There was a very short article with some new pictures posted in the Disney Blog today about the Fort Wilderness RR. Take a look!

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2 ... FBDC010047

Hi Folks,

I saw the posting too...the second photo is pretty rare. It shows #3 at the Possom Path station. Very neat!!

David

The article states "one of the railroad’s locomotives was donated to a local Central Florida museum."

What museum was it donated to?

Ugh...never heard that story before of the donation. All 4 are in private ownership as far as I know. I know for fact the whereabouts of 3 as I talked to one owner at least weekly and the other owner, who owns 2 showed me pictures of his line and refurbishment. I don't know the 3rd owner.

As seems to be the curse with the FWRR, the misinformation continues. (ex: the line didn't shut down in 1977, we have canceled tickets from 1980.) One of the engines was not donated to a Central Florida museum.

I've given up trying to correct the Company on this.

So the owner in Oxnard CA has 2. I know he got one was up in Orgeon untill a year or so ago. It was suppose to go originally to San Diego but the San Diego guy gave it the Orgeon guy and the San Diego guy has 1 car still. The other engine in Oxnard was from Disney themselves. For the people that don't know the story of how they ended up in personal hands which this says they were auctioned which was wrong. They were given away as long as they were not run and the new owners had to pay shipping for the engines and cars. This is what I understand from 2 of the owners I know. I also don't know where the missing engine is. Maybe they kept it as a prop in teh back lot

It's just sad when the people that are paid to know and report these facts (the blog author is a Disney employee I believe) know less about the subject than those that aren't paid to know about them.

I often get frustrated with how Disney the company is in such a high horse.

Hi Folks,

Per what I found while researching the book, the sale of the locomotives was a pretty involved negotiation with Disney and the agreement ultimately signed was pretty "thick." Due to the sensitive nature of this, I was asked by the owners to not cover this in detail in the book. I respected the wishes of these guys.

There was no auction as Disney had to be convinced to do anything with the equipment except let it sit and rust. One locomotive went to Oregon, which as last I know, was up for sale. Not sure if he sold it. Two went to an owner in California. Lastly, Michael Campbell got one as is shown on Dave Rose's web site. Now, my info on this is about a year old, and I have not kept up with changes since then.

David

I saw the blog a few days ago and was too busy to reply but had a slight idea of the 1980 ticket thing and that all four engines were in private hands with one person owning two of them.

I used to climb around the engines and cars when they were stored in a lot behind warehouse #6 about a mile east of the Fort. I even have some pictures of everything in storage (a very sad sight it was too). I'd post them if I knew how to post pictures of pictures. I took them before digital took over so they're actual prints.

Kinkos can scan them, and put them on a blank, writable CD for you. Then, you'll need to upload them to Photobucket, Flicker or similar file sharing site. Finally, you use the Img button to place them in your post here.