Ward Kimball - Grizzly Flats Railroad

Grizzly Flats Railroad

Along with his employer and friend Walt Disney, and fellow mate Ollie Johnston, Kimball also collected old railroad ephemera. Kimball was an avid railway enthusiast and donated his 3 ft (914 mm) gauge collection to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California. A full-sized steam locomotive, - which Kimball ran on his private 3-acre (12,000 m2) backyard railroad known as "Grizzly Flats Railroad" in San Gabriel, California - bears some of his original artwork on the headlamp and cab, and is on permanent display at the museum.

In addition to the full-size equipment, Kimball was also an avid collector of model trains.

Kimball is also credited with helping Walt Disney for the inspiration to install the Disneyland Railroad at Disneyland. Inspiration for the Disneyland Railroad also partly came from Walt's own personal 7 1⁄₄ in (184 mm) gauge, live steam backyard Carolwood Pacific Railroad -- also partly built by Ward. Kimball's Grizzly Flats train station was the model for the Disneyland Frontierland Train Station. Engine No. 5 of the Disneyland Railroad is called Ward Kimball.

• Emma Nevada locomotive at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California.

Kimball's talents are also evident in the reproduction steam locomotives built for the National Park Service at the Golden Spike site at Promontory, Utah. Kimball helped match colors with an engine at the Smithsonian Institution and painted the artwork for the replicas of the Union Pacific No. 119 and Central Pacific Jupiter built by O'Connor Engineering Laboratories for the Park Service.

In recognition to his love of railroading and support of the Orange Empire Railway Museum, the Perris Transit Center, where OERM historic trains travel to, is dedicated to Mr. Kimball. In a rare deviation from their usually tight copyright policy, Disney permitted the city to decorate the transit center with Kimball's artwork. The center is currently served by Riverside Transit Agency buses, with train service projected to begin in 2011 as part of the Metrolink Perris Valley Line.