While new pieces of track continue to be installed at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom Park, the latest construction involves repainting the town of Tumbleweed.
Big Thunder Mountain Construction Update
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was originally closed for an extended refurbishment in January 2025. Brown construction walls continue to block the entire queue pathway, as well as the exit path to the right of the entrance.
Several of the main queue buildings are still covered by a brown scrim. Construction crew members can be seen working inside on what appears to be repainting the walls and sides of the buildings.
As we watched, some of the crew members moved outside to the right building.
Zooming closer, they are painting the exterior of the queue buildings as well as the interior. The lower half of this wall was coated in white primer before receiving a fresh color.
Instead of the usual flying dumpster, a new piece of equipment was being lowered onto the track via the tall crane. This appears to be a gas pump, commonly used for tasks like welding.
One of the several portable generators has now been moved to the side of the mountain just above the queue building. The generator is required to power various tools, so there may be more jackhammer or other replacement work taking place on the other side of the hill.
From the deck of the Liberty Square Riverboat, we could see where a new tripod was added to the queue path behind the construction walls. This appears to a weather station device used to record data like humidity, wind speed, and temperature.
Moving to the right side of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a new area is being prepped for a piece of track to be installed.
The black metal supports for the new track piece are visible below the temporary plywood walkway.
Crew members were holding several cables and wheeling more gas pumps. If these are indeed used for welding, they will likely be used to connect the pieces of track once installed.
Once completed, the new track piece will connect to this existing piece that sticks out from the side of the barn. At the moment, the white circle highlighting the connection points is visible on the left.
The track for this sharp curve section by the water was installed a few weeks ago, but there are now new pink lines spray-painted onto the left side of the rocks. The lines create a long rectangular shape that may be the location for some additional rock work.
As we floated past, a construction crew member stopped to wave hello. More buckets and orange cones can be seen lining the walkway within the cave.
The new straight pieces of track have mostly been installed where the concrete supports were replaced. This area is still wrapped in metal scaffolding, but there appear to be far fewer crew members working in this section than previously.
More of the gas pumps are stationed on the scaffolding on this side, close to another section of supports waiting for new track.
Back by the guest walkways of Frontierland, work continues on the mystery building being constructed between Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Several crew members were in the process of installing sheets of metal across what appears to be the roof of the new building.
Finally, we boarded the Walt Disney World Railroad to get a view of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad from the opposite side. Since our last construction update, work on the town of Tumbleweed has progressed considerably.
Three crew members were working together on repainting the front of the Gold Dust Saloon. At the moment, they seem to be touching up the white paint that is used on the window frames and the corners of the building.
Most of the buildings and facades in Tumbleweed have been wrapped in scaffolding just like the saloon, so all of the buildings in this area will likely be repainted in the coming weeks.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is expected to reopen from its lengthy refurbishment sometime in 2026. While previous construction permits for the area expired in February and March, Disney recently filed a new construction permit that does not expire until April 2026. Disney has teased that the attraction will have “a little bit of new magic” when it reopens, though no more details have been shared yet.
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