1-Day Listing: Est. 1971 [June 5th only]

Closing out the week still at Magic Kingdom…and I expect, for reasons that you can probably guess, that we’ll be there much of next week, too.

But today we’re out front at the entrance, looking at Main Street Station at golden hour. I can't exactly verify it, but many say this is the second most photographed building at Magic Kingdom—second, of course, to the castle.

The style of the station has been described as "Eastern Seaboard Victorian." Unlike Disneyland's Main Street, which is meant to evoke a small Midwestern town (like Walt's Marceline, Missouri), our Florida version represents a larger, more prosperous turn-of-the-century East Coast town, so everything here is a touch grander and more ornate. In fact, the station's design is modeled on a real upscale Victorian train depot that once stood in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The lacy black ironwork along the roofline traces back to ornate metalwork that came into fashion in the 1880s–90s, when the Industrial Revolution made it possible to mass-fabricate precut architectural details and ship them around the country. So this lacework quality isn’t just pretty, but has real historical meaning.

The four steam locomotives that operate here are named for people central to Walt’s life and legacy—No. 1, the Walter E. Disney, for the man himself, No. 2 the Lilly Belle, for his wife, No. 3 the Roger E. Broggie, named for the man often called the first Imagineer, and No. 4, the Roy O. Disney, named for Walt's older brother, the man who made Walt Disney World a reality after Walt’s early passing. Engine No. 3 was originally meant to carry Roy's name and be paired with the No. 1 Walter E. Disney, but Roy declined. No. 3 was the twin to No. 1, and Roy didn’t want to be compared to his little brother. It wasn’t until after Roy’s passing that No. 4 was named for him.

Taken at 35mm, 1/100 second, f/2.2, ISO 100.