HI folks,
Over the past few years we at Imagination Station Kids On Track have been engaged in a project involving kids in our program in which we have worked on building a Disneyland train. The locomotive was finished first with a custom drive installed by Barry’s Big Trains which would allow 11 LGB cars to be pulled behind the locomotive. This was the first LGB mogul conversion done by Barry and can be viewed on one of our other posts.
Walt Disney’s passenger car, Lilley Belle, was produced by LGB around 2006 but didn’t come anywhere near what the real car looked like. However, it astoundingly brings anywhere from $500.00 to $1000.00 on Ebay. The car didn’t have windows on each end (as pictured in the prototype photo), had no observation deck, had no lanterns, no forest green trucks and red wheels, and the curtains in the windows were the wrong color, to name a few things.
We wanted a car a little more accurately detailed and even though we knew it would not be exact, we thought the look would be more appealing if more of the details were added along with more prototypical painting.
Many kids and adults from our program assisted with funds, time, and ideas over the years to complete the car to our liking.
Some things were not done to match the prototype like not painting the handrails forest green and the decks red because we felt that the car had a higher appeal as it was.
Stan Ceaderleaf provided the decal work for the locomotive and the Lilley Belle car.
Permission was legally obtained from Disney in writing to construct, decal and paint the car and locomotive and from what we were told, we were the only group ever to be granted permission to do a project like this other than train manufacturers.
We appreciate everyone’s advice and assistance in this project and wish to thank; Stan Ceaderleaf, LGB, Barry’s Big Trains, Train Li, Kadee, Testors, Bachmann, Mike’s Painting in NY, Tomar, and many others for their contributions.
The train will be run by thousands of kids who may or may not ever see Disneyland allowing them to become an imaginary Disneyland Railroad engineer for a little while.
The train may not match the prototype exactly but I’m sure the public will enjoy it anyway!
Thanks! Ken c/o Imagination Station Kids on Track
Prototype photos are the property of their prospective owners.
All rights reserved.