Epcot Garden Railroad

Bill, regarding the garden RR at the Germany Epcot exhibit, that's the way it's always been every time I've gone-- no rolling stock at all.

Probably due to people throwing pennies into the gondolas.

Not to mention that their is less of a chance for derailment.

They have derailments. When I was there one of the engines derailed and no one seemed to be around maintaining the layout so I stepped over the small fence and attempted to put it back on the rail. It's hard getting an engine on the track when you still have voltage going to it so the breaker must have tripped because the power shut down. I decided I better hop out before the Mickey police took me away to the magic kingdom jail!

Who sponsors that particular exhibit these days?  It used to be LGBoA, I believe, but they are long since gone.  It's ridiculous to be operating a train that isn't really a train!  Better to do away with it altogether.

We can get around this with maybe a nice streetcar, or even a trolley

I was there in 2008 and it was the same way,  maybe it was pulling a caboose wasn't much to look at.

You would guess that a place like Disney would have a beautiful exhibit.

 

Alex

 

Being local, I've seen that display dozens of times and it's always a disappointment.

 

Last time I was there, one locomotive (pulling only a caboose) was crawling around at a snail's pace and one piece of stock sat idle off to the side.

 

I agree, better to dismantle it and put something else there if it isn't going to be maintained properly.

It's really too bad because it has potential to be a very nice display but there is really no point if there not willing to put more time and attention to it.

Years ago trains of 3-5 cars did run on it. My sons and I watched it for about an hour as several trains were running on different loops. Even then, there were some glitches with the hilly section behind the path.

 

The last time I was there it was as described above. The loss of sponsorship may well be a factor in the layout's decline. Also, I doubt Disney gets many complaints about it. It needs some TLC. It might be a nice opportunity for MTH to sponsor with its line of G gauge trains.

All I can say is that I saw no trains, running or stopped. And some of the track I saw just ended, not going anywhere and it appeared that some of the track had no rails on it.

 

And this is what I saw about 6 hrs. ago, on my very first day ever at Disney World. And yes very disappointed in the model train setup.

 

I was surprised to see this thread this evening, only hours after seeing it. My wife wasn't surprised by me going over to see it. What caught my eye was the buildings and I had to see if there was any trains and all I saw was some track.

 

Paul