Return of the Lilly Belle engine

MonorailMan

MonorailMan

Active Member
Original Poster
For any train geeks and those who love the railroad around MK, you know that the Lilly Belle has been away from WDW for many years now. I believe that her return may be in the very near future. This picture was taken within the past day as part of the post here on the new railing around the flowers and such in front of Main Street Station. If you look closely, there is a train in the station. The locomotive is the Roy O. Disney but it is Lilly Belle's coaches. And if you look even closer, all of her coaches have side panels. Remember that only her last coach has a side panel. Her other coaches don't because they are for the characters to walk through during the opening show.

Now that her coaches have side panels and appear to be being used in normal operation, that makes me believe that she will be returning soon and will be placed into daily service. This also leads me to believe that whichever set of coaches now has side panels removed will be potentially leaving WDW for a refurb/rebuild.

Can anyone confirm my speculation of this? Additionally, which coaches are now being used in the opening show?
Magic-Kingdom_Full_23343.jpg
 
MonorailMan

MonorailMan

Active Member
Original Poster
On the contrary, I emailed Michael Broggie the other day for a status update and he said that Lilly won't be back for while... She's been gone for like 6 years so I don't know how much longer it'll be. His answer also sounded like the typical answer you get when you ask anyone at Disney about something though, so I would trust the CM's working on the railroad.
 
Bigart

Bigart

Active Member
Indeed lots of conflicting information. Michael is the man who would have the most accurate news, however WDWRR CMs seemed unusually confident recently about her return this summer. Rumors have abounded about her return for years now. Only time will tell. I will believe it when I am riding the train with Lilly Belle pulling it. Fingers crossed.
 
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MonorailMan

MonorailMan

Active Member
Original Poster
The Lilly Belle at WDW is one of the engines on the railroad. It's not that she is more special or more important than the others (although she is my personal favorite), she has just been away from the railroad for many years and we anxiously await her return.

A second part to my update above: CMs say that once Lilly comes back, the Walter E Disney will be sent away for a major refurb similar to Lilly's.
 
MonorailMan

MonorailMan

Active Member
Original Poster
Another update for whoever might actually be looking at this forum... Currently, the opening show still uses Lilly's coaches, but only car 3 doesn't have a side panel. Normally (and how it has been ever since she became the show train) her cars 2, 3, and 4 don't have side panels with 1 and 5 being the only cars with side panels. Currently, only car 3 doesn't have a side panel with 1, 2, 4, and 5 having side panels. I'm not sure why only car 3 has the panel removed, but her cars have been seen lately in regular service. Possibly after the opening show her cars go back stage and they take the 30 minutes needed to add the side panel to her 3rd car and they send her out for regular operation and at the end of the day, they take 30 minutes to remove that side panel. I don't know if this is related at all to Lilly's potential return before the summer, but it's a change that I wouldn't see being necessary for any other reason.
 
Dopey77

Dopey77

Member
In a related, yet possibly unrelated point... when passing the roundhouse, an entire set of coaches have been removed from the tracks. Since Lilly has been gone, there's been one set of coaches that just sits idly without a locomotive. Depending on what time of day, its been the coaches used for the opening show with the side panels removed. Now, after park hours, when all 3 locomotives are packed away for the night.. you'll see 2 empty slots (one has always been empty since engine #5 went away a long time ago but used for track maintenance vehicles & the other had the lonesome coaches).
 
asianway

asianway

Well-Known Member
Dopey77 said:
In a related, yet possibly unrelated point... when passing the roundhouse, an entire set of coaches have been removed from the tracks. Since Lilly has been gone, there's been one set of coaches that just sits idly without a locomotive. Depending on what time of day, its been the coaches used for the opening show with the side panels removed. Now, after park hours, when all 3 locomotives are packed away for the night.. you'll see 2 empty slots (one has always been empty since engine #5 went away a long time ago but used for track maintenance vehicles & the other had the lonesome coaches).
Click to expand...
There was an engine 5? Tell me more!
 
Dopey77

Dopey77

Member
MonorailMan said:
What do you mean by the coaches were removed from the tracks?
Click to expand...
If you drive past the roundhouse, at night or during the busy days when all 3 locomotives are out on the rails working.. all bays/slots in the roundhouse are now empty. You used to see one set of coaches just sitting there, even if only 2 loco's were working.. there would still be the set thats missing the engine. Now, its only 3 locomotives, and 3 sets of coaches all linked together. One set has gone missing
 
mikeymouse

mikeymouse

Well-Known Member
Dopey77 said:
A fifth engine was purchased for use at the Walt Disney Railroad and was to be No.5 Ward Kimball. The engine was underpowered for the slight grade around the Mickey's Toontown Fair station and it was never put into service, though it was displayed in 1998 at Epcot's World Showcase.

http://www.cplerr.com/erWardkimball.html
Click to expand...

Wow, I have never heard of this 5th engine Ward Kimball. Awesome! Thank you! Dang, I thought I was almost a WDW expert. Why was it displayed in WS? I don't remember seeing it, but I think we skipped a few years and didn't return until '99.
 
Bigart

Bigart

Active Member
More to report. Al (a current manager and long time CM at Magic Kingdom who used to drive the Lilly Belle) told me last week that there have indeed been more delays. According to him Lilly Belle was expected to be done by summer, but now says a several more months. CMs keep insisting the locomotive will be on the rails before the end of the year. We have heard this before. I asked if there were anything to the rumors of the refurb being abandoned and he insists this is false. The Roger Broggie's coaches are complete and were in use last month by the Roger before the 24 hour event on May 22. The coaches of Lilly Belle are still being used on certain days as well. I noticed that the Walt was pulling them the last week of May. Enclosing a photo with Al, he was with the entertainment design division for 30 years and was a designer of many parades including lead designer on Spectromagic. He came back to the park after retirement to get back to the "juice". Say hi to him if you spot him in the park. He is often times managing the railroad or PAC, and know everything that is going on at the park.
 

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MonorailLover

MonorailLover

Well-Known Member
We all need to remember that this engine is the same age as Mickey Mouse. If its frame cracked, i'm not surprised that there are delays. Engineers that work on these locomotives are pretty rare these days.
 

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