That time Disney let people cross the railroad tracks

I was recently listening to Rocco and Kevin (from Mega64)'s wonderful podcast "Creepy Old Crypt" and got to thinking about the time when Disney announced the pending addition of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. The particular episode I was listening to touched on the Disneyland Trains, and I was reminded of that time when Disneyland management decided to build a bridge across the tracks during the period when Galaxy's Edge construction necessitated the year-long closure of the Disneyland Railroad.

Having always been a pretty big Star Wars fan, I was pretty excited at the prospect of Disneyland not only receiving a new land but one themed to a film series that kept me in awe as a kid. Understandably this decision was controversial to many Disneyland (and Star Wars) fans, and I'd be lying if I said that a land themed solely to Star Wars was a good fit for Walt's original park. That said, the idea of Disneyland opening the single-largest expansion I've seen in my lifetime was something that got me excited about the future of the park. In 2016 I was fresh out of high school and just barely starting college, and that was incidentally when I started to pick up graphic design as a hobby. To a more limited extent, you could also say I picked up a very amateur interest in cartography and it's no surprise that I started to put my new interests to use in making a handful of conceptual site maps of where I thought this new Star Wars land would go.

Despite my best efforts, I can't find any of those blue-sky maps. Though, in all fairness they were little more than a handful of google maps screenshots with outlines drawn over where I thought the new land might go. I remember being in the park the day that the river, trains, Big Thunder Ranch, and a handful of other affected attractions were being closed, though instead of taking one final ride on the unaltered Mark Twain route or lap around the park on the train, I chose to go view the final showing of Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular (a show which I'm sure I'll write about someday). In my mind I just assumed that these attractions (minus the Ranch and BBQ restaurant) would reopen with maybe a few enhancements, but little else significantly changed.

The initial excitement I had took a hit when it was announced that the Rivers of America, trains, and Fantasmic would be closing for more than a year to facilitate the construction of the new land. In all of my assumptions, I had just come to the conclusion that Disney would simply find a way to build around the river, but the thought never occurred to me that they would actually dare cut into something that had been around since 1955. Obviously, I was more than a little optimistic at the time, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?

To cut to the chase, the next year or so was spent with me keeping a close eye on every single construction update page that I could, in hopes that things wouldn't be changed too much. With each week that went by, I watched as the true scope of Galaxy's Edge's construction was made clear. Not only was the river being cut into, but so was the rockwork outside of Big Thunder Ranch, which was an old abandoned remnant of the old Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland ride. In addition, the long-abandoned Fantasyland Skyway station was also a casualty of Galaxy's Edge, though perhaps that was more due to structural problems and the cost of maintaining a building that saw little to no use outside of serving as a home for Disneyland's famous feral cats.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a bummer to see a part of Disneyland that I always liked for having so many weird and random remnants of past attractions basically get bulldozed for a new land, but in the end I think that it was for the best, especially considering the rare opportunities that this construction afforded. One of the best opportunities was the chance to just hang out on the Mark Twain (and occasionally the Sailing Ship Columbia when it was moved out of drydock). Even better was when Disneyland's management made the decision to retain their train engineers and use them as an educational resource on how the Disneyland trains (and steam locomotives in general) worked.

I remember being blown away when I was able to actually cross the railroad tracks for the first time because a part of me felt like I was sneaking over to an area where I wasn't allowed to be. Having grown up with parents who worked at Disneyland, I was always very interested in hearing about secrets and facts that "broke" the magic, but to me, that was the magic. In this particular case, I was excited to see Frontierland's original train station, which had simply been moved to the other side of the railroad tracks when New Orleans Square was added to the park in the 1960s. It should also be noted that an adjacent building next to this old railroad station ALSO served as a set for a staged period photo that appeared in Epcot Center's "American Adventure" during the "Two Brothers" musical montage. (this scene is also present in Disneyland's "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln).

As it appeared in Epcot's "The American Adventure"

And the 2009 Iteration of Disneyland's "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln"

I could absolutely write several posts about both of these attractions (and perhaps the Hall of Presidents) so stay tuned for that, I suppose!

(This picture from Daveland shows the station in its original location.)

It's funny how something as simple as being allowed to view an old repurposed train station completely wiped away any of the worries I had. I guess in my mind at the time, touching a "historical" theme park building superseded losing some old concrete rocks in Frontierland.

For some reason or another, I only ever had one day to go look at this station, but that's all the time I really needed. I was fortunate enough to have acquired a DSLR fairly recently at the time, and what was a better subject to capture than something I had a vested interest in? I didn't know what I'd ever use those pictures for, but hey, nearly seven years later they make for a good blog post writeup.

Something I wish I had captured in closer detail was the delightful model train boiler that they had set up. I was more interested in getting a picture of the telegraph office sign and window, but it's thankfully still visible toward the end of the platform.

Thankfully though, I did take the time to chat with the train engineer that was stationed there that day, and he was more than happy to share some fascinating knowledge about the Disneyland Railroad with me. To this day, I still lament not capturing that on video, because that would have been even cooler to relive. Thankfully others did capture video of this experience, and I encourage you to go view the few that I found. just to see a cool visual recording of what this kind of experience was like. (On the day I went, I didn't realize the caboose was open, and that's yet another thing I have a sort of envy for now).

I don't have much more to share, but I did capture some miscellaneous pictures of some of the props that were visible on the other side of the tracks.

Eventually, when the trains and Rivers of America did reopen, we were graced with a beautifully crafted environment that you can tell had a lot of love and care put into it. It's hard to say whether Galaxy's Edge is ever going to be a good fit for Disneyland, but in the end, I can appreciate that its construction led to this area of the park being given a lot of love.

Here's a handful of photos I took of construction from around the Big Thunder Mountain area:

To close this blog post off, here are a handful of pictures I took of Disneyland's Rivers of America during the final months of it's original operation, before it was shortened for Galaxy's Edge.