Originally Posted By Brer Jules I apologize if this was covered in another thread - I searched for the topic but found nothing. What does it mean that the Main St station of the DL Railroad will be closed? Does that mean just the station house is closed and you can board the train at Main St? Or the train is running but you must board/disembark at New Orleans Square/ToonTown or Tomorrowland? Or the train is closed entirely?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros The building is closed for repainting, and there is no guest access to the station. Trains are still running, but you need to get on and off at one of the other stations
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder Someone will surely correct me if I'm mistaken, but didn't this type of maintenance used to be done on overnights so as not to inconvenience the guests?
Originally Posted By Manfried Now when something needs painted, and maybe some other work done, such as building needing repairs, how the heck can they do that in one night? No, rehabs used to close down buildings, attractions and restaurants for days and weeks in the old days too. Though some things could be done on the Monday/Tuesdays the park was closed.
Originally Posted By tonyanton Yes. And better to see this with necessary regularity in California, than the mess things must reach in Florida before they're even looked at...and then a rushed job is done.
Originally Posted By believe Perhaps less major closures were required when DL was closed on Monday and Tuesdays during off season. That gave them much more time to maintain the attactions and buildings, and therefore, not need such major closures.
Originally Posted By ksargen We still encountered painting crews back then, they were just on other things - fences, for instance...
Originally Posted By karlg I remember MSS when through a major repainting/staining work back in about 1999 or so. I remember back then they had paintings of the doors in place of the doors but not the whole station covered up. I would think that the daily year round park opening has some effect on how they have to do maintenance and doing bigger jobs less frequently. Another major factor is that all Main Street is all wood frame buildings built in a hurry in 1955. I got to walk in Walt's Apartment over the fire house in 1999, and as I remember itm the floor felt like an old wood floor that had some give to it, i.e., not totally solid. I suspect that some of the issue are in the maintenance of nearly 60 year old wood frame buildings. Back in the 1960's and 70's the wood was much newer and didn't need as much work. Doing major work on a building is not the kind of thing you can do in a couple of days.
Originally Posted By elene Must be more than they can do in a day or 2 because we were there a week ago Saturday and it was closed then too.
Originally Posted By Brer Jules So is it all covered up/shrouded, like when they were refurbing Sleeping Beauty's Castle before the 50th?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros It is covered up similar to the castle, but the tarps surrounding it are printed with an image of the building, so it still sort of looks like it normally would. The castle was covered in simple blue tarps, with plywood cutouts of the playing cards from Alice in Wonderland to make it a little more appealing, but it was rather plain all over. WDW has been using the printed tarps for close to a decade now, so it's nice to see DL starting to use them in select locations too.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros And speaking of the castle, any word on when they might repaint it again? Even with 8+ years to fade in the sun, it still looks far too pink for my taste. Given that the new princess area in Carnation Gardens includes a couple small turrets that are just as pink (if not moreso) as the rest of the castle, I suspect it will be a while, but I hope it's sooner rather than later. It would also be nice if they un-gilded the final spire too. Then again, Disney seems to have proven that there really isn't any imagination left in the world, so maybe it's fitting to keep it the way it is.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>It would also be nice if they un-gilded the final spire too.<< Urban myth. There were never supposed to be any ungilded spires.
Originally Posted By karlg "It would also be nice if they un-gilded the final spire too. Then again, Disney seems to have proven that there really isn't any imagination left in the world, so maybe it's fitting to keep it the way it is." I don't know how to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure the whole not gilding spire is a myth created for the "Walk in Walt's Footsteps" tour. It goes in there with the spike in the castle being at the center of Disneyland (which is easily provably untrue) and some other "stories/myths" that were made up for the tour. Apparently somebody noticed that one of the spires had aged more than the other and wrote it into the script for the tour. I guess when they redid the castle they didn't see the need to keep up the myth somebody had recently created. Comparatively, A Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour is is very mild in terms of the myths it spreads to the WDW Keys to the Kingdom tour which at time is cringe worthy for the whoppers I was told on that tour. I wouldn't take ANYTHING said on these tours as fact without a reliable source (and not some internet site repeating the myth that was told on the tour). Of course with the tours telling these "modern myths" to fans, they took on a life of their own. My understanding is that the tradition of keeping the light on in the Firehouse window started a while after Walt died. So while the story is embellished that it started with Walt dying, it is now a tradition that they keep up. But even knowing that the whole non-gold spire is a modern myth, I too have use the "they might as well gold up the last spire" in response to some things that have been done.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I took too long writing my response and mawnk beat me to it.<< An unusual reversal of the norm! :-D
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I don't know how to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure the whole not gilding spire is a myth created for the "Walk in Walt's Footsteps" tour.> It predates the tour - I've heard the gilded spire myth since the 70's.
Originally Posted By Nobody So, the story that the tour made up the myth is just a myth? This just gets better and better (unless, of course, you are making that up).
