March 2, 2012
Location: Main Street, USA, Magic Kingdom (now
retired)
Lately I have been talking a
lot about one of my new favorite experiences
at Walt Disney World: Sorcerers of the Magic
Kingdom. This game has it all! Adventure,
interaction, and most importantly free
collectible cards! The game is a huge hit,
but there is one huge drawback to the game
and that's the disappearance of this week's
Fun Find Friday.
The premise of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is
guests go around, with the help of Merlin the magician, and stop
Hades evil plan of taking over the Magic Kingdom. While going
through the park there are several different portals that guests can
interact with. Sounds fun, right? Well, it is, but the Main Street
Train Station contains one portal that I'm not too happy about.
The portal is a slightly lit up train bulletin
featuring the times of incoming and outgoing trains. Not bad, right?
Well, actually, wrong. You see, before this train bulletin was
present, another one was featured against one of the other walls in
the station and it looked like this:

Pretty nifty, right? Yes! But what is even cooler is
the secret meaning behind the Arriving and Departing trains here.
Each line represents a fun find in Disney's history and today we'll
be taking a look at all of them.
Let's start at the top at Grizzly Bear Flats and
Kimball Canyon. Kimball Canyon is named after Disney animator, Ward
Kimball. Ward was just as enthusiastic about trains as Walt was.
While Walt had a train going around his backyard, Kimball took it
one step further by creating a full sized train in his backyard that
featured 500 feet of track! The name of his train? The Grizzly Flats
Railroad!
Next up is the town of Hickory and Siddons City. In
1966 Disney released a very uplifting film called, Follow Me, Boys!
The film focused around newcomer to town Lemuel Siddons who comes to
the town of Hickory and starts a Boy Scout troop in town. The main
character, Lemuel Siddons and the town in the film both get nods on
our second line of the train bulletin.
Who doesn't love Flubber? The substance, not the
1990's film starring Robin Williams. The Absent-Minded Professor
focused around an absent-minded professor (who would have guessed?)
that creates a sort of flying rubber...or Flubber! During the film
he helps the college he works at, Medfield College, win in a
basketball game against rivals Rutland College (which we can only
assume is in the town of Rutledge after looking at the bulletin
board).
I'm so glad to share the next line with you. That's
right! Our next line takes a look at the "Glad Town" from Pollyanna,
Harrington. During Pollyanna's time at Harrington she made quite an
impact on the entire town, but she may have made the biggest impact
on the grumpy old man in town, Mr. Pendergast.
The final line on the train bulletin is probably the
most obscure since it references a live action film most have never
even heard of. In the 1967 film, a butler travels to California and
unbelievably knocks out the strongest man in town. He soon becomes
someone to fear, but in reality remains quite proper. The name of
the man? Bullwhip Griffin of course!
So next time while walking around Disney make sure
you take some time to read the lines in obscure places. They are
probably references just waiting for you to discover!