What’s in a number?

What does the number 4 mean? There is a deeper connection than you may realise…

The Dreamworld Cannonball Express steam locomotive which was the opening day engine at Dreamworld has an incredible history in itself, with its WW1 heritage, and being left for scrap, destined to never run again. However it isn’t that story we are telling today. Today we are looking at the meaning of the number 4, which the locomotive was proudly numbered from day one of its Dreamworld rebirth.

Like Walt Disney, John Longhurst insisted that Dreamworld would have a railway. Due to the lay of the land, his railway couldn’t circle the park like Walt’s trains, but none the less, a train was built as an attraction first for Dreamworld.

With all the other Disney influences found throughout Dreamworld, it should be no surprise that the locomotive of the park would also call on a lost relative… the Ernest S Marsh at Disneyland.

Like the Cannonball Express, the Ernest S Marsh was originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, and had an industrial operating life before it was selected to be overhauled into the locomotive we see today.

When Longhurst found the locomotive, he ordered for its design to borrow several cues from the Disney engine. The locomotive was heavily modified during this process, during which they gave it diamond smokestack, it was converted from a tank engine (like Thomas the tank engine) to a tender engine (the carriage that follows it holds the water and fuel), and a new cab was built to resemble the Marsh. With lots of red paint and brass, we’d say he got exactly what he wanted.

So what about the number 4? Dreamworld only originally had 1 locomotive, not 4. So why was it given that number? Let’s go back to the Ernest S Marsh.
The Marsh commenced its working life at Disneyland in 1959, and was the 4th locomotive added to their fleet, hence why it bares the number 4.

Longhurst and co decided it wouldn’t be right without their locomotive also baring the number of the engine that inspired theirs, so a number 4 medallion was added to the front smoke box of the Cannonball Express, calling back to its long lost cousin, Ernest S Marsh – Engine 4.