Liberty Square Riverboat And The Lone Smokestack

Liberty Square Riverboat At MK

  • It looks great with just one smokestack. That makes it unique. Leave it alone.

    Votes: 10 25.6%
  • No, it needs two smokestacks like other riverboat designs.

    Votes: 7 17.9%
  • InnKpr, you have WAY too much time on your hands to be thinking about this.

    Votes: 22 56.4%

  • Total voters
    39

RFM57

Member
The Henry W. Grady (the back-wheeler) is supposedly still docked at the park as well.

Sorry to be picky, but since you have used the term shown above at least twice I have to assume you are not aware that the proper term for a boat with a single paddle wheel at the rear is a "stern-wheeler" (since the "back" of a boat is its stern.) The two types of paddle wheel steamers are stern-wheeler, with a single wheel on the rear, and side-wheeler, with one on each side.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Looking at aerial views of the rivers os America....and having read the drydock is near central shops (pardon if my terminology is wrong)...How do the riverboats get there? I'm guessing the bridge on Caribbean Way can be raised....but the railroad doesn't seem elevated enough for the river boats to get under. This has suddenly caught my interest.

Thanks
The bridge swings as mentioned, and the boat is then towed:

3591BC34-593D-4546-9C4F-82AFF2AA4199.png
 

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
It has one stack because it has one boiler.
As long as they use a real steam engine I don't mind whether it has one or two stacks. I am just glad they have kept it as authentic as they have.
Did they ever put a real whistle back on it rather than the little tweeter?

Agreed. We really got lucky, and can probably thank John Lassiter that the locomotives and steamboat were properly rebuilt.
 

InnKpr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sorry to be picky, but since you have used the term shown above at least twice I have to assume you are not aware that the proper term for a boat with a single paddle wheel at the rear is a "stern-wheeler" (since the "back" of a boat is its stern.) The two types of paddle wheel steamers are stern-wheeler, with a single wheel on the rear, and side-wheeler, with one on each side.
Not picky, that's actually good to know. Just became a habit since a child to call them side, back-wheeler, etc.

Interestingly, and it's hard to see from the image in my first post, but the stern-wheeler at the Georgia park (Stone Mountain) has two wheels on the back. That riverboat was used less often than the side-wheeler, as it's purpose back then was for special occasions, weddings, booked events, etc. Very rarely, it would run in place of the side-wheeler (the Scarlett O'Hara) when she was down for routine maintenance.
 

N2dru

Well-Known Member
How about a Sailing Ship Columbia type boat similar to DL. It would round out Liberty Square and tie in with the restaurant etc. Don't you think??
 
Last edited:

Captain Barbossa

Well-Known Member
Did they ever put a real whistle back on it rather than the little tweeter?



1:35 mark. This was on Saturday. Still the same single chime Lunkenheimer. The steam flow when the valve first opens is much better, which makes the whistle sound much better. No more delay, which caused that annoying, painful screech. Maybe they gave it a thorough cleaning. Still rather have Roy’s original Baldwin 5inch 3 chime, but this sounds way better than it first did.
 

Raineman

Well-Known Member
It was proposed early on but we got the Irvine instead. Nowerdays we are sadly lucky to have one still.
One of the things that I love the most about MK is the ability to, many times a day, no matter where you are in the park, hear one or both of the whistles from the Liberty Belle and the WDWRR. It's something that invokes that nostalgia and emotional response. The WDWRR was not running last November when we last visited, and I missed hearing that whistle; if they were to get rid of the Liberty Belle, especially before Tron is done and the train isn't running, it would be extremely disappointing to not hear that whistle again, to say the least, in addition to not being able to take that relaxing ride around the RoA.
 

InnKpr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
One of my favorite Liberty Square riverboat memories was on TV when Lee Greenwood performed "God Bless The U.S.A." aboard it for the 1988 July 4th WDW special.

Starts around 48:50
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom