Posts Tagged ‘Fort Wilderness Railroad’

Maps! Fort Wilderness, 1978

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Oh, this is a good one:

Map of Fort Wilderness, 1978

For some time now, I’ve looked for a map that would illustrate the path of the now-legendary Fort Wilderness Railroad with any degree of detail. It’s a route that is poorly known today, having been abandoned long before the days of ubiquitous home videos, Flickr and YouTube. Thanks to our previous articles on the railroad, we receive a lot of traffic from people searching for a map of the route; apparently it’s something that a lot of people are curious about!

This is the wonderful Fort Wilderness of 1978. There’s River Country, shown in detail, as well as Discovery Island. Compare this map to Fort Wilderness in 1988; much less had changed in that decade than has changed since. But now the next time you head out to explore the wilds of Fort Wilderness, you can do a little Disney archaeology and trace the trail of the late, lamented Fort Wilderness Railroad.

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I’m So, So Sorry

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

There are a lot of things that I’m dying to write about, which only makes me more sad that I’ve spent the entire day in bed due to some insane illness and haven’t wanted to sit up, much less blog. I thought I’d take a break from my fever dreams to give you one, with some of my favorite (?) old-fashioned nightmare fuel from Disney’s past:

This clip, from 1978’s Christmas at Walt Disney World, shows that no matter how much we despair at Disney’s current state of affairs, it could be worse. Sure the specials they air today are full of fluff and nonsense, and are filmed and edited with the finesse of an MTV commercial on meth, but at least they don’t cause night terrors like this.

There’ really so much here to both confound and enrage (please enjoy the acting! of all the background players), but I’m too wiped out to know where to begin. Enjoy the footage of the Fort Wilderness Railroad, though…

And, as I say, please forgive me for inflicting this on you. It’s the fever, I swear.

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The Coolest Thing You’ll See Today

Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Fort Wilderness Railroad on trestleSeriously, how cool would this be?

Thanks to a tip by the paterfamilias, I was directed yesterday to a website devoted to the Fort Wilderness Railroad. This very cool site had somehow escaped my notice until now, and it has lots of fantastic images and history about this fairly undocumented attraction. The crown jewel of the site, however, is an amazing video from a ride on the railroad. I’ve never ever seen video of this attraction before – it closed in 1979, after all! – and this is an amazing and rare treat.

Fort Wilderness Railroad watering at the DepotThe Fort Wilderness Railroad, which operated from 1974 until 1979, provided internal transportation service for Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness campground. Its itinerary was similar to today’s bus service; it included stops at the Outpost and Settlement Depots and passed by the Meadow Trading Post. It also provided service to River Country upon that attraction’s opening in 1976. The 3 1/2 mile track loop was longer than any of the train routes in Disney parks, and it provided many scenic views for guests aboard the 4/5th scale steam engines.

I’ve always regarded the Fort Wilderness Railroad as a mere historical curiosity; it was gone well before my first trip to Walt Disney World and I’d never even heard of it until Disney fandom exploded on the internet. Looking at the pictures on the tribute site, however, really make me long for a return of this attraction. Fort Wilderness is the true hidden jewel of Walt Disney World, and the railroad would provide a definite touch of themeing that the internal bus routes lack. What’s odd is that much of the depot infrastructure was re-purposed after the railroad was closed, explaining many of the strange features of Fort Wilderness’s bus depots.

After the closing of the railroad, the tracks and rolling stock were allowed to rot in the Florida sun. Thankfully, those lucky folks at the Carolwood Foundation eventually stepped in to save and restore the trains. Faint traces of the railway remain around the campground for those who know where to look.

While it seems unlikely that the Fort Wilderness Railroad will ever return, there was a brief window in time during which it was poised for a revival. During the so-called “Disney Decade” of the 1990s, plans were underway for a new resort between the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness. Alternately called “Wilderness Junction” or “Buffalo Junction”, the hotel would be similar to Disneyland Paris’s Hotel Cheyenne. It would resemble the street of a western town in the late 19th century, providing a thematic link between the early frontier theme of Fort Wilderness and the early 20th century national park theme of the Wilderness Lodge. The hotel would combine lodging with dining venues, shops and entertainment; it would also allegedly feature a stateside version of Paris’s Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Wilderness Lodge layout renderingA proposed layout for the Wilderness Lodge hotel; note the train loop to the south linking the hotel with Fort Wilderness

Most important to our tale was that in order to provide day visitors transportation to these new attractions and River Country, a return of the Fort Wilderness Railroad was discussed to link Fort Wilderness, Wilderness Junction and the Wilderness Lodge. Sadly, due to tourism concerns stemming from the first Gulf War and accompanying recession, the 600-room Wilderness Junction was postponed in late 1992. It was re-announced as “Buffalo Junction” in 1993, but never heard from again.

Someday, though, with some creative new leadership, it might be possible to once more hear the sound of live steam in Fort Wilderness and to take the train from the parking lot to the Hoop-Dee-Doo or a revitalized River Country. That would be nifty.

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