Michael Jackson’s Railroad
Michael Jackson was a huge Disneyland fan. He would visit the park as much as he could, and the first new project Michael Eisner approved for DL after he became CEO was Captain EO. Michael (J) loved Disneyland so much he bought his own ranch, named it Neverland, and built an amusement park on the grounds.
Of course it had a train—three of them, in fact. The smallest was a German-built kid-sized electric train that ran in a small circle around a tree for a grand total of forty feet of track. The second was a standard 24" C.P. Huntington. But the third, the 3' Neverland Valley RR, is the one we’re interested in.
There were five stations, with the impressive Main Train Station resembling the one at Disneyland, complete with a floral clock in front. Passengers could also embark or disembark at the Electric Train Station near the front gate, the Zoo Train Station near the top of the property (a real zoo complete with elephants, giraffes, and other exotic creatures), the Flamingo Island Train Station near the gardens, or the “Train Station” nearest the movie theatre and amusement ride area. Looking at the map, the line ran along the left-side of the property, with two loops on either end for turnarounds.
The locomotive was none other than #2 from Carowinds. The Crown started life as a standard model delivered brand new to Carowinds, beginning operation in 1973 when that park first opened. Ole Blue ran the rails alongside her road mate #1 Melodia, a converted 0-6-2T Porter plantation steamer. After Carowinds shut down their trains for good after the 1977 season, the equipment sat backstage for awhile before getting disbursed to various interested parties. After being on display for awhile in Vermont, as well as a short run at South of the Border on the NC/SC state line along I-95, a mysterious buyer had #2 shipped to Shop Services in Mt. Pleasant, IA. The crew there was well-known for restoring and rebuilding steamers, and so under the strictest secrecy they began transforming her into something that even Disney wouldn’t sneeze too hard at.
Photo by Sharon Deckard, Shop Services, courtesy Denis Larrick.
#1 Katherine, named after Jackson’s mother, was quite the sight with a new headlight, domes, stack, solid teakwood cab, and other expensive touches. Jackson would sneak into the shop from time to time to check on progress and insist on the little things, wanting it just so. From an operational standpoint, the biggest change was converting her so a single engineer could run everything. The water and firing was now automatic, the idea being that someone could just hop in at a moment’s notice, crank it up, and start moving out shortly afterward. Jackson even retained an engineer on-call 24-hours a day so he could ride whenever the mood struck. Ah, the life of the upper crust.
The story of Jackson’s troubles is well-known, and after he died the rides were eventually sold off, with the property itself finally being bought in 2021. Rumor has it Katherine was sold for a movie prop and stored in a warehouse in Glendale, CA, but is now back on-site at the ranch. We’ll just have to wait and see.
And though this chapter got cut from the book, there are plenty more! Go order now before you forget. You know you will.
These photos were snagged from various websites, so if one of these is yours let me know and I’ll add your name.
The aerial shot of the train shed and turnaround looks to me as if both railroads were serviced from this location. If you look at a satellite map of the property you can make out the main line track layout, essentially a long single line with turnarounds at each end (much like at Dollywood). The track itself is just under a mile and a half, but the trip would be longer since you’d travel both directions. The map above does not show the turnarounds, just the main line along the left side of the ranch.
