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Ask any child in the world over where the "Magic Kingdom" is, the land of story book fantasy and frontier, and he is more than likely to reply: "Disneyland." At Anaheim, in Southern California, the Magic Kingdom is something actual which can be experienced in the here and now, and not just dreamed about or listened to. Adults catch a wild contagion from the very moment they step inside Disneyland with their children. Before their very eyes the storybook fantasy takes shape and substance.

Not least of the Magic Kingdom's properties are the miniature railways. They are many and varied: futuristic Viewliners, Western mining trains and the Casey Jr. trains made up of animal cars, chariots and calliope. But to keep within the terms of reference of this book, which is to tell the story of some of the outstanding steam-hauled miniature railways of the world, it is proposed to confine this story to the Santa Fe and Disneyland RR whose tracks encircle the whole park area itself.

By way of introduction to this railroad, which is one of the hardest worked and best maintained in the world, it should perhaps be mentioned that Mr. Disney is a railroader of long and excellent standing. He started his railroad career as a young "news butch" on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas RR and the Missouri Pacific RR, running out of Kansas City near where he was born. His experience with model railroading came with the construction of a Lionel train layout for his young nephew. The second step was the planning of an outdoor railway for himself in the present decade.

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