June 1, 1948, Walt and Lillian bought the lot where they built the house where they lived until their deaths - Walt in 1966 and Lillian in 1997. The home was located at 355 Carolwood Drive in Los Angeles, on 5 acres in the developing and exclusive Holmby Hills area, and they moved in during February of 1950. There is very little information on the house itself, but it's rumored that Walt did not want it to be a mansion like the other homes in the area, because he did not want a staff to maintain it. Almost all literature on Walt's time at this address focus on his building a miniature railroad around the property, which is dubbed the Carolwood Pacific Railroad. When Lillian died in 1997, the property was sold. The new owners promptly tore down the house, siting structural problems and asbestos. The Carolwood Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a 7 1⁄4-inch gauge ridable miniature railroad run by Walt Disney in the backyard of his home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It featured the Lilly Belle, a 1:8-scale live steam locomotive named after Disney's wife, Lillian Disney, and built by the Walt Disney Studios' machine shop. The locomotive made its first test run on December 24, 1949. It pulled a set of freight cars, as well as a caboose that was almost entirely built by Disney himself. It was Disney's lifelong fascination with trains, as well as his interest in miniature models, that led to the creation of the CPRR. The railroad, which became operational in 1950, was 2,615 feet long and encircled his house. The backyard railroad attracted visitors to Disney's home; he invited them to ride and occasionally drive his miniature train. In 1953, after an accident occurred in which a guest was injured, the CPRR was closed to the public.
The Carolwood Pacific Railroad inspired Disney to include railroad attractions in the design for the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. Railroad attractions in Disney theme parks around the world are now commonplace. The barn structure that was used as the railroad's control center is now at the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. The Lilly Belle, some of the freight cars, and the caboose are now on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California. Did you ever visit Cat Nip Junction? If you had the chance to ride the rails of the Wacky Soap Box Racer, then you were there! Designed by 22-year-old phenom Eddie Sotto, the attraction utilized the same track system of the 1976 Motorcycle Chase but with ride vehicles that had a lower center of gravity and could accommodate the whole family, four riders in tandem. Opening to the press on July 10, 1980, Sotto considered the $1.2 million Racers to be like an outdoor dark ride. After a lift hill, riders glided into Cat Nip Junction then fell under the city sewers and into Seymour Dud's Fireworks Factory for an explosive ending. Sotto stated, "The concept of the ride is for our park guests to travel through a living cartoon." Sotto designed a streamline modern and neon-encrusted kitty city comprised of the Daily Yarn newspaper, Cat o' Combs barber, Cat in the Bag fast food joint, Bob Katz garage, Sandbox cocktail lounge, and the Manx Theatre featuring the movie, "Catsablanca." Each ride vehicle had a painted pie tin on its rear with a specialized name created by Sotto himself: Fast Eddy, Mad Cap Marion, Dancing Darrell, or Romeo Racoon, among many others. The Soap Box Racers were inaugurated by racecar drivers Wild Bill Shrewsberry and Parnelli Jones (Shrewsberry won their Soap Box race). In 1996, the soap box vehicles were removed and the ride's wacky music silenced when the attraction was demolished to make room for the Windjammer racing coaster, now the Xcelerator roller coaster.
This isn’t a great film, it’s neat and a fun distraction- and there’s some cool steampunk imagery and mystery and danger... and then they arrive at the Island and it all falls apart, even the Vfx. But that first half with the airship and the snowy mountains - I’m a sucker for that. And Joss Wheadon’s dad wrote the script. @ahfdvds MATTERHORN BOBSLEDS (ANAHEIM, Calif.) - The first tubular steel roller coaster opened in 1959 at Disneyland, rising 159 feet over Fantasyland. Guests on the Matterhorn Bobsleds scale the snowy summit in a racing toboggan and speed down the slopes to a sensational splashdown in an Apine pond, while the Abominable Snowman is rumored to be lurking around every turn. HISTORIC TRIO - Three of the most popular attractions at Disneyland - the Disneyland Monorail, Matterhorn Bobsleds and Submarine Voyage - all debuted on the same day, June 14, 1959.
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