The Santa Fe & Yesterland Railroad has a station conveniently located near the Midget Autopia, the Motorboat Cruise, and Skull Rock. On the park map, it’s labeled as the “Fantasyland R.R. Station,” but the sign on the station reads “Fantasyland Depot.”

The festive little Fantasyland Depot has a striped roof that suggests a medieval tournament tent. It’s really not much more than a canopy to shelter guests from sun and rain. The little structure draws attention to the fact that the train stops here.

If you start your train ride at the Fantasyland Depot, be sure to ride the train all the way around the park. You’ll get a great view of the Burning Settler’s Cabin. The Santa Fe & Yesterland Railroad is a good way to see the Living Desert without having to use one of your valuable tickets for the Conestoga Wagons, the Stagecoach Ride, the Rainbow Ridge Pack Mules, or the Rainbow Caverns Mine Ride.

When Disneyland opened in 1955, there were two train stations and two trains. The Passenger Train offered nonstop round trip rides from Main Street Station, while the Freight Train provided round trip rides from Frontierland Station. For more information, see Passenger Train, Santa Fe & Yesterland Railroad.

In 1956, Disneyland opened a third railroad station, the Fantasyland Depot.

The original railroad route from 1955 had a long, straight stretch on the north side of the park. It went along the edge of the Living Desert and passed just north of the Storybook Land Canal Boats.

In 1966, just ten years after it opened, the Fantasyland Depot disappeared. It was a victim of progress—or actually a victim of “the happiest cruise that ever sailed the world.”

The railroad track was rerouted when it’s a small world was built. This provided room for the loading area of the ride and a future expansion area. The area between the Storybook Land Canal Boats and the new track was eventually used for Videopolis (1985), the dance club, which later became the Fantasyland Theatre, home to such shows as The Spirit of Pocahontas.

Railroad passengers lost the great view of the Living Desert because there was now a large meadow between the train track and the Living Desert. But the narration still pointed out the Living Desert and the space for expansion:

“Across the open grass meadow, you can see part of the colorful Living Desert and Old Unfaithful geyser in Nature’s Wonderland. Walt Disney once said, ‘Disneyland will never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world.’ And here in Frontierland there are still wide open spaces for imagination to conquer someday.”

After an absence of almost 20 years, Fantasyland once again had a train station in 1985. The Videopolis Station opened along with the Videopolis dance club. It was little more than a concrete platform and some landscaping, just west of it’s a small world.

In 1993, Fantasyland once again lost its train station—even though the station didn’t move. Fantasyland’s Videopolis Station became Mickey’s Toontown Train Depot.

At first, Disneyland park maps continued to list the station under Fantasyland, but eventually it joined the new land, Mickey’s Toontown.

Train stations don’t last very long in Fantasyland.

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© 2008-2013 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks

Updated Febraury 7, 2013.

Photo of Fantasyland Depot with Monstro the Whale: Charles R. Lympany, circa 1958, courtesy of Chris Taylor.
 
Scanned image of a small section of the 1962 Disneyland souvenir map: Copyright 1962 Walt Disney Productions (The Walt Disney Company); included here for historical illustration.
 
Photo of Fantasyland Depot behind the Midget Autopia: Charles R. Lympany, circa 1958, courtesy of Chris Taylor.
 
Photo of Fantasyland Depot behind the Storybook Land Canal Boats: Charles R. Lympany, circa 1958, courtesy of Chris Taylor.
 
Aerial photograph of Disneyland, March 24, 1959: Courtesy of the Orange County Archives, Santa Ana, California.
 
Aerial photograph of Disneyland, July 27, 1970: Courtesy of the Orange County Archives, Santa Ana, California.
 
Photo of Videopolis Station: Chris Bales, 1988.
 
Photo of Toontown Train Depot: Werner Weiss, 2013.
 
Photo of Toontown Train Depot sign: Allen Huffman, 2004.