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For over 50 years Ward Kimball was President of a tiny narrow gauge line that operated “when needed” on his “estate” in the heart of Southem California. Three fabulous little steam engines hauled a covey of wooden carriages ~ all of them notably historic - on a bit of "branchline” complete with omate depot, enginehouse, water tank, windmill, and spindly tracks. The whole operation seemed so unlikely that some who heard about it dismissed it as a "Hollywood fantasy,” to which there was actually some truth.

But the Grizzly Flats Railroad stayed in business for over half a century without changing which is a long time for any railroad operation, no matter what its background or reason. For that alone it deserves a place in the annals of narrow gauge railroading. But in addition, the G.F.R.R. has managed to preserve a certain “spirit” of narrow gauge railroading that other surviving opera tions offen lost in the straggle just to maintain their equipment.

Ward Kimball is am artist: his Hollywood connection is the lifelong work he did for Walt Disney as the animator of famous characters such as Jiminy Cricket, and the friends of Dumbo. Dis-ey's gift of the Grizzly Flats station, following a 1930s movie, helped form the nucleus of Ward's backyard railroad. That backyard itself - back then surrounded by orange groves - was somewhat like a canvas for this artist, On it he produced a very large work - as if he were Rembrandt or Michelangelo - except that his subject was a train. Throughout the years, critics and pablic alike have given that work nothing but rave reviews.

"The whole idea of having a backyard railroad started in the spring of 1937." said Ward Kimball, recalling a time when few people thought of preserving historic trains, especially near their own homes "The Southern Pacific-owned Carson & Colorado was burning up a fot of their old passenger car equipment and, if you happened to know about this, any one of their antique day coaches could be purchased for $50.00, trucks and all, We thought that having a full-sized passen ger coach in our back yard would made a unique bar of a railroad museum.”

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