It’s been a while since I’ve shared an item from the Joseph Green Disneyana collection. You may recall the Disney lunch boxes, the vintage Disney vinyl, and this much-loved comic book. I recently rediscovered today’s featured treasure tucked away in a bedroom closet. Unique for its perfect condition and has, in fact, never left the box it came in.
Walt Disney’s Carolwood Pacific Train Set
Before we take a look at the train set, I should provide some back story for those of you who may be unfamiliar with Walt Disney and the Carolwood Pacific. Walt Disney’s love of trains began at an early age and continued throughout his life. As a means of transportation and later, an employment opportunity for Walt’s dad, his uncle, and finally Walt himself, trains started and remained an important theme and source of inspiration for many of Walt Disney’s cartoons. This fascination with locomotives culminated in 1948 with Walt’s decision to build his own 1/8-scale steam engine named Lilly Belle in his wife’s honor. He also had plans at that time for building a theme park for families that would feature a railroad station. Walt named his backyard train the Carolwood Pacific Railroad. More complete information can be found here.
Joseph’s train set was manufactured by Bachmann and is HO scale. The set features the Lilly Belle engine, two gondolas, one boxcar, and a yellow caboose. 
The headlight on the engine is advertised as a working one. The track will make a 47-38″ oval and other shapes. This makes it suitable for placing around the base of a Christmas tree. Not that I’d know first-hand or anything on account of the unopened box situation. That’s the thing with collectors like Joseph – sometimes items become much-loved and well used and others, for reasons unknown to me, are destined to remain in mint condition.
Do you have any Disney collectibles that have never left the box? Do you have a train that runs around your Christmas tree? Let me know what that’s like!
