There’s a mysterious crane beyond Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. We’ve gotten a few questions from readers about this, and are sure to get more once work kicks into high gear in 2025. So, what’s it for…Cars or Villains Land? Replacing roller coaster track in BTMRR? Removing buttes to install high-powered cellular towers inside? Let’s dive in!
The first thing to know about this big crane is that Walt Disney World announced that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is Closing for Refurbishment at Magic Kingdom until 2026. It’s really not much of a mystery–the crane almost certainly relates to that BTMRR project. That closure had been rumored since before the start of summer, and became an open secret once the first construction permit was filed in June.
At that time, work was expected to begin in August or September. And in fact, since around sometime in the fall, there has been work occurring beyond Big Thunder. If you looked left while on the first lift, you could see a big bulldozer (sung like Mater) and other heavy machinery doing what looked like land clearing and staging. Now we know for what: this big ole crane.
As far as the refurbishment goes, Walt Disney World has only announced that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will close for refurbishment on January 6, 2025. The last day to experience BTMRR in its current form is January 5, 2025. The wildest ride in the wilderness is planned to reopen sometime in 2026 with a little bit of “new magic.”
That’s all the company has said about this year-plus closure. Officially, there are no details about what it’ll entail aside from the nebulous “new magic.” It’s our understanding that this closure is first and foremost a refurbishment and not a reimagining.
However, there’s no way Walt Disney World is going to close Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for between a year and 18 months and not have anything marketable to show for it when the attraction returns. There will likely be new lift hill effects, nighttime lighting, redone show scenes with Easter eggs and other historical tributes–something, anything.
Based on rumors and construction permits that have been filed, it’s our understanding that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster needs a significant refurbishment involving substantial work on the ride system and retracking. This long-planned project is viewed as preventative work that’s crucial to extend the useful life of the roller coaster, ensuring the ride’s longevity and operational status for decades to come.
This checks out. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opened in 1980, so it’s no spring chicken. At least, by roller coaster standards–every person born in the 1980s is still young and vibrant. While the ride has had a number of multi-week winter closures in the last several years, the last lengthy closure was in 2016 when Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was down for 4 months in the late summer and early fall. It wasn’t re-tracked during any of those, though.
It’s also our understanding that Imagineering has attempted to take BTMRR down for multi-month or year-long refurbishments a few times over the last several years, but park management pushed back every time. As a result, lengthy projects that were previously planned got truncated into weeklong routine maintenance.
Anyway, it stands to reason that the big crane is for re-tracking of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
You can’t completely tell from the photos here, and I didn’t want to be taking shots while whipping around on the roller coaster itself, but the crane is staged on a site that’s behind Big Thunder and is not part of the Cars or Villains Land development areas.
This should make sense. For one thing, the water management permitting process isn’t finished for the Cars and Villains Land projects. We are expecting that to be signed-off on soon by the state, but work can’t begin in earnest until that happens. Also, it’s not on that site because it’s currently water, for the most part. The Rivers of America is still filled with water and all of those attractions remain open.
It also makes sense that Walt Disney World would want to get started on the re-tracking ASAP and have everything ready to roll before the ride itself goes down.
The previous rumors suggested that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad would need to be down 18-24 months for re-tracking. That’s a lot of lost capacity, and for a long time. It’s also happening at a time when Magic Kingdom is about to lose more capacity…and as there’s a decent amount of deferred maintenance that needs to be done on other attractions.
This is precisely why Peter Pan’s Flight, Jungle Cruise, and other Magic Kingdom attractions have received refurbishments this year–before Big Thunder. And why all of this happening after Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opened. Magic Kingdom management doesn’t want too many major attractions to be down simultaneously. They’ll also want the BTMRR closure to be as short as possible.
This Big Thunder multi-year closure is also notable because it’ll overlap, at least in part, with work to fill in the Rivers of America and begin Cars construction. Among other things, this will include connecting BTMRR and Villains Land with Liberty Square and Fantasyland.
With that said, one important thing to note is that we do not expect the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, or the Liberty Square Riverboat to close in early 2025. Based on the public permitting process and what we’ve heard, those closures are several months behind BTMRR, at the earliest. (For a thorough discussion of when we expect to see those attractions and areas to permanently close, see When Will Rivers of America & Tom Sawyer Island Close at Magic Kingdom?)
Regardless, early work on Cars Land is likely to start at some point before 2026. Having Big Thunder closed while filling in the Rivers of America would certainly expedite the process and make construction easier. Not only that, but there will be a path that connects Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Frontierland with Liberty Square and Villains Land, so work on this can begin during the refurbishment.
Just look at the concept art above–the main thoroughfare on the far right runs between Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion, and there’s a smaller pathway veering off the art that leads into what will become Villains Land. This development doesn’t really change anything with the anticipated closure of Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’s closure was inevitable and already (more or less) a known quantity.
It’s also possible that the Rivers of America, or a portion thereof, will need to close to complete the re-tracking of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The crane is on the far left side of the attraction, and it’s unclear whether it has enough reach to swing over to the far other side and replace track that swoops over the (current) waterfront. But if that’s drained, it becomes a whole lot easier to move the crane (or use a different one) and re-track that section.
I don’t purport to be an expert on any of this stuff, but it seems possible that Disney could install a coffer dam allow this BTMRR re-tracking work to be done while also preserving access to Tom Sawyer Island and the view of the Rivers of America for the entirety of 2025. They’ve done this type of thing before–it’d look like this photo from 2018, but in reverse:
That approach would actually make a lot of sense for establishing the usable gravel laydown yards, beginning work on the pathway connecting this Frontierland dead-end to Haunted Mansion, and re-tracking BTMRR. Like Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom, all of this work isn’t going to take the same amount of time…so no need to start it at the same time.
Anyway, if you see a big crane towering over Magic Kingdom, re-tracking of Big Thunder Mountain is almost certainly its purpose. These photos don’t even do it justice because they’re all taken from Frontierland, closer to the crane, and without it being fully extended. When it’s in use, you’ll be able to see it outside the park (from the ferry or monorail) as well as areas of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland that have clearer views.
On the one hand, it’ll add a bit of blight to the skyline. On the other, it’ll be cool to see roller coaster track moved into place! Honestly, I’m looking forward to watching the pieces put into place…and all of the construction on the horizon at Magic Kingdom. It should be fun to see take shape, and most is at enough of a distance that it won’t impact the guest experience. But if perfect sightlines are paramount for your thematic immersion…you might want to avoid Magic Kingdom for the next ~5 years. This is just the first of many cranes that are going to pop up on this side of the park and be visible throughout!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the mysterious big crane beyond Big Thunder? Do you agree or disagree that it’s for roller coaster re-tracking? Are you looking forward to seeing the crane in action, or disappointed by all the blight and construction starting soon? What do you think about the lengthy ride refurbishment/reimagining of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad? Hope these classics are updated to ensure their longevity for decades to come? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
