Greetings family, friends, and Disney fans, Happy Valentines Day! Walt Disney's interest in trains is very well known, however what is less known is how close he came to buying his own railroad. Here's the story...
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TALLULAH FALLS RAILWAY
While seeking a location to film his upcoming live action movie The Great Locomotive Chase, a remake of Buster Keaton’s 1926 classic The General, Walt Disney became so enamored with the picturesque Tallulah Falls Railway that he expressed interest in purchasing the aging operation for an tourist excursion line. Originally chartered in 1854 to connect several towns within Georgia and North Carolina with the popular tourist destination of Tallulah Falls, the fifty seven mile line by1955 had been constantly in and out of bankruptcy and probably was not a wise investment of time or money when Disney, particularly when he was also trying to get his Anaheim theme park off the ground. The preferred site for the film was the Louisville and Nashville Railroad where the actual historic event took place, however it was determined that the railway had become too modernized to play a believable Civil War railroad, while the rundown condition of the TF was an ideal choice. Fess Parker and Jeffrey Hunter portrayed the lead actors in the action film while the “General” was played by the 1846 locomotive William Mason and the locomotive “Texas” by Virginia and Truckee’s iconic Inyo on loan from Paramount Studios. Walt created his own operating steam railroad , the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad, while the Tallulah Falls Railway was scrapped in 1961 and today only survives in the classic Disney film. -Bill 2/23
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