“Ward Kimball” No. 5

Design and Construction

Ward Kimball No. 5 was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in September 1902 as a Forney-type 0-4-4T tank engine, the same general design later used for Fred Gurley No. 3 on the Disneyland Railroad, though the two locomotives arrived at the park nearly half a century apart. It was built for the Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation near Thibodaux, Louisiana, where it hauled harvested sugarcane under the working name “Maud L.”

Industrial and Amusement Park Service (1902–1999)

After its plantation career wound down, the locomotive moved to Cedar Point, the Ohio amusement park on Lake Erie, where it continued running as excursion power on the park’s own railroad. At some point during its time at Cedar Point, a leading two-wheel truck was added beneath the front of the engine, converting its wheel arrangement from the original 0-4-4T to a 2-4-4T, a modification that likely improved how the locomotive tracked through curves.

Acquisition by Disney and Restoration (1999–2005)

Disney acquired the locomotive from Cedar Point in a trade in 1999, adding a fifth engine to the Disneyland Railroad roster after decades of running with four. The restoration was extensive rather than cosmetic: Boschan Boiler and Restorations in Carson, California handled a frame-up rebuild that included a new boiler and a new cab, work that stretched across several years before the locomotive was ready to safely carry park guests. It entered service on the Disneyland Railroad on June 25, 2005, timed deliberately to coincide with the park’s 50th anniversary celebrations that year.

Naming and Tribute

The engine was named in memory of Ward Kimball (1914 to 2002), a Walt Disney Animation Studios animator who joined the studio in 1934 and rose to become one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” the core group of animators Walt Disney relied on to define the studio’s classic feature-film style. Kimball is credited with designing Jiminy Cricket for “Pinocchio” and animating memorable sequences in “Dumbo,” “Cinderella,” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Beyond animation, Kimball was a serious railroad enthusiast, maintaining a full-sized live steam railroad at his own home in San Gabriel, California, and serving as a past president of the Train Collectors Association, a passion that by most accounts helped fuel Walt Disney’s own fascination with trains and, indirectly, the existence of the Disneyland Railroad itself. No. 5 is the only Disneyland Railroad locomotive not named for a Santa Fe Railway executive, breaking the pattern set by Fred Gurley and the park’s other engines. As a personal tribute to Kimball’s work, the locomotive’s headlight bears a gold-leaf silhouette of Jiminy Cricket, the character design most associated with his animation career.

Current Status

Ward Kimball No. 5 has spent most of its two decades on the Disneyland Railroad in regular service, rotating with the park’s other steam locomotives through the maintenance cycles that keep a small operating fleet running daily. As of the most recent reporting, the locomotive is out of service undergoing overhaul, a routine part of keeping century-old mechanical equipment safely certified for passenger use, and it is expected to return to its normal rotation on the Disneyland Railroad once that work is complete.