Magic Kingdom's Train Station Is Missing Its Metropolis Mutoscope, and Its Railroad Medallions Just Went Generic

A silent film robot has left the building. The Mutoscope at Magic Kingdom's Main Street, U.S.A. train station that played Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis is no longer there, WDW News Today reported on Monday, September 21.

Cast members could not say when the machine was taken out, according to WDWNT, whose reporters last saw it about a week earlier. The same day, WDWNT reported a second change in the same station: the station's medallion machine no longer sells coins themed to the Walt Disney World Railroad.

The Metropolis Mutoscope in the station in 2024. Photo: WDW News Today

A penny arcade survivor

Mutoscopes are hand-cranked movie viewers: you look into the viewer and turn the crank, and a reel of photo cards flips past like a flip book to play a short old film. The Main Street Penny Arcade closed in 1995, and according to WDWNT, several of its machines, Mutoscopes among them, then went to the nearby train station.

WDWNT says three Mutoscopes remain in the station: Car Train Bag, Way Down East and The Cats in the Bag. WDWNT says the missing Metropolis machine was pink and gold, the same colors as the Car Train Bag machine that is still there.

Inside the station on September 21, with a green Mutoscope at left and a pink one at right. Photo: WDW News Today

This may not be permanent. WDWNT notes that Mutoscopes have been pulled for a while in the past for maintenance, like cleaning and repainting, and points out that the green Way Down East machine was missing from its 2022 video of the station. We found no statement from Disney about the Metropolis machine.

The medallions lost their locomotives

This machine has now changed its coins at least twice. When WDWNT rounded up Magic Kingdom's new medallion machines on September 2, the train station's screen machine was selling a railroad set: Mickey and Friends on the front, with Mickey in a conductor costume, and the Walt Disney World Railroad's locomotives on the back.

In WDWNT's photos of that set, each front carries a "Walt Disney World Railroad" insignia and a locomotive number, the same numbers the station's older bronze coins used when WDWNT photographed them in 2023: 58444 for Mickey, 42915 for Goofy, 58445 for Donald and 60598 for Minnie. The backs name the four engines, Walter E. Disney, Lilly Belle, Roger E. Broggie and Roy O. Disney, above Baldwin Locomotive Works lettering.

The railroad set on the station machine's screen on September 2. Photo: WDW News Today

By September 21 that set was gone, though the screen machine was the same one WDWNT photographed on September 2. WDWNT says the machine itself was never replaced, only updated over time for Disney World's property-wide switch to colored medallions and screen-based menus. Its September 21 report compared the new coins only with the 2023 bronze designs, so the railroad set in between is easy to miss.

The new set is Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy in their classic poses, printed in color. Mickey and Minnie are on gold coins, and Donald and Goofy are on silver ones. The back of every coin has Cinderella Castle with stars around it and the Walt Disney World wordmark along the bottom. Unlike the set they replaced, neither side shows a railroad insignia, a locomotive number or an engine.

The new character medallions on the machine's screen. Photo: WDW News Today

The screen in WDWNT's photos shows $10 for one medallion or $35 for all four. When WDWNT visited, the Minnie coin was marked "sold out."

Themed coins have not disappeared everywhere. WDWNT reported on September 20 that a new machine at Disney's Animal Kingdom sells a safari-themed set of Mickey and Friends medallions with the Tree of Life on the back, and a second one there sells Lion King designs. WDWNT's September 2 roundup found location-themed sets at some of Magic Kingdom's other new machines too, such as Princess and the Frog coins near Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Inside the Magic, following up on the train station report, said new designs are "typically still inspired by the dispensers' locations." WDWNT called the train station's new set "surprisingly generic for the setting." Inside the Magic added: "It's unclear whether Walt Disney World Resort plans to replace these generic medallion designs with steam train-themed coins in the future."

The trains stop next week

These changes come just before a quiet stretch at the station. As we reported at the start of September, Disney has the Walt Disney World Railroad listed as closed from Monday, September 28 through Thursday, October 29.

If you are going: the three remaining Mutoscopes were still in the station when WDWNT visited on September 21. The station machine no longer sells any railroad medallions, so both the bronze originals and the colorful railroad set that followed them would now have to be found secondhand.

Sources

• WDW News Today, Vintage Penny Arcade Machine Removed from Magic Kingdom
• WDW News Today, New Generic Medallions Replace Railroad-Themed Designs at Magic Kingdom Train Station Machine
• WDW News Today, More Colorful Medallions & Updated Machines Found in Magic Kingdom
• WDW News Today, New Collectible Medallion Machines Arrive at Disney's Animal Kingdom
• Inside the Magic, Disney World Railroad Replacement Confirmed, More Details Revealed

Image credits: All photos by WDW News Today.