Two Crossings: Walt Disney and the C&Sng, part 2

The second connection between Walt Disney and the C&S narrow gauge is less direct. Disneyland’s dramatic success after its opening in 1955 spawned numerous copycat parks across the country. One such park was Magic Mountain constructed in Golden, Colorado. It too was designed as a mock-up town with a narrow gauge railroad ride. The owners sought out equipment from Bob Richardson whose Narrow Gauge Museum had recently relocated from Alamosa to Golden and been rechristened the Colorado Railroad Museum. Richardson, and his new partner Cornelius Hauck, were in need of funds to construct their new property and so decided to sell several pieces of narrow gauge equipment to the park in 1959, including C&S refrigerator car 1116 and boxcar 8308, along with a Rio Grande gondola, Rio Grande Southern caboose, and RGS engine 42. Both C&S cars had gone to the RGS in 1937. Bob had acquired them for his museum upon the abandonment of that railroad.

The Magic Mountain train, 1959 Otto Perry photo, Denver Public Library Special Collections OP-12571

The Magic Mountain story is a sad one. First the park tore the two C&S cars down to the frames and constructed open-air rider tops on them. Next, the park declared bankruptcy less than a year after its opening. The cars were then moved around with the rest of the train for display at various spots in Colorado and finally returned to the park, now reopened as a largely shopping-focused attraction called Heritage Square, and used for stationary food-service (first, one could eat inside the cars, and later they were converted to walk-up food stands). 

1116 or 8303 as a foodstand being moved to the Loop
Stephen Peck photo

In the early 1990s, the Ashbys of the Georgetown Loop, a reconstructed C&S engineering marvel, purchased both cars in order to return them to rail service on the tourist line. Loop crews completed 1116’s restoration, but not 8308’s. Following a change of operator on the line in 2004 the two spent time at the Colorado Railroad Museum (returning to CRM after nearly a half century of absence), but 1116 later returned to the Loop and is today the only piece of Colorado & Southern narrow gauge equipment in regular revenue service.

C&S refrigerator car 1116 on the Georgetown Loop today

C&S 8308 remains at CRM as a flatcar with the body of C&S boxcar 8310 sitting on top of it.

8308 at CRM today with the body of 8310 on top

The worth of this second Disney-C&S connection is bit debatable. C&S 1116 and 8308 were both already saved by Richardson and their time at Magic Mountain destroyed most of the cars’ bodies. Had they stayed at CRM they would have remained historically sound. It is what is, but we at least have the pleasure today of being able to ride on one C&S car at the Loop. 

On the other hand, it is fun to note that Walt Disney can tip his hat, at least partially (ok, very very partially), to the C&S narrow gauge-as presented at the Chicago RR Fair-for inspiration for his wildly successful railroad-connected park design. Dreams have to start somewhere, and engine 9 and cars 13, 76, and 911 can say they had a small hand in inspiring a Magic Kingdom.

C&S No. 9 on display today in Breckenridge

Two Crossings: Walt Disney and the C&S narrow gauge, part 1

Walt Disney and the Colorado & Southern narrow gauge. Not a combination one would expect. However, they crossed paths at least twice, once quite directly.

1948 proved a pivotal year when Walt Disney’s dream of a what would later become Disneyland took flight after a visit to a fair. That year marked the beginning of the Chicago Railroad Fair and, Disney, already a railfan, rode the California Limited along with his fellow railbuff Ward Kimball to the Windy City. At some point in Arizona Disney had a chance to blow the whistle on the train’s engine. Kimball remarked that “I had never, ever seen him so happy.”

When the duo arrived in Chicago, Disney had already been considering the creation of what he called “Mickey Mouse Park” with rides for children. What he found at the Rail Fair caused him to completely re-envision the concept of an amusement park. The Fair’s grounds were set up similar to the 1893 World Columbian Exposition with its various “villages.” The Rail Fair’s version consisted of locations including a beach, a French quarter, a dude ranch, and a pueblo village. According to Train by Tom Zoellner, “The connecting thread between all these villages was…an old timey railroad: the Deadwood Central, a tribute to the western mining roads of the 1870s, which ran on narrow gauge and cost a dime to ride.”

And what equipment did this old-timey train consist of? None other than C&S 2-6-0 No. 9, mail car No. 13, coach 76, business car 911, and a string of Rio Grande gondolas converted to open-air rider cars all dressed up in fantastical old-west garb. The C&S equipment, minus 911, had been preserved previously for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York where the 3-piece set had been on static display. After that fair, the train sat in the CB&Q’s Aurora, IL shops awaiting an unknown future. No. 9, revived to active life again, likely since pulling the last C&S passenger train from Leadville to Denver in 1937, was now pulling trainloads of Rail Fair visitors back and forth between two stations named Deadwood and Central City. These passengers could then visit each of the far-flung lands.

Guidebook for the Chicago Railroad Fair. C&S No. 9 in front of C&S mail car No. 13

Disney liked the design so much that Ward Kimball said Walt talked of “little else” on the return train trip to California. Disneyland later took shape as four village-style lands, Adventureland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, and Fantasyland, all linked together by an old-time narrow gauge train that author Tom Zoellner points out “look[ed] eerily similar to the Chicago Railroad Fair.” 

1955 Disneyland map

Disneyland Railroad 1955 - B. Don Erb photo

Two side notes are worth mentioning: First, Disney told Kimball that he planned to run his proposed railroad for fun for himself on days when the park was not open. Secondly, another individual was inspired by the little C&S train at the Fair: a teenaged Lindsey Ashby. The train bug caught him there and he would later, along with wife Rosa, pioneer a tourist train out of Central City, CO and later the Georgetown Loop.

In an upcoming post, I will show another connection between Walt Disney and the C&Sng. It may be less direct, but it still had an effect on the future of two important surviving C&S cars.

How it all started for me and the C&S

 I grew up in a family that loved garage sale-ing.  One such sale that we frequented was held at my grade school and church, St. Mark Lutheran.  Little did I know that a little find laying on a folding table in that old gym would fuel a passion that has lasted for nearly 40 years.  

On that table was a stack of old railroad magazines ranging from Trains to Model Railroader, but the curious one was the February 1985 edition of the NMRA Bulletin.  In it I was completely absorbed in the story of a group of people who visited a long-abandoned railroad tunnel high in the Rockies.  Not only was this tunnel still there, but the tracks were still nailed to the ties!  The photo of the inside of that tunnel was like a dream world to this young 12 year old.  

From there I scoured the library for books about it and devoured Dow Helmers' Historic Alpine Tunnel and then DSP&P by M.C. Poor (The story of how Poor stumbled on the C&S in included in my new book Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival).  Of course, then came the clincher: my parents' decision to take a trip to Colorado where we saw the real thing-the mighty Alpine Tunnel!  

As they say, the rest is history. 

I thought some of you might enjoy seeing and reading that old article.  Here it is below:

Frozen toes and mangers - Merry Christmas 2025

 

Girl on tracks near St. Elmo

I love to imagine what it would have been like to live in the time when the C&S narrow gauge was alive and kicking, especially the winter time.  

For me, it's fun to imagine living out stories like those of Charlotte Marrifield, who lived in St. Elmo.  "We very often skied down the hill to go to school.  We had to jump the railroad tracks and we would land in very deep snow.  The trainmen shoveled off the tracks in to twelve or fifteen foot piles on either side of the rails.  One morning my younger brother, when making the jump, landed on the other side of the tracks, upside down buried in the snow.  All I could see were his skis sticking up out of the snow!"

Other times, though, I think of the terrible challenge of running trains in that awful weather.  

Charles C. Squires remembers, "One bitter cold morning with the thermometer indicating 38 degrees

bucking snow above Tunnel Gulch

below zero, we were called to leave Gunnison at 3am.....At Woodstock Tank [,While working on a problem on the last car, my partner] sat down on the edge of the car with his feet hanging over the side of the car.  I told him had had better get up and keep moving about to keep the blood in circulation....After we had set out our train at Hancock and returned to Alpine Tunnel, we all went into the depot for orders and were hovering around the stove when my partner discovered that his feet were frosted and pained him so much that he cried like a baby....We were on the road 82 hours continuous time."

Then I think...nope!, I like learning about life back then from afar!  I'll pass on the frozen toes and long work hours!  

One thing I love about the story of Christmas is that God didn't just look at human life from afar, observing the joys and painful aspects like me looking at my train books.  Instead He incarnated Himself inside human life, even in the most humiliating start as a weak, helpless baby.  

I like how the New Testament book of Hebrews puts it: 

Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.

It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed. (Hebrews 2:14-18)

Merry Christmas.

-Kurt

Sources:

Memories of St. Elmo by Charlotte Merrifield with Suzy Kelly

Historic Alpine Tunnel by Dow Helmers

C&Sng Revival review in The Bogies & the Loop

 The Bogies and the Loop, magazine of the Denver South Park & Pacific Railroad Society, wrote a review of my recent book, Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival.

Breckenridge Blue River Bridge restored!

Here are photos of the rebuilt Colorado and Southern Railway bridge over the Blue River in Breckenridge. Photos courtesy of Gary H. Roberts.

C&Sng Revival Book Trailer 3

 Here's another sneak peek at my book Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival, this time with a look at C&S engine No. 74.

Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival is now available to order at

South Platte Press 

Rons Books 

South Park Line Book 

N Scale Supply