| Viewliner | |
| The Viewliner prepares to depart the Tomorrowland Station in 1957 with Walt Disney himself manning the controls. | |
| Disneyland | |
| Attraction type | Car transport system |
|---|---|
| Opening date | June 26, 1957 |
| Closing date | September 15, 1958 |
| Guests per car | 2 |
| Followed by | Monorail System |
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Disneyland's Viewliner was a narrow gauge, miniature train that once operated alongside portions of the Disneyland Railroad main line.
The attraction commenced operation on June 26, 1957 and was billed by Disneyland as "the fastest miniature train in the world." Two separate trains, designed and built as scale replicas of General Motors' futuristic Aerotrain,[1] traveled along a figure-eight track through parts of Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. The Tomorrowland train featured cars that were named for the planets, while the cars of the Fantasyland train were named after various Disney characters.
The modern, streamlined trains were placed into service to represent the future of rail travel, in contrast to the steam-powered DRR which represented its past. Motive power for each train consisted of an integral head-end unit driven by an Oldsmobile "Rocket" V8 gasoline engine. Oldsmobile also furnished the windscreen, doors and instrument console for each of the two 5,000-pound (2,300 kg) locomotives. The attraction operated until September 15, 1958 when construction began on the Matterhorn and Submarine Voyage; the Disneyland Monorail System ultimately took the place of the Viewliner in June 1959, thereby making it one of the shortest-lived rides in the park's history.