Grizzly Flats inspired Walt Disney, excited neighborhood residents and gave joy to the family that owned and ran it.
It was short in length – but long in its reach.
The Grizzly Flats Railroad’s steam engines traveled for 70 years along a 500-foot-long stretch of rails next to the San Gabriel home of Betty and Ward Kimball.
Along the way, the Kimballs’ picturesque narrow-gauge line helped inspire Walt Disney to build the famous passenger train system that circles Disneyland.
Now, though, its locomotives, vintage cars and caboose have been hauled away, and workers have finished pulling out the steel rails and wooden ties. Soon, the antique-looking Grizzly Flats train depot will be dismantled. The old train barn and firehouse will be demolished.
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