Rather than travel to Disneyland, one Californian architect has built the happiest place on Earth right in his own backyard – and he’s allowing visitors in for free.
David Sheegog, 65, has spent 25 years creating a miniature replica of a Disneyland railroad in his modest suburban Anaheim Hills backyard, naming it Castle Peak and Thunder Railroad.
Sheegog grew up a stone’s throw from Disneyland, watching the firework shows from his front yard with his parents, and when he had his own children, he was inspired to create a magical experience for them.
He started out with a model on his dining room table, but over the years he has expanded to cover every inch of his yard, adding Snow White’s house, Splash Mountain and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘My favorite thing isn’t something we’ve built, it’s seeing how people enjoy it. When we have open houses and I see families interacting with each other, sometimes I just sit on the bench and watch the people.’
Sheegog started building the display in 1999 and started welcoming visitors in 2015
Some of the parts he built from sets, others from scratch and some he 3D-printed
He has recreated fan favorites including Splash Mountain and the Haunted Mansion
The Haunted Mansion – as a trained architect, Sheegog approached his dream with a meticulous, planned, approach
The project has expanded piece by piece to cover his entire yard
As a trained architect, Sheegog approached his dream with a meticulous, planned, approach.
His first step was to ask his wife, Frances, if he could take over their backyard.
She agreed, putting in place one rule: there had to be room in the middle for their now-adult children to play in.
Permission granted, he set about designing.
He said: ‘We were homeschooling our kids and I thought the railroad might catch their fancy and it might be something they want to pursue.
‘As they get older I thought they might be interested in the electronics or the gardening. It was intended to be a living laboratory of sorts.
‘But it turned out they were all more interested in playing with their friends so it became dad’s project.’
He told the Orange County Register: ‘I built a model of the whole thing that took up our dining room for a year. We had to eat in the kitchen.’
Fortunately, the whole Sheegog family are Disney-obsessed. Sheegog once worked at Disneyland on the Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes and the couple even named their daughter after Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
At first, Sheegog started out with a commercially-produced model train set, modifying it to create detailed miniatures of all five Disneyland trains.
He was so detail-obsessed that he even color-matched the paint samples with the real trains.
He started out with a commercially-produced model train set which he modified
He included a miniature version of the famous statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse
Mickey and Minnie Mouse are key features of the mini Disneyland
Sheegog had high ambitions for his designs, he told The LA Times: ‘Most of the garden railroads I had seen people had bought pre-made kits of little plastic buildings that are all about 12 inches by 8 inches.
‘They look like premade little buildings, like a barber shop. No.’
He added: ‘I wanted to build this from scratch, and wanted them to be impressive, like 5 feet across and 4 feet tall. Or in the case of one our castles, 7 feet tall.
‘I had to plan these out as to where the major buildings would be.’
He started construction in 1999 and showed the first version to his friends and family in 2000.
Over the years, as the project has expanded, his techniques have grown more high-tech.
Some of the features he built from sets, others he made from scratch, and some, in recent years, he 3D-printed.
He added Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain and Snow White’s village as well as references to almost every Disney or Pixar film from 1937 to 2021.
He has added to the set piece by piece over two decades with help from his family
The railroad runs through the center of the set, with five trains identical to the real world Disneyland
In recent years he purchased a 3D printer allowing him to perfectly recreate features
The couple doesn’t like to discuss the cost of the build, but estimated it has added up to around the same price as installing a swimming pool.
He told the LA Times: ‘We are not wealthy people here, and I’m trying to figure out a way to retire because there’s not a way to do it right now.’
Occasionally visitors ask how much it would cost to hire him to build them a Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.
He said: ‘They think you can do it for $300 or $400, and I say, “It’s probably going to be about $70,000 to build that thing again,” It takes someone six months of their life to build that.’
In 2015, Sheegog and his wife began opening their garden to the public a few weekends a year, with tickets selling out almost immediately.
Entry is free, partly because the family doesn’t want to attract the attention of corporate lawyers.
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle is one of the prominent pieces in the set standing at over seven feet tall
Guests can visit for free on select weekends throughout the year, details can be found on their website
He has even built in working water features and light shows
He told the LA Times: ‘There was a woman here one time, and she was close to 100. She worked in the park on opening day, when Walt Disney was there, and worked in the park her whole life.
‘She had a whole crowd around her, just listening to stories about what it was like. She started weeping. As she was talking, she was reliving her life when she was 20 years old, her first love, where she met her husband.
‘All these memories come back, and a lot of people who come here are that way because we’re in Anaheim.’
Although Sheegog is hoping to retire this year, he has no plans to stop expanding the project.
He is designing two interactive experiences, complete with laser shows, holograms animations and live actors.
He said: ‘We grew up with the park, and it has a certain sentimental niche in your psyche. People just want to be around it, and our place provides an outlet for that.’
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
