A refurbished Big Thunder Mountain Railroad train has been uncovered, revealing the refurbished roller coaster trains, as construction continues throughout the Magic Kingdom attraction.
Refurbished Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Train
For reference, above is an older photo of a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad train. Note that the cars had an orange-ish finish while the engine was green, red, and black.
WDWNT spotted the U.R. Courageous engine and train cars during our Wednesday trip on the Walt Disney World Railroad. The engine was previously in this area near the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad loading area, but covered by tarps. The engine’s design appears to be the same, but the cars are more of a brown wood color than before.
Though the train is uncovered, it has yet to be tested on the new track. Disney has been testing with a clearance envelope and small carts. Right now, the envelope is on a section of track near the center of the mountain.
A test cart has also been sitting at this curve of the track for a few weeks. It was removed from the track but still sits in the same area. Meanwhile, the steel inside a nearby hole in the rockwork has been painted white.
Another section of rockwork that was torn away just this month has been filled back in. The concrete cover is sculpted to match the rock around it, but hasn’t been painted yet.
This bridge around a section of track has been mostly reconstructed. It was torn down and rebuilt over the past several weeks, with railings recently installed on the side facing Rivers of America.
A crane was transporting debris out of the ride’s queue.
The queue is where we saw the most activity, although it was hard to photograph. There were several crew members there, seemingly removing debris and supplies from the area.
We also saw a few crew members working in Tumbleweed. The refurbishment of the town’s buildings isn’t complete, but these crew members were on the ground around the track.
Scaffolding is up around the attraction’s new vehicle barn, likely for the installation of track leading from the barn to the roller coaster.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will reopen in 2026 with “a little bit of new magic,” Disney said. Watch our 4K multicam POV video of the ride from before its January closure:
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