus bodies and immortalized by Precision Craft Models. They typically run it during the week and during the offseason...2-8-0s during weekends. They have replaced the engine in it twice, IIRC, with one of the replacements going to Colorado to help a sister run (only the Telluride Goose isn't operational).

The centerpiece of the collection is the Edna...the last Rio Grande Southern business car. (the Rico at Golden was in MOW service)

I can't recall exactly, but IIRC, they have 1 RGS coach and 1 RGS caboose...and then several D&RGW coaches and freight cars. Unlike the Durango & Silverton, all of the Knotts cars are authentic (some of the D&S cars are replicas...some with steel sides milled to look authentic).

IMO, they have taste in how to paint their equipment, as they have recently repainted it to the correct paint schemes...including a green boiler on 340.
 
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