Appearance at Railroad Days marks the steam engine's first departure from the amusement park.
FULLERTON – For the first time in its 52 years, the C.K. Holliday Locomotive No. 1 will leave Disneyland and trundle down Harbor Boulevard for a guest appearance at this city's ninth-annual Railroad Days on Saturday and Sunday.
The 9-ton engine will be loaded onto a flatbed truck about noon Friday for the half-hour trip to the Fullerton Transportation Center, 122 E. Santa Fe Ave.
This marks the second year the amusement park has allowed one of its four steam engines off of the premises.
The C.K. Holliday, which has circled Disneyland since it opened in 1955, was recently retrofitted with new parts so it can operate with cleaner, biodiesel fuel.
The resort will also loan its Kalamazoo rail handcar, long displayed in front of Disneyland's Main Street train station.
The prized engine, named for Cyrus Kurtz Holliday – the founder of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad – is one of two built at the Disney studios.
Locomotive draftsman Ed Lingerfelter modeled the engine on the Lilly Belle, Walt Disney's one-eighth scale engine that circled his back yard.
Employees from the park's roundhouse will be at the Fullerton event to discuss the locomotive. The Southern California Scenic Railway Association will also offer tours of two vintage cabooses set up on a side track at the Fullerton station.
Holliday Engineer Damian Stellabott, 34, of Fullerton said he won't be able to attend this weekend's railway gathering. But he is thrilled train fans will be able to explore the cab where he has sat for seven of his 17 years at Disneyland.
With an oil can in his pocket, the engineer arrives each morning to fire up the boiler, check the water and fuel, wipe case grease off of the bearings and make his test run around the park.
"There are people who get on the train and ride it for hours, especially when it rains," Stellabott said. "It's the only attraction that you can stay on continuously."
