Ft Wilderness Railroad

[klineski96]

Hello all,
Let's talk about the Ft Wilderness Railroad. Not necessarily things that a simple Google search can tell us either.

Where is the track now? Where did it go?

One of the things I can tell you is that the rumor of the track being moved to the Central Florida Zoo are false.
Some online research I did recently told me that Disney allowed the zoo to remove the track to install it for their train. I've talked to the guy there who runs their train, Jerry (very nice guy) and he's been running it since it was installed 14 years ago. He told me that the track came over from China. Besides, I've compared that track to the old Ft Wilderness track and it's simply not the same track. A different shape and a little smaller.

I also saw somewhere that the Brevard Zoo has the old track. Not 100% certain here, but I don't think that's the case either. Since that zoo has only been around since March 1994, and since the Ft Wilderness Railroad stopped running in the late 70's, the timeline doesn't add up. If anyone has anything to add re the Brevard Zoo / Ft Wilderness Railroad connection/rumors, please share!

Have any of you seen what's left of the Ft Wilderness Railroad track? What about the railroad ties that line some of the roads? Found any spikes?

When you compare the old Ft Wilderness maps to the current Ft Wilderness, it's fun to see where the track once ran. Some of the sidewalks still have the rocks that lined the old line. And one of the water stations sits out by the main pool, with the FWRR logo for you to see.


Discuss.

 

[Jwhee]

Any old maps for us to compare?

 

[zurgandfriend]

This is what I know; The Ft. Wilderness railway was in service from 1973-1977. It was used as transportation around the campground and the track was about three and a half miles around. There were two stations, one was located at the Reception Outpost parking lot and the other station was at Pioneer Hall. There were four trains that each had five cars.
I read that the railroad track's foundation was slipping in some of the swampy areas and it was too expensive to fix. I also read that the track was improperly laid in spots, causing the rails to slip and the engines to derail.
The locomotives and cars were stored in the open air under tarps and deteriorated. Some of the tracks can still be seen at Ft. Wilderness, maybe the rest sank into the swamp.

 

[klineski96]

 

[marni1971]

http://www.fwrr.info

 

[tigger1968]

I grew up in Winter Garden and made so many trips to WDW back in the day and couldn't have cared less about trains, let alone trains at FW. Now, I'm all grown up and a huge train nerd and kick myself for not knowing about this until a few years ago. Nice to see I'm not the only one who's intrigued by this long forgotten RR.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

The train cabooses were at PI as Ticket Booths..

 

[aladdin2007]

The track at Brevard Zoo is indeed from Ft Wilderness, I believe it was a donation from Disney World,,trying to dig up source info on that last part.

to elaborate:
Four of the cars and 3,000 feet of track were donated to the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, Florida, but over the years those coaches found other homes.

 

[deanaandrich]

I have one of the railroad spikes. I'll try to get a picture of it posted today.

 

[MinnieM123]

http://www.fwrr.info

Great link, and thank you for sharing that. I didn't visit WDW until the mid-80s, so I was unfamiliar with the fact that Fort Wilderness ever had a railroad. The photos and history on that link are fascinating. It's too bad that some of land in the areas where the track was laid, was unstable, and they ended up discontinuing the railroad due to steep maintenance costs.

 

[kap91]

Hello all,
Let's talk about the Ft Wilderness Railroad. Not necessarily things that a simple Google search can tell us either.

Where is the track now? Where did it go?

One of the things I can tell you is that the rumor of the track being moved to the Central Florida Zoo are false.
Some online research I did recently told me that Disney allowed the zoo to remove the track to install it for their train. I've talked to the guy there who runs their train, Jerry (very nice guy) and he's been running it since it was installed 14 years ago. He told me that the track came over from China. Besides, I've compared that track to the old Ft Wilderness track and it's simply not the same track. A different shape and a little smaller.

I also saw somewhere that the Brevard Zoo has the old track. Not 100% certain here, but I don't think that's the case either. Since that zoo has only been around since March 1994, and since the Ft Wilderness Railroad stopped running in the late 70's, the timeline doesn't add up. If anyone has anything to add re the Brevard Zoo / Ft Wilderness Railroad connection/rumors, please share!

Have any of you seen what's left of the Ft Wilderness Railroad track? What about the railroad ties that line some of the roads? Found any spikes?

When you compare the old Ft Wilderness maps to the current Ft Wilderness, it's fun to see where the track once ran. Some of the sidewalks still have the rocks that lined the old line. And one of the water stations sits out by the main pool, with the FWRR logo for you to see.


Discuss.

All the track is gone but the the bed and a lot of the ties are still there as well as the foundation of a bridge. The easiest place to see it is in the dog park. There's an embanement there that is the old track. On the other end of the campground through the trees near the settlement you can walk the part that still has ties though they probably don't want you to. It is very overgrown. I have a few pics I'll try to post.

 

[kap91]

Only one I could find. I believe this is near cinnamon lane or something like that. You can follow it around to the settlement where the golf cart parking is.

 

[mikeymouse]

Couple videos out there.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

Can't remember where I saw this.....but I always liked the Wilderness Junction idea, with a railroad running from FW/FC to WL then on to the TTC.
So much better than buses and so much better themed.

 

[aladdin2007]

Can't remember where I saw this.....but I always liked the Wilderness Junction idea, with a railroad running from FW/FC to WL then on to the TTC.
So much better than buses and so much better themed.

yeah would have been nice, Wilderness Junction or sometimes called Buffalo Junction at one time, was going to be a moderate resort between FW and WL. I wasnt aware though of a connection to TTC.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

yeah would have been nice, Wilderness Junction or sometimes called Buffalo Junction at one time, was going to be a moderate resort between FW and WL. I wasnt aware though of a connection to TTC.

Perhaps that was bit was just me imagining that bit then

Still its a pretty good idea.

 

[GoofyDufy]

I remember riding the train three times. The first time was fine... very awesome ride, very magical time for me with wooden gun in hand. The next year, we were on it and it broke down after going maybe 100 feet. We had to get off and we didn't get to ride. The next day it was running again and we made it around to about the Meadows Trading post and it broke down again. The train sat there for the rest of our vacation and the next year it was gone. Years later I remember walking the tracks with my brother from the petting zoo back through the woods to our site, so they didn't remove the tracks right away. Another year I do remember being sad when one area of the tracks was blacktopped over because we knew then that the train would never return.

 

[James122]

This is a very interesting topic. I had no idea until recently that a railroad used to operate at Fort Wilderness! Of course by the time I made my first visit to WDW in the early 90s, it was long gone.

 

[tigger1968]

Can't remember where I saw this.....but I always liked the Wilderness Junction idea, with a railroad running from FW/FC to WL then on to the TTC.
So much better than buses and so much better themed.

First I have heard of an idea like that, but it really would have made a great addition. Heck, it still would.

 

[zakattack99]

Yea! A perfect place for one of them DVC resorts right!?