Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On February 25, 2024 I returned to the Walt Disney World Resort for the first time since 2016 to make a whirlwind one-day tour of all four theme parks. I started the day at Animal Kingdom and then went to EPCOT, arriving at the Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon. On this day, the WDW Railroad was running two trains behind the "twins," engines 1 and 3 "Walter E. Disney" and "Roger E. Broggie." These nearly identical 4-6-0s were both manufactured in 1925 by Baldwin for the Ferrocariles Unidos de Yucatan in Mexico, where they worked for many years with the numbers 72 and 73. In 1969 they were brought to Florida with two other UdY locos and thoroughly rebuilt and backdated to a late 19th century appearance. They both entered service on the Magic Kingdom's opening day in 1971 and have been dutifully pulling loads of guests around the kingdom for over 50 years. Roger has been away for an overhaul at the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania, and returned to service just a few days before my visit. I would have liked to have stayed later for some more filming and to see the trains being put away for the night, but with the sun setting I still needed to make it over to Hollywood Studios before the day was over. I look forward to my next, hopefully less rushed visit to the most magical railroad on Earth.
While at the park I was also lucky enough to see the launch of 24 new Starlink satellites atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, 62 miles to the East.
On February 25, 2024 I returned to the Walt Disney World Resort for the first time since 2016 to make a whirlwind one-day tour of all four theme parks. I started the day at Animal Kingdom and then went to EPCOT, arriving at the Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon. On this day, the WDW Railroad was running two trains behind the "twins," engines 1 and 3 "Walter E. Disney" and "Roger E. Broggie." These nearly identical 4-6-0s were both manufactured in 1925 by Baldwin for the Ferrocariles Unidos de Yucatan in Mexico, where they worked for many years with the numbers 72 and 73. In 1969 they were brought to Florida with two other UdY locos and thoroughly rebuilt and backdated to a late 19th century appearance. They both entered service on the Magic Kingdom's opening day in 1971 and have been dutifully pulling loads of guests around the kingdom for over 50 years. Roger has been away for an overhaul at the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania, and returned to service just a few days before my visit. I would have liked to have stayed later for some more filming and to see the trains being put away for the night, but with the sun setting I still needed to make it over to Hollywood Studios before the day was over. I look forward to my next, hopefully less rushed visit to the most magical railroad on Earth.
While at the park I was also lucky enough to see the launch of 24 new Starlink satellites atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, 62 miles to the East.
