News Roy O. Disney overhaul

Captain Barbossa

Captain Barbossa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The Roy O. Disney has departed WDW for its overhaul/rebuild, which will take place at the Strasburg Railroad in Strasburg, PA. Roy is the last of the four locomotives to be overhauled and will receive the same modifications that the Walter E. Disney, Lilly Belle and Roger E. Broggie received during their overhauls at Strasburg (New boiler, firebox, computerized safety system, electronic igniter, modified tender, etc), with the exception of replacing the steam powered dynamo with batteries. (Roy’s dynamo was already replaced with batteries roughly 10 years ago)

If there aren’t any significant delays, which the other three locomotives experienced during their overhauls at Strasburg, Roy should return sometime in early-mid 2027. Similar to the threads about Walter and Roger, this thread is for discussion about Roy’s rebuild and to provide updates on the overhaul.

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EeyoreFan#24

EeyoreFan#24

Well-Known Member
Captain Barbossa said:
The Roy O. Disney has departed WDW for its overhaul/rebuild, which will take place at the Strasburg Railroad in Strasburg, PA. Roy is the last of the four locomotives to be overhauled and will receive the same modifications that the Walter E. Disney, Lilly Belle and Roger E. Broggie received during their overhauls at Strasburg (New boiler, firebox, computerized safety system, electronic igniter, modified tender, etc), with the exception of replacing the steam powered dynamo with batteries. (Roy’s dynamo was already replaced with batteries roughly 10 years ago)

If there aren’t any significant delays, which the other three locomotives experienced during their overhauls at Strasburg, Roy should return sometime in early-mid 2027. Similar to the threads about Walter and Roger, this thread is for discussion about Roy’s rebuild and to provide updates on the overhaul.

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Even got the safety spiel at the beginning of the journey!
 
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disneytrain2001

Active Member
Captain Barbossa said:
The Roy O. Disney has departed WDW for its overhaul/rebuild, which will take place at the Strasburg Railroad in Strasburg, PA. Roy is the last of the four locomotives to be overhauled and will receive the same modifications that the Walter E. Disney, Lilly Belle and Roger E. Broggie received during their overhauls at Strasburg (New boiler, firebox, computerized safety system, electronic igniter, modified tender, etc), with the exception of replacing the steam powered dynamo with batteries. (Roy’s dynamo was already replaced with batteries roughly 10 years ago)

If there aren’t any significant delays, which the other three locomotives experienced during their overhauls at Strasburg, Roy should return sometime in early-mid 2027. Similar to the threads about Walter and Roger, this thread is for discussion about Roy’s rebuild and to provide updates on the overhaul.

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That's good to hear, it's about time Roy is getting an overhaul! I hope he gets a new frame, because I tell his smokebox saddle is so badly rusted!
 

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dtng2000

Member
Has it arrived at Strasburg yet? I'm sure it won't be worked on right away, but I'm curious to know if it has at least arrived at the shops.
 
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TrainsOfDisney

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
dtng2000 said:
It definitely needs this overhaul too; I heard Tweetsie didn't do good to the locomotives when they did their overhauls.
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Who did you hear that from?

Tweetsie never completely rebuilt the locomotives the way Strasburg is. The engines are coming back practically brand new, the last time that happened was in 1970.
 
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dtng2000

Member
TrainsOfDisney said:
Who did you hear that from?

Tweetsie never completely rebuilt the locomotives the way Strasburg is. The engines are coming back practically brand new, the last time that happened was in 1970.
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Someone on YouTube said that once, but I don't remember. I'm certain Tweetsie did fine, but I'm still wondering how Lilly ended up with the issues that forced it into welcome show duty for many years.
 
TrainsOfDisney

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
dtng2000 said:
Someone on YouTube said that once, but I don't remember. I'm certain Tweetsie did fine, but I'm still wondering how Lilly ended up with the issues that forced it into welcome show duty for many years.
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Lilly had major issues that were beyond the scope of what Tweetsie was being paid to do.
 
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Disneyrailfan1996

Active Member
TrainsOfDisney said:
Lilly had major issues that were beyond the scope of what Tweetsie was being paid to do.
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Had a feeling I was wrong when I thought Lilly was the engine the coordinator was referring to in regards to having issues with tweetsie’s quality of work on one engine. But it could be that he might not be remembering correctly as to why they stopped going to tweetsie.
 
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Railfan26

Member
Disneyrailfan1996 said:
Had a feeling I was wrong when I thought Lilly was the engine the coordinator was referring to in regards to having issues with tweetsie’s quality of work on one engine. But it could be that he might not be remembering correctly as to why they stopped going to tweetsie.
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I was a kid when Lilly was sent to Strasburg, and this is the first time of hearing it’s story. I know Roger was sent instead of Roy during the closure because of the crack in the frame. What was the issue with Lilly’s frame before its overhaul?
 
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dtng2000

Member
Railfan26 said:
I was a kid when Lilly was sent to Strasburg, and this is the first time of hearing it’s story. I know Roger was sent instead of Roy during the closure because of the crack in the frame. What was the issue with Lilly’s frame before its overhaul?
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Mainly pony truck issues but it seemed like there was a lot more to it as soon as refurbishment began
 
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Disneyrailfan1996

Active Member
Railfan26 said:
What was the issue with Lilly’s frame before its overhaul?
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I believe it was a crack in Lilly’s frame if I’m not mistaken. Running her for the morning show and shop tour with a crack probably made things only worse (even if the load was rather light), but I guess it was still benign (for lack of a better term) enough to keep her running until Disney said “no more.”
 
Captain Barbossa

Captain Barbossa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Per longtime WDWRR Engineer/Fireman Mr. Don Fisher, here’s the exact details pertaining to Lilly’s bad frame/pony truck issues:

“Lilly belle also took longer because she had to have a total frame rebuild. We ran her some 40 odd years with a bent frame. She would never track straight. The cause of the bad frame was a derailment, while she was in service down in Mexico before we bought her and brought her up to Magic Kingdom. Disney put a rush on getting those engines restored, so if it would roll it was good. Did not matter whether it rolled straight.”

“The welds were perfectly fine. But that did not take into account that they did not see to it that the frame was perfectly straight. I personally have been underneath the Lilly Belle way back in the day when it was allowed and George Britton would show me where the frame was bent. It was bent right about where the cradle is and somewhat to the right maybe an inch or two as you’re facing forward so the front ponies were off-center and would push the locomotive to the left while the drivers were trying to keep it going straight. The left front driver always experienced extreme wear. When the track was really dry and no graphite on it, Lilly would really squeal when she would come into a station going perfectly straight with the ponies, pushing the logo towards the left and the left front driver, trying to push her to the right at the same time.”


Mr. Fisher also had this to say about the Tweetsie refurbs:

“Lilly was done at Tweetsie and they did very little work. Mostly slapped on paint. Did nothing with the frame, did some minor boiler work. That was about it. The others were done there too, but they didn’t need as much work. Very shoddy workmanship in my opinion.”
 

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