These are not new videos but they are reuploaded back from when this site was just a (now gone) blog from blogspot.
The first two are probably the most interesting: they’re Steve D’s videos from the Ward Kimball dedication run in June 2005 early in the morning before the park opened. This was held after Boschan Boiler Restoration Inc. completed most of the work on the engine (few final bugs remained before full service) and the engine ran with one car around the park a few times for the DRR crew and those worked on the engine. The then-president of Disneyland was also present. You can read more about this dedication run in “From Plantation to Theme Park”.
The first video is the Ward Kimball rolling out of the roundhouse on the way to the dedication run. It’s interesting to see the actions around the roundhouse before it does not often welcome visitors. The #3 Fred Gurley is also on the near by track performing blowdowns as part of the preparation to roll onto the main line.
(There is also an upscaled and stabilized version of this video here).
The second video is a cab ride on the Ward Kimball during the dedication run. It’s interesting to see the park so empty in the early hours of the day. Note also that one of the final bugs mentioned above is the cylinder cocks being stuck opened, hence the insistent steam spewing out in the front of the engine. I don’t think the Ward Kimball ever had another cab ride (for non DRR crew) since this run.
(And another upscaled version here; whether upscaling was helpful or not—you decide!)
The rest are simulation videos during the computer model recreation of the CK Holliday. They’re less exciting but nonetheless mechanically interesting to see how the parts ended up working in the computer model just like the real engine.
The first one is probably the most ambitious (at the time), it shows how the eccentrics, rotated on the front driver axle, drive the rocker on each side of the engine alternatively to time the steam entrance and exhaust into each cylinder. It’s hard to explain until you’ve seen it in motion.
This second video is another view:
This video shows what’s going on inside the boiler when the throttle in the cab (left side of the video) is pulled. The throttle link opens up the “pop-valve” on top of the dry pipe, the vertical pipe on the right side. This lets the steam into the pipe and out into the cylinders (technically the steam chests first)—(also, this view looks weird before the boiler and steam domes are hidden/not shown):
Finally, here’s a study of what the throttle looks like when it’s pulled. It was made to study the arc of the small little links at the end of the throttle bar, which rotate so slightly when the throttle moves back and forth.
That’s all for now—but I may have some non-exciting news later.
