“I suppose I’ve always been in love with trains,” Walt wrote, and in October we will celebrate his lifelong locomotive love at The Walt Disney Family Museum, and here on Storyboard.
In 1976, America celebrated its Bicentennial and in observation of this moment, an enclosed railway passenger car that was part of the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad was redesigned and recreated into a new, elegant, private coach to be ridden by VIPs, dignitaries, Cast Members, and other special guests.
In honor of Walt's wife, Lillian Disney, this private car was re-christened the Lilly Belle.
At the time, the Walt Disney Family still owned the Disneyland Railroad and Monorail systems under Walt's private company, Retlaw.
In our monthlong celebration of Walt's status as a railfan, including daily screenings of The Great Locomotive Chase throughout October, we thought it would be interesting to reveal some of the pages from the Lilly Belle guest book. Click here for the PDF and see how many of these signatures you recognize! We'll help you with this first one: This famous producer and director had just declared Star Wars on an unsuspecting public, and the future Oscar®-winning writer and director of Lost in Translation was only six years old!