Trip Report “Parents please supervise your children, and children please supervise your parents” 2018 Graduation Trip Report! *COMPLETE*

Well, it’s been three days, but I’m back from “The World”. Still trying to recover and catch up on sleep . I was pretty exhausted, but we had a great time! The Disney depression has officially kicked in, but I’m hoping this TR will help alleviate some of the pain.

For those of you who are just joining and are wanting to know the Who, When, Where, and Why, feel free to read my PTR!

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-captain-is-headed-home.940164/

This is my first TR, and the bar was set pretty high for first timers (cough cough @becca_ cough cough). Seriously, if you haven’t read her first TR, you need to! Anyways, I hope everyone bears with me and enjoys the 2,000+ pictures that I made, along with this TR!

Up next: Travel Day!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

You're kidding me, right? You're all on a behind the scenes tour of the train operation, and they don't let you take a photo of the roundhouse? What the what?!! (The roundhouse would be one of the highlights.)

Oh I think you might have misread my post. You couldn’t take any pictures while the train was heading backwards from Fantasyland Station to the roundhouse. Once you get to the roundhouse, take all the pics and videos you want!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Tour continued

Once we got off, they went ahead and killed the fire and locked Roger in place so they could get ready for the cab tours.

While they were getting things into place and making sure the locomotive was safe, Kaitlyn went over the safety rules and showed us where all we were allowed to go. She then talked a bit more about the Roger specifically and pointed some things out on the locomotive.

The cab was soon ready, and only 4 guest can go up at a time, so I decided to let the first couple of groups go and I explored the Roger more thoroughly

My ears and mind have finally adjusted to the fact that Roger and Lilly have swapped whistles with each other.

The whistle you see here that’s currently on the Roger, is actually Lilly’s original whistle. I know he’s been using since at least 2016. She now has Roger’s original whistle. Btw, they’re both Buckeye 3 chimes, if anyone was wondering.

Fyi, this engineer was extremely rude.

I just love the hand painted headlamps.

These aren’t the real boilerplates, they’re replicas. The originals are kept safe in the Disney archives in Burbank, along with Walter’s, Lilly’s, and Roy’s.

Not exactly sure what this building is. (not WDWRR related)

Whatever it is, it looks interesting. Maybe something to do with storage? But it has those dome type things on the top. If anyone knows, please share!

Up next: More tour!

 

[DisAl]

I think the building you are asking about is a most likely a chiller plant that supplies chilled water for building air conditioning.
See the attached photo from Google Earth; I think this is what you were looking at. You can see water vapor coming from a couple of the "fan towers" on top of the building.



Below is a schematic of a chiller system. (Yes, TMI for non-nerds, but some people will be interested....)

 

[MinnieM123]

Oh I think you might have misread my post. You couldn’t take any pictures while the train was heading backwards from Fantasyland Station to the roundhouse. Once you get to the roundhouse, take all the pics and videos you want!

Whew! Thanks for the clarification on that!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Happy 4th of July y’all!

I’m so thankful I get to wake up every morning in the greatest country in the world!! While we’re all having fun today celebrating our freedom, let’s not forget all the brave men and women who currently serve our country and those who’ve given their lives so we could be free. Hope everyone has a safe and fun day!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Tour continued

It’s the Lilly Belle!!

I hadn’t seen her in 9 years!

She looks absolutely stunning! The folks at Strasburg did a fantastic job!

Up next: More tour!

 

[DisAl]

Here is a pic of Lilly Belle made June 4, 2018.
Have you noticed that there are no brakes on the WDWRR locomotives? The only brakes are on the passenger cars. That makes for smoother stops and starts for the passengers since that leaves the train "stretched out" with little or no slack in the couplings. The only "brakes" on the locomotive itself is to use a J-bar stop. (Which I saw them do when some idiot kid hopped back off the train as it was starting to pull out of the station.)

 

[MinnieM123]

Happy 4th of July y’all!
View attachment 293953
I’m so thankful I get to wake up every morning in the greatest country in the world!! While we’re all having fun today celebrating our freedom, let’s not forget all the brave men and women who currently serve our country and those who’ve given their lives so we could be free. Hope everyone has a safe and fun day!

Very nicely stated above. Happy Independence Day to you and your family, too.

By the way, I'm loving the photos of the trains!!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Whew! Thanks for the clarification on that!

No problem.

I think the building you are asking about is a most likely a chiller plant that supplies chilled water for building air conditioning.
See the attached photo from Google Earth; I think this is what you were looking at. You can see water vapor coming from a couple of the "fan towers" on top of the building.

View attachment 293858

Below is a schematic of a chiller system. (Yes, TMI for non-nerds, but some people will be interested....)
View attachment 293943

Yep, that’s it! Thanks for sharing. That’s pretty interesting.

Here is a pic of Lilly Belle made June 4, 2018.
Have you noticed that there are no brakes on the WDWRR locomotives? The only brakes are on the passenger cars. That makes for smoother stops and starts for the passengers since that leaves the train "stretched out" with little or no slack in the couplings. The only "brakes" on the locomotive itself is to use a J-bar stop. (Which I saw them do when some idiot kid hopped back off the train as it was starting to pull out of the station.)
View attachment 294001

Beautiful picture of the Lilly Belle! Yes, all four locomotives don’t actually have breaks. The only time they ever run the locomotives by themselves is when they’re switching coaches.

Very nicely stated above. Happy Independence Day to you and your family, too.

By the way, I'm loving the photos of the trains!!

Thanks and same to you!

Glad your enjoying the photos! There’s plenty more to come!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Sorry for the gap between posts. I’ve been very busy and traveling nonstop since the 4th, but I’m finally home now.

Tour continued

Monorail red was making a trip to the roundhouse.

It was about a quarter till park opening, and Lilly had passed her morning inspections, so she headed for the mainline.

But first...

...pop off valve test.

All good!

Her green 200 series coaches were, and still may be, under refurbishment, mainly to fix the couplers, so that’s why she was pulling Walter’s red 100 series coaches.

After Lilly headed out, I decided to hop up inside the Roger for the cab tour.

Engineer’s side

Speedometer

Main pressure gauge

Next up: More tour!

 

[MinnieM123]

What a cool photo of Monorail Red with Lilly underneath!!! OMG . . . old meets new. I gasped when I saw that--just never expecting to see the monorail above the old locomotive -- and to think both are working in the same space, at times. WOW!!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Tour continued

Tender

The hatch with the padlock is for the biodiesel. The one behind it is for the water.

The box with the red dot in the upper left hand corner of the cab, is the buzzer/horn that the conductor uses to communicate with the engineer and fireman.

One more from the engineer’s seat.

God I hope this will be my “office” one day. I so badly wanted to pull the handle for the whistle!

Fireman’s side

The fire had been out for awhile, but you can clearly see the psi was still about 125.

Almost enough to move the locomotive.

I didn’t want to leave the cab at all , but there was one more group waiting to come up, so I did some more exploring.

As you can see, Roy wasn’t out. (I’ll explain more later)

Roger’s air compressor

Looking a bit rusty.

All the locomotive’s air compressors are on the fireman’s side so guest won’t really see them.

Air compressor gauge

Up next: More tour!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

What a cool photo of Monorail Red with Lilly underneath!!! OMG . . . old meets new. I gasped when I saw that--just never expecting to see the monorail above the old locomotive -- and to think both are working in the same space, at times. WOW!!

Yes indeed! It was definitely a unique photo opportunity! Fyi, the current monorails are anything but new. They're really outdated.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Tour continued

I was able to grab some pics of the inside of the roundhouse!

The yellow vehicle is the maintenance of way speeder.

Also, those look like new tender wheels on the pallets.

And here’s Roy (my favorite locomotive)

Like I said earlier, he was out of service.

See all the parts, including his whistle, on the running board?

Apparently, something broke pertaining to his wheels. Whatever it was, they couldn’t make the part in the machine shop, so they had to order it and were waiting on it’s arrival.

The good news is that Roy returned to service this past Tuesday, July 3rd!

Up next: Last bit of tour

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Last bit of tour (I thought)

It was soon time to fire Roger back up.

It was getting close to 9:30, and Roger needed to get back on the mainline with Lilly, so we departed the roundhouse.

But first...

...Roger’s pop off valve test.

Kaitlyn kept telling us to cover our ears. She said a couple months ago that either Roger or Roy (can’t remember which) blew a pop off valve somewhere around Frontierland Station, and it was so loud that JC, POTC, Splash, BTM, and HM shut down!

It was pretty loud, but not super super loud. I guess it’s louder when the locomotive has been running for a longer time and is actually in motion.

You can see the shadow of the steam shooting out.

The white pieces of cardboard and paper on the ground are from the firework shells for HEA. (they shoot them across the road)

We arrived back at Main Street Station, then headed over to the Town Square Theater to take a break for some drinks and snacks.

I’ve honestly never been inside the Main Street Theater too many times, so I forget what’s all in there, besides the Mickey and Tink M&G.

These old cameras are pretty cool.

Up next: Last bit of tour (I promise)

 

[fractal]

Really enjoying your coverage of the tour!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Really enjoying your coverage of the tour!

Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying it!

 

[MinnieM123]

I'm loving the train tour, too!! Keep those pictures coming! (Meant to comment that some of the pictures you posted earlier of the engineer's side were fascinating. Never gave it much thought before that he wouldn't have a straight-on, full panoramic view, but would be looking out from one side only--due to all the metal in the way.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Last bit of tour (I’m serious)

Too cute!

The tour resumed and we went back over to the upstairs portion of Main Street Station for the final presentation.

I think it was like 12 pages. It basically talks about how important trains and railroading was to Walt and the company.

Sadly, it was 10:30, and the tour had come to an end. I chatted with Kaitlyn a bit more and thanked her for being such an awesome tour guide.

Not at all like it was earlier , but still beautiful nonetheless.

I called L to find out the status of her and M’s location. Turned out she and M were amongst the crowd below and could actually see me. They were gonna head to the bakery to get some coffee.

I didn’t feel like fighting the crowds on Main Street, and Lilly had just pulled into the station, so I hopped on.

Monorail green was coming into the station on the express loop.

Like I said earlier, it’s been 9 years since I’ve seen Lilly in person, but it’s been 16 years since I’ve ridden behind her!

Next up: More MK

 

[ScarletBegonias]

My nephew would die over that train tour! He LOVES trains!