Grizzly Flats Railroad
Grizzly Flats Railroad is the name of the miniature railroad builds partly by Ward Kimball (1914-2002) in its garden. It is partly at the origin of the Carolwood Pacific Railroad of Walt Disney then indirectly of the Disneyland Railroad and the park Disneyland.
In 1938, Ward Kimball and his wife acquire of a passenger carriage (numbered 5), the last in activity of the network with Narrow gauge railway (3 feet 6 inches = 1,067 m) of the Southern Pacific Railway, going back to 1881. An impassioned friend of train advises to him to buy in more one engine. The company exploiting the Nevada Central Railroad (crossing the desert of the Nevada) was to precisely close the line and then proposes with the sale an engine with vapor of the type Mogul of 1881, numbered 2 and named Sidney Dillon . After having made come by truck the two elements, they install the unit on a made way of rails recovered in its garden of 1,2 ha to San Gabriel in California.
They name the unit Grizzly Flats Railroad and call it " Scenic Wonder off the West". After a long restoration made during its weekends and days off in the years 1940, the couple renames the engine Emma Nevada according to a high-speed motorboat of opera of the end of the 19th century.
But Kimball do not stop there. They repurchase an engine for plantation of mark Baldwin used with Hawaii, which they baptize Chloé . With the recovery of additional rails and decoration Disney a film recreating a station of architecture victorienne, they increase to them " réseau" and there install a station with its equipment. The couple bought or recovered many objects like three coaches of freight of the 19th century.
Kimball offered in 1990 their railway collection to the Orange Empire Railway Museum located at Perris in California as well as the funds to build a hangar with 4 ways. In 1992, the objects were gathered in a new building named Grizzly Flats Enginehouse . The engine Emma Nevada , the coach passengers and the 3 coaches of freight were transferred in the museum, only the Chloe remained in the garden of Kimball.
In July 2001, Kimball added to their Grizzly Flats Railroad a counterpart of the system of turntable of the type Gibet of Southern Pacific. In spite of the death in July 2002 of Ward, Betty and his/her John son continue to make live the Grizzly Flats .
Sources
- Grizzly Flats Railroad on the site of Orange Worsens Railway Museum
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