One of the highlights for me when I visit the park is to ride the Disneyland Railroad from the Tomorrowland Depot back to the Main Street Train Station. The extra "treat" is getting to see the Grand Canyon and Primeval World Dioramas. Wacky, campy, silly, and fun...probably very outdated today, but I love 'em, and I hope the folks at Disney will keep this part of the show there for a long time. Walt wanted a big finish to the train ride, and this was his solution. It is a perfect marriage of sight and sound with the combination of the stunning painting, taxidermy, audio animatronics, and Ferdé Grofe’s music from his “Grand Canyon Suite.” The Primeval World figures debuted in 1966 (photo #1 is from July 7) and were originally used at the 1964 New York World’s Fair Ford Magic Skyway Pavilion. I will round out the post with 3 commercial Panavue slides:
See more vintage & current Disneyland Railroad photos at my website.
6 comments:
Hey those Panavue slides don't look anything like the ones I have, mine seem to have gone to the "dark side", well, make that the RED side. Did you correct these? They sure look nice :-)
Thanks!
Yup - those Panavue needed a little lovin' from Photoshop. They must have used the cheapest film stock for those.
Wow, you did an awesome job restoring those Pana-Vues! They look brand new.
Are you telling me that you don't ride the train all the way around the park? Just from Tomorrowland to Main Street?
Major - Yes - I do ride the entire Grand Circle Tour...but I happen to really like the Diorama. For some reason, I also like pulling into the Frontierland Station, passing the Mardi Gras decorations before the tunnel, too.
I just visited Disneyland for the first time this last Christmas and was totally surprised by this part of the train ride. For me, it was the BEST part of the park. I think it was that way because it was 50% surprise, 50% nostalgia. I could just smell the dust on all that! Amazing it is still there after all those years. Way to go Disneyland!
Congrats on your first visit, Nate! Glad (but not surprised) that you had fun.
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