Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. - Part 4

If you missed the other three parts to the Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. posts, you can view them here (link)

Today we take a close look at this neat little pamphlet for the “New Circle Route around Disneyland”. It was printed by “Walt Disney Productions” but it sure looks like advertising for the Santa Fe too!

This little pamphlet (measuring just 3” by 5” when folded) is not dated. I would place it around 1956.






The Disneyland map looks exactly like the one on the record “Walt Disney takes you to Disneyland” (link) that is from 1956. The Tomorrowland Lake has one of those “Air boats” that they never produced and I can see why! If I was ever to collect attraction posters, I would consider the poster with the Airboats as the holy-grail, has anyone ever seen one in person?






Fun comparison of Disneyland’s two trains with the newer Santa Fe trains. I like the train drawings.






Super map inside showing all the routes of the Santa Fe. This opens up to 10” by 12”.






The back has mailing information. I guess you could mail these to friend for only a 2¢ stamp!






A Commemorative Keepsake, this ticket was for the Lilly Belle Rededication Ceremony February 15, 2006. I have seen tickets from the 1970’s for the Lilly Belle and they do look like this, except they were real!






Fun Facts on the back.






Lastly, from the “Cast Exclusive Series” of trading type cards, this card was printed for the Ward Kimball #5 which joined the other four trains also on February 15, 2006.

Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. - Part 5

This just in: At first glance this appears to be another early Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. ticket like some of the others I’ve posted before, you can view them all here (Parts 1-4 link).

Upon closer inspection I noticed this ticket differs from other tickets in my collection and other tickets I’ve seen. The Stub section lists “The New Circle Route”, this wording matches the little 1956 Santa Fe brochure from part 4 (link). 






Yes ladies and gentlemen, the back side of a rare Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. ticket in all of its Globe Paper goodness.






Was the “New Circle Route” wording used when the two trains stopped passing each other and started making stops at the other stations? I’m confused, you better let me off at the Holidayland station so I can figure this all out.

Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R - “The New Circle Route” - 1956

Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R tickets are always fun to look at. Walt's pride in his Railroad is evident in the highly detailed and "authentic" looking early train tickets. Today's example is a scan that was donated by loyal reader Michael. I believe the "New Circle Route” wording was used immediately after the two trains stopped passing each other and each started identical station stops.

The hand written notes on the back of the ticket are almost as cool as the ticket itself. The Tomorrowland Boats - NICE!




Here's another 1956 Railroad ticket, this one is from my collection that I posted back in 2009. Is you want to see lots of Vintage Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. tickets see my 5 part series here (link).

The Santa Fe Magazine - August 1955

Welcome to Magazine Monday. Today we’re going back to where and when it all started with the debut of Disneyland as chronicled in this August 1955 Issue of The Santa Fe Magazine. Walt’s smile is so infectious even old Mr. Gurley is grinning like a little boy.





There’s a lot of industry insider stuff in here, if any of you railroad buffs are
interested in any of these articles just let me know.





This five page Disneyland article is one of the better “day one” articles. This is back when it was still very fresh on everyone’s mind. Of course the focus of the article is on “Santa Fe”, but hey, the train was and still is the focal point of the entrance. There’s lots of standard stuff in the text, but some fun details too.








The photos on these last two pages are outstanding.







An excellent article about a boys ranch in Amarillo Texas where “maverick and delinquent youngsters farm and ranch 3,000 acres and go to school…” The boys also took a trip to Disneyland, all 200 of them!









For the accountant’s out there.





As with these industry magazines there really aren’t many advertisements and they are mostly “business to business” (boring) - This one however caught my eye, fun art work.





Is the back cover trying to tell us something?

Freedomland Ticket Book & LP - Part 1

Welcome to Freedomland U.S.A. As if Freedomland itself wasn’t a complete and blatant copy of Disneyland, even the ticket book was quite similar. This rare book is missing the tickets (anyone have any????) but you can still see the obvious resemblance, even the “Welcome to” font on the front message sheet is the same as Disneyland’s!






I’m guessing the two red lines represent the Santa Fe Railroad tracks and the Ore Buckets path. Let’s see Freedomland had; a Santa Fe Train, a sky ride, a horse drawn trolley, a miniature car ride, a Pepsi Cola Music Hall, a fort, a sternwheeler, a river cruise, a mule pack ride, a horse drawn wagon and a futureland. Sure sounds familiar…






No mysterious date codes here, in fact, no date at all! The price for a child book is right in line with Disneyland’s early 1960’s pricing. New York City Amusement Tax? New York is about as amusing as Los Angeles.







My vintage collection is VERY light when it comes to Freedomland. I’ve got the ticketless book you see above, I’ve got a great 16mm amateur home move from 1961 that you’ll see someday, and I’ve got this neato record.

This LP was actually still sealed and yes I just removed the 50 year old shrink-wrap and it felt great, if not a little crispy.






They claim Freedomland is even larger than the fabled Disneyland. Maybe, but where are you now Freedomland? Apparently the music on the LP is the actual music that was heard on each ride.






I love this inner sleeve - it's all in the details.






The LP itself is in fine shape, having never been played. It doesn’t appear to be warped or damaged. I would have recorded the LP for you, but I’m feeling a little under the weather (cue the violins) so it will have to wait until Bonus Sunday.

Disneylander - April, 1958

From April 1958, this is what appears to be a reproduction of the “Disneylander” magazine, published monthly by the Disneyland Recreation Club.

While it is a so-so reproduction, it has a great cover photo and some neat detailed information about how the Columbia hull was moved into place.








Also an interesting article on the Grand Canyon Diorama official dedication. Did you know both Omnibuses left Disneyland and went to the Anaheim Santa Fe train station to pick up Santa Fe officials and take them to Disneyland?  Are the Omnibuses street legal?






The rest is pretty dry and “insider” info from 1958.  Did you know Joe Derkowski shorted out all of the lights on the last Viewliner car without even trying?

Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. Tickets - Part 3

Continuing with the train ticket series, today we a few new things to look at. See parts 1 & 2 also for some neat tickets (link part 1) - (link -part 2).

These first two scans were donated by Major over at Gorilla's Don't Blog. I better find some Disneyland Slides to share with Major!

These are great little tickets, this one is good thru December 31, 1966. These are compliments of "Santa Fe" I wonder how these were distributed? Notice this is only for main gate admission and one train ride. Worth about a buck and half in 1966. I guess you enjoy the "free exhibits" after your train ride or talk your parents into buying tickets in the park!

This one expires December 31, 1968. I am thinking these were only made for children? Nice contrasting of the trains drawings. Oh, look, this one has NO serial number, WOW, that's extra rare!

When major sent me these (THANKS MAJOR!) he wondered how long they were used. Does anyone know? I found this one below currently on eBay (290212395574). It shows a expiration date of December 31, 1960, so they must have had these for at least eight years!

Here's a nice color photo of Walt on the hand cart with the #2 E.P. Ripley in the background. This photo is huge and would not fit in my scanner. Did they sell these in the park? Where was the photo taken??????

I did a post last month last month that included a black and white photo of the Main Street Station. It was damaged at the clock area and the overall photo was aging quickly. See the original photo scan here (link).

Major at Gorilla's Don't Blog and Richard over at Viewliner Ltd both took my damaged photo and were able to fix it. It looks like magic to me. I tried the "Clone tool" and it came out so bad I think my clone did it!

Here is major's version.

Here is Viewliner's version, way lighter, I tried that and it faded to "all white".

Thanks both of you! Amazing work! Someone needs to train me on how to use Photoshop :-)

Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. Tickets - Part 1

In today’s post we take our first look at Disneyland’s Railroad Tickets. As you may know, for the first couple of years Disneyland had two separate train attractions, one at each of its two stations.

Main Street Station had what was once called the “Santa Fe and Disneyland Limited”. You boarded windowed, indoor style cars “for one first class passage” and you took a round trip circle tour with no stops. If the “Freight” train was stopped at the Frontierland Station, the Limited used a parallel set of tracks as a “passing siding” and passed right on by. Same deal at the Main Street Station. How cool would that have been to see in person!

Here is one of those early tickets for the “First Class Passage”. It’s not dated but I would put these at 1955-56 and early 1957, does anyone know for sure? All the stubs for each realm are just for show, alias this train did not stop in Holidayland or Adventureland or anywhere but Main Street. There is a conductor’s portion that is missing. Jed the “ticket with stub” king over at Vintage Disneyland Goodies may have one. Post it if you got it - Pretty please....

Here is the same type of ticket but in grey. The print is the same as the yellow one so I have no idea why there was a different color? Maybe it represents “child” or “adult” or maybe they just ran out of the other color? I posted this one vertical so you can read the little stubs, they are so cute! This ticket is 11” long; Knott’s had huge train tickets too! Did real train tickets used to be a foot long?

This image is borrowed from Miceage, this ticket is for the “Western Route”. “Frontierland Freight good for freight or cattle passage”. This was for the train from Frontierland Station which originally had true “standing room only” cattle cars. These were soon converted to open side cars with bench seating. (I think they still have these cars and they drag them out every once in a while). The stub does more or less indicate this is a round trip with no stops.

In the next installment of this series we will take a look at the tickets that followed these as a third station was added and the “Passing Siding” was eliminated. Check for part two on Wednesday, tomorrow we are having a “Private Party” at Disneyland!