Ward Kimbal was one of the great Disney animators who was responsible the creation of some of the most loved caracters. Kimbal was also quite a railroad enthusiast and his extensive collection is reknown worldwide.
 

I wrote this to a friend at the time:

Ward Kimble has died.

He was one of the original 9 Old Men of Disney animators and was also a legend among train buffs. In the thirties...perhaps forties...he and his wife rescued a couple of narrow gauge steam engines and other pieces from a defunct Nevada narrow gauge railroad. He brought them back to his ex-urban LA home, refurbished them (one was dubbed "Emma Nevada," the other "Chloe") and would run them back and forth on about 900' of track. He had to give up running the "Grizzly Flats" railroad as he called it, when suburbia encroached. The locomotives are now at museums.

When Ward was animating the "Little Engine That Could" part of "Dumbo" Walt Disney told him to "make it just like yours except cartoon it up!"

A few years ago a train buff magazine printed a letter someone wrote in after a Kimble bio had run. The writer had been a member of a train buff group where Kimble had been an officer. One evening they were having their regular meeting at a playhouse that had been putting on Peter Pan. They had the use of the hall on an off night. Kimble was on stage reading off some dry boring organizational stuff and on completing his report another officer asked if there was anything else. The writer related how Kimble got a funny look on his face then suddenly rose off the stage and began flying around the room...courtesy of the Peter Pan wire work.

When I was a kid we lived next door to my uncle, Cliff Nordberg, who was an animator at Disney. I remember going next door and learning to swim in their pool and Uncle Cliff would have a few of the animators over from time to time. I'm sure I've met "the nine old men of Disney" but I was too young to remember. We moved up to Washington state when I was six and I only saw him when he'd stay in his vacation home up there in the summers. The last time I saw Uncle Cliff was when he was working on drawings for The Rescuers the summer I turned 12. He passed away not long after that.

He used to draw caricatures of our families at reuninons, thanksgiving dinners, etc. and they were great. I have a couple drawings of myself he did too.

One thing I do remember as that all those guys were real nice.