Main Street Vehicles

Main Street Vehicles is a series of turn-of-the-20th-century-style vehicle attractions consisting of narrow gauge tramways with horse-drawn streetcars and free-roaming motor vehicles in Disney theme parks throughout the world. They usually operate in their respective Main Street, U.S.A. sections, transporting park guests between the Town Square at the park's entrance and the Central Plaza at the park's center. The original Main Street Vehicles attraction is located in Disneyland in California and includes horse-drawn streetcars and motor vehicles. The Main Street Vehicles attraction in Magic Kingdom within Walt Disney World in Florida has nearly identical offerings as its Disneyland counterpart. In Disneyland Park (Paris), the horse-drawn streetcars are billed as a separate attraction from its Main Street Vehicles and are simply named Horse-Drawn Streetcars. Only motor vehicles are included in the Main Street Vehicles of Hong Kong Disneyland. In Tokyo Disney Resort, its Main Street vehicles, which also only include motor vehicles, are split between its two parks: Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Unlike the Main Street Vehicle attractions in the parks in the US, France, and China, the ones in Tokyo Disneyland run in the World Bazaar section, and have the alternate attraction name Omnibus; while the ones in Tokyo DisneySea run in the American Waterfront section, and have the alternate attraction name Big City Vehicles. In the past, omnibuses were also present in Epcot within Walt Disney World.

Attraction concept origins
Walt Disney and Disney animator and fellow rail enthusiast Ward Kimball travelled to the Chicago Railroad Fair in Chicago and Greenfield Village, an open-air museum in Dearborn, Michigan, in the summer of 1948. The historic vehicles that Disney saw at these locations led him to include several types of turn-of-the-20th-century-style vehicle attractions, including a horsecar, in a detailed description of a Mickey Mouse Park, which he first outlined in a formal Walt Disney Studios memo submitted on August 31, 1948. The concept of Mickey Mouse Park evolved into what would become Disneyland.

Disneyland
The Main Street Vehicles attraction in Disneyland in California opened with the park on July 17, 1955, and is located in the Main Street, U.S.A. section. Attraction vehicles present in that section on opening day included horse-drawn streetcars, horse-drawn surreys, and a horse-drawn fire wagon. In 1956, transport via horseless carriage (a.k.a: jitney) and omnibus were added. On August 16, 1958, fire engine rides were inaugurated. Bob Gurr of WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering) developed all of the attraction's free-roaming motor vehicles. The fire wagon was retired in 1960 and put on display in Disneyland's Town Square fire station, and the surreys were discontinued in 1971. A one-way trip on each vehicle between the Town Square at the park's entrance and the Central Plaza at the park's center initially required an A ticket or a fee of 10 cents. Ride tickets and fees were replaced with a pay-one-price admission system in 1982.

The draft horses used to pull the Main Street Vehicle's narrow gauge horse-drawn streetcars consist of Belgians, Brabants, Clydesdales, Percherons, and Shires, and were originally housed on-site at the Circle D Ranch. To accommodate construction of Disneyland's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge section in the late 2010s, the ranch was permanently moved 28 mi away from the park to a facility in Norco, California, which had its grand opening on June 10, 2017. At the Circle D Ranch, new horses go through specialized training for six to twelve months to deal with their future work environment in Disneyland, including becoming acclimated to balloons, bands, bubbles, strollers, and umbrellas. Once training is completed, each horse employed with the Main Street Vehicles is transported to the park via horse trailer on its workdays, which consist of four-hour shifts three to four days a week.

Beginning at the Town Square loop adjacent to Disneyland's entrance, an individual horse controlled by an onboard conductor will pull one of the four Main Street Vehicle streetcars along the attraction's single-track tramway at up to 4 mph, with all four streetcars capable of operating at once. Each open-air streetcar vehicle, designed by WED Enterprises, weighs just under 2 short ton and has forward-facing bench seating that can hold up to 30 passengers. Draft horses, which are larger than riding horses, usually weigh between 1,600 lb and 2,000 lb, and can pull loads weighing 8 long ton on level rails. The horse-drawn streetcar goes around the Town Square loop in a clockwise direction, runs along the line's main stretch, heads through the right side of a midpoint passing siding (allowing two streetcars going in opposite directions to pass each other), continues up the main stretch, enters the Central Plaza loop in a clockwise direction, and stops in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Prior to a major refurbishment of the tramway in 2018 in which new rails were installed and the pavement surrounding them was replaced with brick, the switch at the start of the Central Plaza loop would send streetcars around the loop in a counterclockwise direction. Each time a streetcar passes through a switch on the line's main route, a spring-loaded mechanism is triggered that moves the switch to the opposite position. Once the journey resumes, the horse-drawn streetcar moves around the Central Plaza loop in a clockwise direction, arrives back at the line's main stretch, rolls through the right side of the passing siding (the opposite side of the one used previously), continues down the main stretch, reenters the Town Square loop in a clockwise direction, and stops where it started, completing the line's 1,830 ft route.

Magic Kingdom
The Main Street Vehicles attraction in Magic Kingdom within Walt Disney World in Florida opened with the park on October 1, 1971, and is located in the Main Street, U.S.A. section. The attraction's present vehicle types are horse-drawn streetcar, jitney, omnibus, and fire engine. Each vehicle transports guests between the Town Square at the park's entrance and the Central Plaza at the park's center.

The draft horses used to pull the Main Street Vehicle's narrow gauge horse-drawn streetcars consist of Belgians, Clydesdales, and Percherons, and are housed nearby at the Tri-Circle-D Ranch. The ranch is located in Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground within Walt Disney World.

Epcot
Omnibuses started operating in Epcot within Walt Disney World when the park opened on October 1, 1982, and were located in the World Showcase section. They were eventually discontinued as transport options for park guests due to difficulties with navigating them through ever-increasing crowd sizes, and at least one omnibus was used as a parade vehicle in the park until the early 2000s.

Tokyo Disneyland
The Omnibus attraction in Tokyo Disneyland opened with the park on April 15, 1983, and is located in the World Bazaar section. The attraction only operates within the Central Plaza at the park's center.

Tokyo DisneySea
The Big City Vehicles attraction in Tokyo DisneySea opened with the park on September 4, 2001, and is located in the American Waterfront section. The attraction's present vehicle types are touring car, paddy wagon, and delivery truck, among others.

Disneyland Park (Paris)
The Horse-Drawn Streetcars and Main Street Vehicles attractions in Disneyland Park (Paris) opened with the park on April 12, 1992, and are located in the Main Street, U.S.A. section. The Main Street Vehicle attraction's present vehicle types are omnibus, fire engine, paddy wagon, limousine, and Mercer; it also has a delivery truck not available for rides. The separately billed Horse-Drawn Streetcars attraction only includes horse-drawn streetcars. Each vehicle transports guests between the Town Square at the park's entrance and the Central Plaza at the park's center.

The draft horses used in the narrow gauge Horse-Drawn Streetcars attraction are Percherons, and are housed onsite at the simply named Pony Farm. The three streetcars that the horses pull can be differentiated from their counterparts in the American Disney theme parks by their enclosed cabins with wood-panel interiors and inward-facing seating arrangements that can accommodate 15 passengers each.

Hong Kong Disneyland
The Main Street Vehicles attraction in Hong Kong Disneyland opened with the park on September 12, 2005, and is located in the Main Street, U.S.A. section. The attraction's present vehicle types are taxi, omnibus, and paddy wagon. Each vehicle transports guests between both ends of the Main Street, U.S.A. section.