What’s At Walt’s Barn? ~ King George V
Locomotive
When Lillian
Disney died the Disney Estate was sold and the new owner decided to demolish
the home and Walt’s barn where he worked on his backyard trains. Diane Disney
Miller, Walt & Lillian’s daughter asked if she could have the barn.
The barn was dismantled
moved to the Los Angeles Live Steamers Club/Museum (LALS) in Griffith Park, Ca.
Walt was a member of the LALS and had donated the track from his trains to the
club before his death.
There are many
wonderful items in the barn today. You will find items that belonged to Walt
and some that belonged to some of his top animators, Ward Kimball and Ollie
Johnson along with others. There are also many items from Disneyland.
Today I’m going to
share about the King George V Locomotive that sits in the middle of the barn.
This is a beautiful old locomotive belonged to Walt Disney and has an
interesting story to tell, if only it could talk.
In 1951 Walt and
Lillian took a holiday to Europe. While there Walt went into the Bassett-Lowke
Ltd. Shop in London to look around for a train to add to his new backyard train
set. It was early in the day and Walt made the purchase with the agreement to
come back in the afternoon to finalize the purchase and arrange shipment back
to the United States.
Shortly after Walt
left the shop another American came in and wanted to buy the locomotive Walt
had just purchased. The shopkeeper told the man the locomotive had been sold but
to come back that afternoon to see if the purchaser changed his mind.
That afternoon
both men met at the train store and got to talking over this locomotive. Walt
asked the man what he did for a living. When he said he was an artist Walt told
him to come talk to him when he got back to America. Walt did not let the gentleman
have the King George V.
This second
American train enthusiast was none other than Harper Goff! Harper did look Walt
up when he got home and ended up designing the Nautilus Submarine for 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea. He worked on many other Disney movies. He also developed
conceptual ideas for Disneyland including Main Street USA and the Jungle
Cruise.
Walt and Lillian
took a cruise ship home to America. He had the locomotive crated and shipped home
on the ship with him. On the way across the “Pond” the crate with the prized
locomotive became soaked with sea water and the locomotive suffered water
damage. Walt never repaired the King George V locomotive. He was too busy with “plans
for his little park”, Disneyland. The locomotive has sat in storage unrepaired
and unused since 1951.
On a funny note,
Walt could never have ran the King George V on his tracks as his existing
layout was 1/8 scale and the King George V is a different scale.
This train, along
with a picture of a dejected Walt Disney checking out the water damage after
getting it home are on display at Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn.
I’ll be posting
more stories from the barn in the coming days.
To find out more
about the Carolwood Barn check out their website.
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