Hi family, friends and Disney/Train buddies. I hope that you find this short vignette and 1955 photo of the Disneyland Railroad "backstage" of interest....Bill

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MUSINGS OF A THEME PARK FAN

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DISNEYLAND’S FIRST “ROUNDHOUSE”

When labor issues between primary outside vendors threatened to delay the completion of the first two Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad  locomotives, project manager Admiral Joe Fowler stepped in to keep construction of the engines on schedule for the parks July15, 1955 grand opening. Fowler called in several former colleagues and within a short time had the parks first “roundhouse “ built to take over the assembly of the boilers and frames for WED Enterprises at Disney’s Burbank Studios. The efficient nondescript corrugated steel building with storage tracks for Engine No.1, C.K. Holliday and Engine No.2, E.P. Ripley also served as an indoor metal shop. A simple open shed with canvas curtains for use during rainy weather served as passenger car storage. An outdoor third locomotive storage track was added in 1958 to accommodate the Fred Gurley and by 1966 a new roundhouse with increased locomotive capacity as well as Monorail storage was constructed near the Harbor Blvd. exit from I-5. The original Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad roundhouse is still put to good use seven decades later as a paint and detailing shop.

From the Disneyana Collection of Bill Ralph