I’m Mike Neal, and my claim to fame is simply that I’m the husband of Julie Neal, the author of the guidebook series The Complete Walt Disney World. Our friends Doobie and Rebekah Moseley asked me to create a photo essay for Laughing Place that focused on the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster coming to Disney World, so this past Sunday I walked around it, camera in hand, wife in tow. The result is this collection of shots.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not an in-depth construction report—I am not a construction expert and have no inside knowledge of Disney’s construction schedule. But I have always been interested in construction. When I was little, I used to pester the bricklayers working on new homes in our St. Louis subdivision, asking questions about how they did their work. Later when my dad worked in the construction business, I developed a strange fascination with light fixtures, and loved to spend time in lighting shops. For hours on end, I would browse through a shop, looking at its fixtures and admiring their designs, even the little cheap ones. For years I wanted to be an architect when I grew up.
I mention all that because for this essay I thought that besides taking shots of the Mine Train’s construction progress, I’d also try to capture some of the details that are becoming visible in its landscape, architecture and yes, lighting. And I took a shot of each of the four murals that appear on the construction wall. If you haven’t seen them before, they’re pretty neat.
Oh—Julie tells me she was not “in tow.” She was working diligently doing research. Guidebook writers always say that.
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