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The Disneyland railroad has
existed since the inception of the Park, and through the years, countless items
have been produced for and about the railroad. Starting with this article, I'm
hoping present an on-going intermittent series on Disneyland Railroad
collectibles. There really are a lot of items out there produced with a
Disneyland Railroad connection, and new ones that I've never seen or even heard
about seem to show up nearly every day on Ebay.
Disneyland Railroad collectibles run the gamut from common
postcards issued by the park throughout the years that can be had for pennies,
to one-of-a-kind items created by Disneyland
artisans that, when found, can cost thousands of dollars. Of course, there are
lots of items, at various price points, in between!
In this series, I'd like to not only explore the common park
souvenirs that anyone can buy such as pins or postcards, but I'd also like to
take a closer look at some of the more unique pieces--items of costuming, for
instance, and even objects from the trains themselves that have managed to make
their way into the collector market. In discussing the various items, I hope to
put some context around them, so that the true depth and complexity of the
history of this iconic Disneyland attraction
can be more fully appreciated. I will be looking at
items from my own collection, and perhaps others' as
well, so if you have a neat piece that you'd like to share with others, please
let me know! Through this process, perhaps we can all learn a little more about
the Disneyland Railroad, and perhaps even get more enjoyment out of it when we
visit the park.
So, in keeping with the sentiment of the above paragraph,
I'd like to present three somewhat interesting photographs that I recently
picked up off ebay. But first, let's look not at the
photos themselves--but at the back of one of them!
What makes these photographs somewhat special is who
commissioned and owned them. As you can see above, R. Collins Bradley, an official
company photographer for the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe Railway, took the photo on the other side of the sheet above on behalf
of the Santa Fe.
Now, as most of us know, the Santa Fe Railway was a sponsor of this attraction
from 1955 through 1974. The Santa Fe
was the only railroad that responded to Walt's request for sponsorship, and
Walt was no doubt very pleased by this. Walt Disney's connections with the Santa Fe ran deep: his
uncle, Mike Martin, was an engineer on the Santa Fe, and the railroad itself had rails
running through Disney's childhood hometown of Marceline, Missouri.
Walt and Ward Kimball were also guests of the Santa Fe when the two traveled back to Illinois for the 1948
Chicago Rail Fair. That a railroad Walt had such a connection with decided to
sponsor the Disneyland trains was a certainly
a happy coincidence. So, when Disneyland
debuted in 1955, the trains ran under the banner of the "Santa Fe & Disneyland
Railroad."
In 1974, Disney tried leveraging more sponsorship fees from the Santa Fe. The Santa Fe
waffled, since it had ceded passenger train operations to Amtrak in 1971, and
felt that it didn't need to reach the general public in such a pricey manner
any more. Disney decided to play hardball, and threatened to charge the Santa Fe to remove all
vestiges of the railroad's heralds and lettering throughout the SF&D
system! Needless to say, the sponsorship was not renewed, and the trains have
not been sponsored by any other railroad, running today simply as the Disneyland
Railroad.
In happier times, however, under the sponsorship agreement, the Santa Fe
pretty much had free reign to use the Disneyland
trains for its own marketing purposes. They issued special tickets to
Disneyland that were handed out to children on its name
trains like the Super Chief, and ran ads in national magazines suggesting that
a good way to get to Disneyland was to take
one of their trains. As we can see above, the Santa Fe was also allowed to
photograph the Disneyland trains for its own files.
Now, what does the front of this photo look like? Here it is:
Obviously, this is a rather unique shot of Engine No. 1, the
C.K. Holliday. It was taken backstage, apparently before such images
became verboten, and it depicts the Holliday steaming out of Disneyland's
first "roundhouse." Under close examination, it appears the fireman may be
Harley Ilgen, the line's first Chief Engineer.
Behind the engine, we can see the last two cars of Disneyland's
original passenger train, known as "Retlaw 1." The car directly behind the
engine is car 106, the Grand Canyon,
but most folks today would know it as the Lilly Belle. As the caption on
the reverse mentions Disneyland being a "new"
playground, we might logically assume this photo was taken in 1955 or 1956.
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