Imagine taking your kids to school in an old Disney World trolley
The Walt Disney franchise has had a long relationship with the automobile, from Mickey Mouse’s jalopy to The Love Bug to the animated Disney Pixar movie Cars. Not to be left out, Disneyland, when it opened in California on July 17, 1955, introduced Autopia, a popular hands-on car experience for kids of all ages. Today, Disney World’s Epcot turns it up a notch with the Chevrolet-themed Test Track. If you’re looking for something a little different, you can take a spin around the lake—well, actually, on it—in an Amphicar at Disney Springs.
For a more leisurely ride, however, Disney parks offer trolleys and shuttles. Some of the older models occasionally make it into the public’s hands after they’re decommissioned. Take, for example, this “1970 Walt Disney World Trolley,” located in Lutz, Florida.
Offered on barnfinds.com, the trolley car was supposedly used in the early years at Disney World, which opened to the public on October 1, 1971. The seller explains that Disney’s trolleys were built by the Noland Car Company before Cushman bought the business in 1987 and continued to produce them. “Almost every resort on Disney property had a car built to the theme of that resort,” the seller says, providing an image of a similar trolley parked outside the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, which opened in 1988.
If dates don’t seem to quite add up, there’s a good reason: the data tag (VIN 30148588) identifies the trolley as a 1990 Cushman, meaning it is actually two decades newer than the classified ad’s title. Regardless, the vehicle did transport visitors at Disney—often called “the happiest place on earth”—and it is in running condition. The batteries in the electric-powered trolley were new in 2021.
The previous owner added some personal touches, like installing a loudspeaker with multiple sirens/horns, as well as plug-in strip lighting, which can change color. The seller says the rearview mirror is original, and “the rear brake lights and one of the front LED lights work.” Included in the sale are a charger and a spare tire.
The seller warns that some rust and wood will need to be repaired or replaced, “so I would consider it a project.” Once that work is done, however, imagine how much fun it would be to take your children (and perhaps their friends, too) to school every day. Chances are, they’d be the happiest kids on earth.
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As this could never be legal to drive on any public road, then you’d have to live in a closed community, or a manufactured Disney “town”, if you want to drive it, or any kids, to the included school.
Think more carefully when writing these headlines.
My favourite Disney car: the Model T from “Son of Flubber”, but only if it comes with the Flubber abilities.
Many small towns are now allowing, with certain restrictions, side-by-sides and golf carts on public streets. I’m thinking this would qualify as a golf cart, and as such, with the proper safety gear required by local ordinance, could be driven on some streets.
Mike — I sit corrected.
Yes, I knew that those tight community/tight rules existed, but I was thinking more towards the majority of public places.
Still; I see NO Seatbelts, or even door/sidewalls.
To be in “contention” with real cars and trucks, is folly.
Helmets should be mandatory. Indemnity waivers too.
My sister lives in a huge neigborhood, in the city limits, and they allow golf carts. The school property adjoins the neighborhood, and there are plenty of golf carts picking up kids. Also, when vacationing in Florida a few years ago, the community we were in allowed golf carts on the road as long as they had been fitted with lights. Neither are the norm, but it happens.
Those allowances, and their restrictions, make sense.
Also helpful is the (hopefully shared) knowledge that “they are out there”, and ALL must be aware of their presence.
I guess it’s an interesting piece of history but to me it’s just a golf cart and nothing more.
An overloaded one at that!
In our golf course neighborhood with public roads, state maintained and in city limits, people ride golf carts all over, they’re not technically legal. Lately we’re seeing more vintage mopeds- yamahopper from the 1980’s for example, old school mini-bikes, even saw a Big-Red Honda 3 wheeler cruising around, oh and a 2 stroke kawasaki dirt bike. All non street legal. The cops have scaled back enforcement. They’re too busy, funds cut, too much public backlash… who knows.