Disneyland Railroad Tender

This Disneyland railroad tender was designed and drawn on paper then hand lettered with enamel
The Disneyland railroad was one of the original rides at the park, and all of the trains are hand lettered. I worked at Disneyland for seven years. I did hand lettering every day on projects throughout the park that included window lettering on Main St., wall signs throughout the Magic Kingdom and various silk screened projects and show cards for cast members celebrating retirement or birthdays. In 2005 the park was literally gold leafed throughout, including the Magic Castle and the Merry-Go-Round. It was something to see and I’m glad I got to be part of that.

On this particular job WDI decided to redesign the lettering on the tender for the C.K. Holiday train. Warren asked me to redesign a computer created drawing and draw it out by hand as it was done in the old days.

This is the design that was approved. It is lettered with One Shot enamel. The tender was repainted in the Disneyland Paint Shop and brought to the Disneyland Sign Shop. The work was completed in a large room in the Sign Shop building that was used for the purpose of doing large projects like lettering train tenders.

Columbia Fire Engine Vehicle Graphic

This vintage fire truck is being restored and I did the vehicle graphic for the cowling lettersThis fire engine is a beautiful machine, gold leafed and pinstriped, It was built in 1926 by Seagraves Fire Engine Company. The placement of the vehicle graphic was crucial to the beauty of the existing paint.

Dave is in the process of restoring the complete truck and wanted a new name designed for the truck and have it placed on the split hood and also on the gas tank. I also did some sketches for the illustration of a ‘southern belle’ to decorate the lower part of the hood. I did several sketches and after they were approved went on site to do the gold leaf and hand lettering.

I worked in a covered garage and Dave wanted to learn some gold leaf technique so he helped me where he could. I did the stripping and all the brush work that you see. The work took several days and it turned out to be a really nice job. I hope Dave learned enough to stripe the rest of the fire truck. I haven’t heard yet how that went.