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For Disneyland's 50th anniversary, the company had a great idea: add a fifth train to the Disneyland Railroad and name it after Ward Kimball, a Disney Legend and, like Walt himself, a railfan. This is the story of how a locomotive built in 1902 became part of the Happiest Place on Earth.
The story begins not in a theme park but at a Louisiana plantation where a small locomotive called the Maud L. was first put to use over a century ago hauling cane sugar through the hot, humid fields. As the Maud L. ran down over the years, she was destined for scrap—but then her "life" took a change for the magical.
Disneyland Railroad expert Steve DeGaetano tells the tale of how the Maud L. became the Ward Kimball:
The whistle blows. A puff of steam rises over Main Street Station. The Kimball has come. All aboard!