Railroad at Disney's Animal Kingdom

[Roy]

What's the wheel arrangement of these locomotives?

[CC4455]

All 3 of them are 2-4-2T wheel arrangements.

[Roy]

All 3 of them are 2-4-2T wheel arrangements.

Thank you!

[Main Steet Jim]

Yeah I wasn't that impressed by the railroad the last time I was there. The Railroad would have been so much nicer if it had been used as a way of getting around the park. Since the park is so large in the first place having a train around the park would have been a faster way to move from one side of the park to another.

Well, when the park first opened, they had the Discovery River boats that guests thought were supposed to be transportation around the park. There's two loading docks, one at the front of the park, and one back between Africa and Asia. The boats made a round trip, passing by the other dock while guests there wondered why the boat didn't stop. The queues got so backed up that it would become well over a two-hour wait. And yes, there were things to see along way: Dragon Rock, the cave with flames shooting out of it, the geysers...and there may have been more.

Then they decided to make it into a "Radio Disney cruise", which turned off a lot of guests. They would bring these "experts" onto the boats with small cages or boxes of smaller animals or insects, hoping to "teach" people about conservation, etc. They finally got rid of them early on in the park's history.

Let me see if I can find a link to what happened to the boats:
Here's a WkiPedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_River_Boats

[Locoboy5150]

Dragon Rock, the cave with flames shooting out of it, the geysers...and there may have been more.

Is the flame shooting cave still there and operating? It was the last time I went to Animal Kingdom 11 years ago.

[Steve]

Is the flame shooting cave still there and operating? It was the last time I went to Animal Kingdom 11 years ago.

Still there? Yes. Still operating? No. There isn't a good way for anyone to see it anyway since they closed the boats.

[Brian]

I agree it would have been nice to have the railroad as transportation around the park, because the park is so big. It would be nice to not have to walk all the way to Everest or the Safari. To me Disney seems to be making major changes and improvements to their parks lets hope that Animal Kingdom will get a little Imagineering TLC. I recently thought that if Disney wanted to add a North American section to the park, like over by camp Mickey, Disney could do a new version of the Mine Train through natures wonderland.

[Roy]

...I recently thought that if Disney wanted to add a North American section to the park, like over by camp Mickey, Disney could do a new version of the Mine Train through natures wonderland.

I can see Sam's ears perking up.

[Cannonball7]

Looks like the Wildlife Express is shutting down permanently (if this article is correct) in October:
https://www.themeparktourist.com/news/2 ... -grow-walt

Sad...even though it was diesel outline, it wasn't a bad little train ride. I wonder what Disney is planning to do with the equipment?

[Locoboy5150]

Sad news. I know that some people could care less because the Wildlife Express used steam outline locomotives, I lament the loss of any train rides from any theme park. They are a dying breed at parks these days and we are now in a time when new parks (Shanghai Disneyland) do not have any train rides whatsoever.

The Walt Disney Company is out to make money. I know and have come to accept that. That doesn't mean that I have to like it though. There are *WAY* too many suits and ties upstairs now.

Well...that's exactly why all of my money that I normally would have spent lining the Walt Disney Company's pockets has instead lined the pockets of the Oriental Land Company recently. I happily will give my money to a company that not only cares about their guests' experiences, but actually SHOWS it out in their parks and throughout their resort.