Grizzly Flats Railroad

Grizzly Flats Railroad
An elderly man standing next to railroad track in the foreground with an old-fashioned railroad depot building on the opposite side. A locomotive shed and water tower are located where the railroad track ends in the background.
The GFRR yard with Ward Kimball in the foreground
Overview
HeadquartersSan Gabriel, California
Dates of operation1942–2006
Technical
Track gauge3 ft (914 mm)
Length900 feet (274.3 m)

The Grizzly Flats Railroad (GFRR) was a 3-foot (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad owned by Disney animator Ward Kimball at his home in San Gabriel, California. The railroad had 900 feet (274.3 m) of track, and was operated from 1942 to 2006. It was the first full-size backyard railroad in the United States.

The GFRR was notable for helping Walt Disney rediscover his childhood fascination with trains, which led him to build the Carolwood Pacific Railroad, a ridable miniature railroad in his backyard. The GFRR also influenced the design of the Disneyland Railroad within the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.

The GFRR's rolling stock, including the two steam locomotives owned by Kimball, are now on display at the Southern California Railway Museum (formerly the Orange Empire Railway Museum) in Perris, California. The railroad's depot building and water tower were moved to the Justi Creek Railway, a private railroad owned by John Lasseter.

History

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Grizzly Flats Railroad
Legend
Kimball residence
Garage
Grizzly Flats
Roundhouse
A gray steam locomotive with a 2-6-0 wheel arrangement (two leading wheels, six driving wheels, and no trailing wheels) and its tender
The GFRR's Emma Nevada locomotive on display at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in 2003

In 1938, Disney animator Ward Kimball, a lifelong railfan, purchased a wooden passenger coach for $50 from the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was scrapping its obsolete narrow-gauge passenger cars.[1][2] It was built in 1881 by the Barney and Smith Car Company for the Carson and Colorado Railroad, which operated in the Owens Valley.[3][4][5] Kimball originally wanted the coach to house his collection of model trains at his home in San Gabriel, California; however, his wife Betty suggested that he should also have a locomotive to pull the coach.[3][6] Kimball purchased the Sidney Dillon locomotive for $400, preventing it from being sold for scrap in Japan.[7][8] It was a 2-6-0 steam locomotive built in April 1881 by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Nevada Central Railroad, which ran between Battle Mountain and Austin, Nevada, until it closed in 1938 due to competition from road vehicles.[9]: 40 [10]: 42  Kimball paid another $450 to ship the locomotive by rail to the Southern Pacific workshops in Los Angeles, California, where it successfully passed a boiler test.[8][9]: 40  Afterwards, the Sidney Dillon was moved to Kimball's three-acre backyard, where he, his family, and his friends worked together to overhaul the locomotive.[7] They made replicas of its missing parts and a brand-new cowcatcher.[8][9]: 41 

Kimball's backyard railroad became operational in 1942, although his locomotive was not operational until May 22, 1943.[8][11] It was renamed Emma Nevada, after the late 1800s opera star Emma Nevada.[6] Kimball named his railroad Grizzly Flats Railroad (GFRR), which eventually consisted of 900 feet (274.3 m) of 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge track, including a 500-foot (152.4 m) mainline.[7][12] The GFRR became the first full-size backyard railroad in the United States.[13] In 1946, Kimball acquired a boxcar and a caboose from the defunct Pacific Coast Railway in San Luis Obispo, California.[14][15]

In 1948, Kimball purchased a second locomotive, the Pokaa, which was a 0-4-2T steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1907, and it originally ran on the Waimanalo Sugar Plantation on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.[16][17] Kimball renamed the locomotive from Pokaa to Chloe, after one of his daughters.[4][18] The Chloe had its saddle water tank removed and replaced with a rear water tank bunker.[16][17] It was also re-equipped with a balloon shaped smokestack to resemble the 1880s Haleakla locomotive.[16][17] As opposed to the Chloe, which burned wood to generate steam, the Emma Nevada burned coal.[6] In the summer of 1965, the GFRR was filmed for a Brach's TV commercial.[19] Kimball was forced to stop running the Emma Nevada in 1967 due to complaints from his neighbors regarding the coal smoke it created.[5][20] In the years to follow, Kimball added a cattle car, a gondola, and a velocipede to the GFRR.[5][16]

The Chloe pulled a set of train cars custom made by Kimball, consisting of a four-bench open car built around 1975 and two passenger-carrying gondolas built around 1993.[12] The cast-iron brackets for the four-bench open car's roof and seats were cast from the same mold used to make the brackets for the Disneyland Railroad's Excursion Train set.[17][21] Kimball gradually added several structures to the GFRR, including a roundhouse, a water tower, a windmill, and a depot building.[4][22] The depot building was given to him by his boss, Walt Disney, and was originally used as a set piece for the 1949 Disney film So Dear to My Heart.[23][24] Kimball died in 2002, but his family continued to operate the GFRR until 2006.[5][12] The GFRR's tracks were pulled up in late April 2007, but the roundhouse building remained intact.[5][25]

Influences and preservation

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A red steam locomotive with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement (no leading wheels, four driving wheels, and two trailing wheels) and no tender, coupled to a small train car
The GFRR's Chloe locomotive on display at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in 2009

Kimball shared his railroad hobby with fellow Disney animator Ollie Johnston, who owned a ridable miniature railroad, and Walt Disney.[26][27] On October 20, 1945, Disney attended one of the Kimball's "steam-ups", which were parties hosted at their home when the Grizzly Flats Railroad was in operation.[28] During the party, Disney was given the opportunity to drive the GFRR's Emma Nevada locomotive, which was the first time since working as a teenager on the Missouri Pacific Railway that he had been inside a locomotive cab.[28] Disney eventually decided to have his own backyard railroad built, which he named Carolwood Pacific Railroad.[29] His ridable miniature backyard railroad, and the narrow-gauge GFRR, inspired Disney to create the Disneyland Railroad within the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.[3][30] The Disneyland Railroad's depot building in the Frontierland section of the park was built using the same blueprints for the GFRR's depot building.[24] Before Kimball's death in 2002, he taught his grandson Nate Lord how to drive the Chloe locomotive, which inspired Lord to become a locomotive engineer on the Disneyland Railroad in 2011.[31][32]

In late 1992, Kimball began to donate the GFRR's rolling stock, including the Emma Nevada locomotive, to the Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM) in Perris, California.[5][20][28] The caboose was donated to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California.[5][14] The last of the rolling stock remaining on the GFRR, including the Chloe locomotive, was put on display at the museum in 2007.[5][12] The Emma Nevada and Chloe locomotives are currently being restored to operating condition.[33][34] The GFRR's depot building and water tower were acquired by former Pixar film director John Lasseter, who moved them to his private Justi Creek Railway.[35][36] In September 2018, Märklin went into partnership with the SCRM to fund the Chloe Restoration Project by auctioning some LGB model train products, which resembled the Chloe locomotive and some GFRR rolling stocks.[37]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Broggie (2014), p. 12.
  2. ^ Wolf (1992), p. 176.
  3. ^ a b c Amendola (2015), p. 118.
  4. ^ a b c Broggie (2014), p. 52.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Pool, Bob (May 12, 2007). "Railroad Hits End of the Line". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c Amendola (2015), p. 119.
  7. ^ a b c Broggie (2014), p. 56.
  8. ^ a b c d Hiney, Harlan (April 30, 2009). "Early Years 4 - Founding Member Ward Kimball". Discover Live Steam. Archived from the original on April 17, 2024. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c "Grizzly Flats Railroad". Trains. Vol. 2, no. 3. Kalmbach Publishing. January 1942. pp. 38–45. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  10. ^ "Happy birthday, Emma". Trains. Vol. 42, no. 4. Kalmbach Publishing. February 1982. pp. 42–43. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  11. ^ Gross, Cory (April 9, 2011). "The Madness of Ward Kimball". Network Awesome. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
  12. ^ a b c d "Grizzly Flats (3-Foot Gauge)". Orange Empire Railway Museum. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  13. ^ Broggie (2014), p. 53.
  14. ^ a b "Betty Kimball Donates Pacific Coast Railway Headlights" (PDF). Coast Mail. Vol. 6, no. 1. San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum. Winter 2005. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 10, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  15. ^ Amendola (2015), p. 120.
  16. ^ a b c d Kelley, Ed (July 10, 2002). "We Remember Ward Kimball: 1914-2002". Discover Live Steam. Archived from the original on July 13, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  17. ^ a b c d Navarro, Max; Navarro, Dawn (Fall 1985). "The Grizzly Flats Railroad". Disney News. Vol. 20, no. 4. Walt Disney Productions. p. 18. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  18. ^ Broggie (2014), p. 57.
  19. ^ Wolf (1992), pp. 182–183.
  20. ^ a b Ford, Andrea (November 16, 1992). "End of the Line: Locomotive from Back-Yard Railroad Heads for Museum". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  21. ^ Broggie (2014), p. 251.
  22. ^ Broggie (2014), pp. 54–55.
  23. ^ Ballard, Kelli (February 16, 2016). "Disneyland Depot Inspired by Porterville". The Porterville Recorder. Archived from the original on April 7, 2019. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  24. ^ a b Broggie (2014), pp. 266–267.
  25. ^ Amidi, Amid (September 28, 2010). "Buy Ward Kimball's House". Cartoon Brew. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  26. ^ Broggie (2014), p. 17.
  27. ^ Broggie (2014), p. 100.
  28. ^ a b c Broggie (2014), p. 58.
  29. ^ Broggie (2014), p. 109.
  30. ^ Amendola (2015), pp. 138–139.
  31. ^ Mello, Michael (November 14, 2011). "Another Generation on the Disney Rails". The Orange County Register. Archived from the original on April 24, 2023. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  32. ^ Rafferty, Jr., Kevin (November 16, 2011). "A Conversation with Disneyland Resort Cast Member Nate Lord – Grandson of Disney Legend Ward Kimball". Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Archived from the original on May 22, 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  33. ^ Eades, Mark (April 3, 2015). "Orange Empire Railway Museum Keeps Rolling Along". The Orange County Register. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  34. ^ Eades, Mark (August 2, 2017). "2 Special Train Engines Create Historic Moment for the Disneyland Railroad". The Orange County Register. Archived from the original on October 2, 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  35. ^ Amendola (2015), p. 133.
  36. ^ Maddaus, Gene (June 8, 2018). "John Lasseter Will Exit Disney at the End of the Year". Variety. Archived from the original on January 29, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
  37. ^ "Märklin Inc. Celebrates LGB's 50th Anniversary". Garden Railways. Kalmbach Media. September 11, 2018. Archived from the original on April 24, 2023. Retrieved April 24, 2023.

Bibliography

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