Cold out side but the Wood stove is keeping my room at 73.

but i guess it is a good thing my bedroom smells like a steam train has been running threw it for three months now.

as for Animal Kingdom the train looks cool but i hate the sound of diesel coming from a steam locomotive.

Do they have a "Behind the Steams Tour" oh im mean diesel tour. I once talked to an engineer on the line. I was told that there are three locos, red, green, and black which served as a back-up. I also got to blow the whistle, I've got to say it did sound like an authintic english locomotive's whistle. How do they make it rusty?

Caleb

A very interesting discussion! I wish they'd done more with the Wildlife Express, too, but I did think the Mickey whistle posts were a nice touch.

Just remember, all, that the next issue will be the "Greening" of Disney trains and vehicles around the world. That is the future, and that might be the time that the trains are made back into "Steam" locos, with bio-diesel or natural gas as their fuel to heat the boilers. Who's to know what the future will bring?!?

"Big Red"
Todd Levy
San Francisco, CA

PS. I agree, a CDL to me is a California Drivers License, where you can't talk on your cell phone without a hands free device, where hybrids are #1, and our fuel prices are the higest in the nation.

Amen to that LOL. I like those engines, in fact, I wish our adventureland was big enough to actually hold a small railway like animal kingdom does. All we have is a crowded boddle neck with palm trees lol.

I look at it like this. As long as water flows and turns to steam in the boilers, I really don't care how they heat it. It is still steam pressure running the engine. the fact that I deboard the train smelling like a ruffles potato chip and crave McDonald's french fries, means that at least the water was heated to steam. Maybe the new RR sponsor will be Frito Lay.

Because that's pretty much what it is. I've been in the cab of one of those things; even got to move it forwards and backwards in the shop. But - that's about all it does. Forward, reverse - and a parking brake. Even the sight glass isn't really real; there's not even any water in it.

Real trains don't have a transmission, radiator, and a parking brake

It doesn't in the Animal Kingdom trains. They're a diesel-powered tractor on rails. There is no "steam pressure running the engine". It's more like "water pressure through the radiator"...LOL

And I absolutely do not like the whistle on these things. It sounds like a whistle from a toy; it should be more like the MK trains....LOUD! (And yes, I do know that they're not as loud as MK due to the animals in the park.)

The are just too shrill to me. I don't find them pleasant to hear at all.

My ears can't remember what the whistles sound like. They are authentic to British locomotives, aren't they?

If they are and they bother your fellas' ears, oh man you'd go nuts if you ever saw and heard the Hong Kong Disneyland RR. Though their locomotives are American styled, they have 100% pure British sounding whistles and thus are very shrill to my American tuned ears.