Western Railroad Discussion > Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch Railroad

Didn't know he had a railroad around his ranch, it is 1 1/2 miles.

Anybody know anything about it?
What type of train(s)?

Don't know too much, but hear it slips all the kids in and out of the station and they serve wine in coke cans.

Nudge

From what I recall from the different news clips, it is a typical "park train". The loco is a CP Huntington clone with the blomberg trucks on it. As for scale/guage, it is probably larger than 1.5"...

It is a C.P. Huntington Manufactered by Chance rides inc it is 24inch gauge. We have one at the zoo where I work. They are a nightmare to work on. Bill J

The locomotive is a little hard to identify it's originality, as it has gone through several rebuilds on the nose, and is hardly recognizable anymore, the color scheme has faded really bad also, and it is really hard to identify the origional livery...... ô¿ô

Don't go there, just, don't go there.

Oh there are SO many ways it could have gone.... but I didn't. I felt nobody would be offended the direction I went.... ô¿ô

http://www.chancemorgan.com/graphics/chanpics/Spec_C_P_Huntington_Train.pdf

This railroad was the subject of a previous post. On Feb 07 2003 at 06:23 "run8" posted a response to a question about the railroad on the Neverland Ranch. The railroad is 36-in. gauge. The locomotive is a propane-fired live steam 4-4-0 built by Crown Metals for Carowinds in Charlotte, NC (amusement park). The cars came from Six Flags when they dismantled their train ride.

The locomotive is a Crown product but it came from the Carowinds Park in North Carolina. It is set up to be a one man operation and yes it is propane fired. It was rebuilt by Shop Services in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and displayed for a time before Jackson acquired it.

Photo by Sharon Deckard

JB

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The coaches behind the Crown are said to have come from a trainset which operated at Six Flags Over Mid-America in St. Louis. The entire train operated for a short time at the company's Great America (Chicago) park before the locomotive found its way to Busch Gardens in Tampa, and the coaches somehow found their way either to Mt. Pleasant or White River Jct, Vermont, where the Jackson engine and another Crown were displayed.

More in my article at "On Track",
http://www.bjwrr.com/ontrack/crown.htm

The locomotive was also displayed at South of the Border (sigh) along I-95. If you've driven down the East Coast, you know where it is. Jackson does also have a Chance Rides C.P. Huntington 2' trainset (the most common amusement park train about these days), which I was told operates around his 'amusement park'. The Crown runs on a 3' track from a Disneyland-style depot out into the hills.

There's a video at a German fan site for Jackson showing a ride behind the locomotive,
http://www.mjackson.de/specials/neverlandtrain/inhalt.htm

Sharon tells me the German film crew was one of the few allowed in to Neverland to film this. Most visitors supposedly must first declare their film and video cameras upon entry to the Los Olivos property.

OnTrackEd Wrote:
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> Most visitors supposedly must first declare their
> film and video cameras upon entry to the Los
> Olivos property.

Homeland security???

jb

More like the Moonwalking Mafia!

He's apparently got quite a few of his own people staffing the place. One rumor suggested a paid engineer to keep the fire up all night so he could take a 'night ride' (as neighbors will supposedly say is true). I was told the client had some issue realizing a steam locomotive was the farthest thing from a "turnkey" machine, which he apparently expected.

Um... very little of the information previously supplied was correct. Now, I can only tell you what I know to be true from a 30-minute special on Jackson and his ranch, but regardless of the other posts, I know what I saw. The railroad is 24-inch gauge, and he owns no fewer than two locomotives. One of them is indeed a C.P. Huntington-type 4-2-4, and the other is a 'real' steam locomotive, propane-fired, looked nearly identical to the small-scale propane-burner at Knott's Berry Farm (not the ex-DRGW stuff). The photo in one of the above posts is WAY TOO BIG to have become one of the Neverland locos.

-a

MJ has two railroads. One is 24 inch gauge the other 36 inch gauge.

If you put the address '5225 Figueroa Mountain Rd, Los Olivos, CA 93441' into maps.google.com you'll get a very good color image of ranch and railroad. You'll be able to pick out stuff you see in the cabride video.

--
JBrownCS

Just use this link: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=5225+Figueroa+Mountain+Rd,+Los+Olivos,+CA+93441&ll=34.741870,-120.091767&spn=0.005718,0.007918&t=k&hl=en

to get to it.

Looks like it is a balloon track at one end, and than a single track main, than another ballon track, and the yard and station in between the balloons.

He has two railroads...as described. I've been there.

In fact, it is also correct about the 36" ga. Crown...I've seen it run. I was "negotiating" with a contact there to do some running of that engine before the s--- hit the fan a few years ago. Probably won't get my chance.

I spent two summers running the twin to that 4-4-0 that Jackson owns...in fact, the cars on one of the trains I ran were the same cars that now run behind the Neverland 4-4-0.

The Crown 4-4-0's are fun and simple to run, with Wabco brakes, etc. In my steam engineer days, I was attempting to replace the throttle handles on our locos with more realistic notched handles salvaged from scrapped Alco diesel switchers, courtesy of a midwestern scrapper. No such luck.

Seems like I heard that Chance Mfg. in Wichita, Kansas built the train or some other attraction for that guy. Anybody else hear this?