WE have previously made reference to the above railroad, and readers will recall that it is a 7 1/2-in. gauge line built and owned by one of the world's best known personalities, Walt Disney, whose delightful, fantastic cartoon films are loved by children of all ages wherever there are cinemas. By the kindness of Dick Bagley and Bob Day, editors of The Miniature Locomotive, we are able to present our readers with the accompanying photographs, showing scenes on the Carolwood-Pacific R.R. and some of its equipment, together with the following notes on the line and some "behind-the-scenes" information about it.
Walt Disney's first experience with model railroading came with the construction of a Lionel train layout for a Christmas young nephew's present. He found that this provided him with relaxation from his many duties as head of his studio, and he continued the hobby by assembling locomotives and car kits in "HO" gauge for which he started an elaborate layout.
About this time he had his baptism of live steam, in an afternoon on Richard Jackson's I-in. scale railroad at Beverley Hills. After this "HO" gauge was forgotten and live steam became the order of the day, so far as Disney was concerned ! He inspected and operated trains on several miniature railroads before deciding that 1-in. scale, 71-in. gauge were the most suitable for his needs. He liked the old- time "diamond stack" locomotives of the 1880s and chose to follow a prototype typical of California, No. 173 of the Central Pacific RR., built at Sacramento, Calif., in 1872. What an engine done Let nobody say now that it cannot be done !
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