Carolwood Pacific Railroad
The original layout of Disney's backyard railroad. The "barn" is the small building at top left. Lillian Disney had the tracks removed several years after Walt's death and donated them to the Los Angeles Live Steamers, a group of steam train enthusiasts. The house, the footprint of which is shown here, was demolished in the late 1990s and replaced.
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| Reporting mark | CPRR |
|---|---|
| Locale | Los Angeles, California |
| Dates of operation | 1950–1953 |
| Track gauge | 7 1⁄4 in (184 mm) |
| Length | 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) |
| Headquarters | Holmby Hills, Los Angeles |
The Carolwood Pacific Railroad was a 7 1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge, live steam backyard railroad, built by the American animated film producer and animator Walt Disney (1901–1966) in the backyard (garden) of his home in Los Angeles.
Walt Disney's uncle, Michael Martin, had been a steam locomotive engineer. As a teenager in Missouri, Disney had a summer job selling newspapers, candy, fruit, and soda on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. Disney loved the uniform, the trains, the candy, and the chance to see the country.
It was Disney's lifelong fascination with the railroad that in 1950 led to the building of the Carolwood Pacific Railroad (and even before that, a huge Lionel layout in a room adjacent to his office at the Studio).
With his daughters and their friends happily in tow in his backyard, Disney would ride on his 1⁄2-mile (0.8-kilometer)-long, 1:8-scale miniature railroad. This inspired him to include a railroad as the backbone of his family-oriented Disneyland theme park, which opened in Anaheim, California in 1955.
Today, railroads and monorails are featured at many Walt Disney Company theme parks worldwide.
In 1949, Walt Disney moved his family to 355 N. Carolwood Drive, adjacent to the still city-owned bridle trail and stream, in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles. Inspired by his animators Ward Kimball and Ollie Johnston who had backyard railroads, Disney launched construction of a 1:8-scale live steam locomotive, rolling stock such as gondolas and a caboose, trackage, and a small storage barn modeled in miniature from one in Marceline, Missouri of his youth.
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