A Railroad in the Wilderness

Howdy!

Well, I was having some technical difficulties with Blogger, but it seems to be fixed now, so we'll take a look at this week's subject!

I have a couple of books about a Walt Disney World subject that I knew almost nothing about...the Fort Wilderness train! Now, I've been to WDW many times, but I've never visited the Fort Wilderness camp grounds. Even if I had, these trains have been gone a long time. So why would I buy books about a subject I didn't even know existed? I didn't.

You see, a few years ago Dave (of Daveland Blog) had a drawing for these books. I entered..and won! Here's what he sent me...

We'll get to the second one in a minute.

This book, written by David Leaphart is an in depth (and I mean really deep) look at the short-lived Fort Wilderness Railroad. It is arranged creatively, like a production. Here is the table of contents...

The "scenes" have a "list of players" too. I didn't really understand the point to all of that, but there is some really interesting info in the book, including this map of Marceline Mo. with Walt's places marked on it...

There are also these arial view maps of the WDW railroads...

Now this book has details. LOTS of details. In fact, it probably is the most detailed book I've seen written on any of the WDW railroads. Want to know the track dimensions? No problem!

Want to know how all the fiddly-bits on the engines went together? We got you!

How about building a model of the train? You'll need dimensions for that! Ok, here you go!

And what about the paint and graphics? No problemo!

Now there is actually a lot more stuff in the book, including first person stories and such. In fact, there's so much stuff that all the images just wouldn't fit. So, he gives you the second book, the "Gallery Companion!"

In it (along with a bunch of regular pictures) we find Faux-D images of the train and tracks!

And, in fact, when I was looking to see if this 2010 book was still in print (you can still get it on Amazon), I found that there's a THIRD book that covers signage and graphics! I don't have that one.

So, what's my take on these treasure troves of info? Well, for me, they're a bit...much, but I can see how a total railroad nut would love them! I do like the graphic and paint charts quite a bit. And the stories are nice, if a bit sparce. I do appreciate Dave sending them to my library!

Interestingly, even though these books are labled "Part 1," I don't see any indications that there is a "Part 2" out there. Maybe I just haven't found it yet. Still, for me, these are plenty!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!