No more steam trains? (rumor)

[gonnichi]

How do you think the steam gets made?????

I'm not Sure if I know what you are asking? I meant Atmosphere like Architecturally, sensorial qualities that a place emits. A physical perception with emotional sensibility. The train noises and the way the cars will move with steam power I was referring too.

Did you mean atmosphere like the air?

 

[PhotoDave219]

Any clue to where Lilly currently resides?

Being refurbed in Strausburg, last I heard

 

[KYWDW]

Being refurbed in Strausburg, last I heard

Was told it had left Strausburg but where it went is a mystery.

 

[Jakester]

Pardon me this has been brought up, but has anybody noticed a difference in the train whistles lately out at MK

 

[Goofyernmost]

Pardon me this has been brought up, but has anybody noticed a difference in the train whistles lately out at MK

Not really, when I was there last week, it sounded exactly the same to me or it wasn't different enough to set of my curiosity alarm.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Pardon me this has been brought up, but has anybody noticed a difference in the train whistles lately out at MK

No I have not. They sound the same way to me that they have over the past 10 years.

 

[Belowthesurface]

It is true that diesel has been looked into by the Engineering department, but I don't know if it will be implemented.

 

[dstrawn9889]

It is true that diesel has been looked into by the Engineering department, but I don't know if it will be implemented.

they are diesel, do you mean going to diesel-electric, and just keep a tiny boiler for effects?

 

[CDavid]

I'm not sure anyone could notice if they changed over to a diesel electric with fake steam and it would be much less labor intensive.

No, some of us would notice. Most guests wouldn't, but that doesn't mean a fake is acceptable.

What if the Splash Mountain boats were replaced with a omnimover system and they removed the water? If the monorail were replaced with a bendy bus designed to look just like a monorail, would that be a reasonable substitute? How about Wishes using only projections and sound effects but no fireworks?

they are diesel, do you mean going to diesel-electric, and just keep a tiny boiler for effects?

What is being talked about is a diesel locomotive disguised to be outwardly identical (superficially) to the steam locomotives in use now. Current engines are authentic steam powered locomotives, but at Disney World they burn diesel as fuel instead of coal, wood, or oil.

 

[Jakester]

Not really, when I was there last week, it sounded exactly the same to me or it wasn't different enough to set of my curiosity alarm.

I have been frequenting the park for years, and lately the steam train whistle doesn't seem right. Has a higher pitched sound to it

 

[KYWDW]

I have been frequenting the park for years, and lately the steam train whistle doesn't seem right. Has a higher pitched sound to it

They can go out of tune or change tune if they have some corrosion.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I have been frequenting the park for years, and lately the steam train whistle doesn't seem right. Has a higher pitched sound to it

I'm assuming you are not confusing it with the Lilly Belle's whistle?

 

[Dads 2 Boys]

Gotta love the people jumping off the deep end over a rumor....always the same people here. Same ones who complain about the interior bathroom colors.....ugh.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Gotta love the people jumping off the deep end over a rumor....always the same people here. Same ones who complain about the interior bathroom colors.....ugh.

A rumor from one of the leading experts on Disney's steam trains. And a designed place should be concerned with design.

 

[ford91exploder]

...a park guest will likely breath in more exhaust from the buses while standing at their resort or park bus stop than they will from any steam (or diesel) locomotive in the park

....so the whole health issue as a reason for the possible demise ...just doesn't fly with me.

Tomorrowland speedway emits more pollution in an hour than the train does in a week

 

[ford91exploder]

Almost all Union Pacific's steam was oil burning. The West is too dry and spark arrestors don't catch everything.

True and it's also easier to design a high horsepower steam loco with a oilburner as the fire is easier to regulate, SP locos also used oil, The cab forwards were magnificent

 

[officeboy]

If you know who George B. is and what he did for, and to keep the WDWRR running, you would know after his retirement this change was inevitable. As '74 said this is Disney, but more importantly this is TDO in its prime. If it costs less money to maintain diesels why keep steam? Just because it's why the parks exist in the first place does not trump what the spreadsheet says when your bonus hangs in the balance.

 

[dstrawn9889]

i believe if they kept the chassis and the outwards appearance, and just replaced the drive trucks to accept current instead of mechanical energy, and ran it off of a diesel in the old pressure vessel, and ran the coolant lines to the tender... or refurb the tender to be the traction element, that would work better(very little load to pull, compared to the rock and soil from the panama canal when they were new)... place the diesel tank in the pressure vessel and a small boiler toward the funnel...

 

[lazyboy97o]

i believe if they kept the chassis and the outwards appearance, and just replaced the drive trucks to accept current instead of mechanical energy, and ran it off of a diesel in the old pressure vessel, and ran the coolant lines to the tender... or refurb the tender to be the traction element, that would work better(very little load to pull, compared to the rock and soil from the panama canal when they were new)... place the diesel tank in the pressure vessel and a small boiler toward the funnel...

The magic of steam is more than the static image of the locomotive.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

First they strip away all the elements that make a steam ship a steam ship from the Empress Lilly.

And now they strip away all the elements that make a steam train a steam train from the Lilly Belle.


Poor Walt's wife!
Does the current management understand that the steam ship and the steam train were named after Lillian Disney because all three were loves of Walt? Get rid of that stupid Partners statue, and honour Walt with real monuments, such as a real steam train, named after his wife. The real thing, the real version of the miniature steam train that Walt himself named after his Lillian.

Walt and daughters on the Lilly Belle: