Photos: Big Thunder Mountain Continues Its Extensive Refurbishment with New Track and Refreshed Sets
Magic Kingdom’s Wildest Ride in the Wilderness is undergoing a major over year-long refurbishment. Construction keeps rolling along, so let’s take a look at the current status of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Walt Disney World’s Big Thunder Mountain began an extensive refurbishment, which has seen much of the roller coaster's original track removed and the promise of “new magic" headed to the experience. Not much has changed at Big Thunder’s entrance since our last update, with large tarps still covering sections of the main queue and station area.
We took a trip aboard the Walt Disney World Railroad to check out the current status of the outdoor portions of the attraction. When pulling up next to the main station area, if you look closely, you can see the new black track has been added near the last turn into the station. The transfer track for the train maintenance area has not been replaced.
Speaking of maintenance, it looks like the park is constructing a brand new building for the trains, as a bunch of red steel has risen on the outside of the Walt Disney World Railroad’s loop.
The outdoor section is really starting to come together. When approaching the “trick track" section just before the attraction’s second lift hill, new track sections can be seen everywhere. Track has been connected through this entire visible section. This includes the drop from the second lift, the tunnel section just before the “trick track," and the turn around into both lift two and lift three. Construction workers were also continuing their work refreshing the small western town sets the ride runs past.
Big Thunder Mountain is expected to make its triumphant return at the beginning of 2026. Details surrounding the refurbishment have remained fairly vague, with the media giant merely promising “a little bit of new magic." While Disneyland’s version of the attraction received an updated third lift scene back in 2015, the park has been less than perfect at maintaining the explosion effects. It will be interesting to see if Magic Kingdom receives the same updates or something completely new. At this time, it also isn’t confirmed whether all of the attraction’s track is being replaced or if it only includes specific sections, but based on what we can see, it looks more like a full retracking. It makes sense for Disney to refresh this popular attraction prior to two large expansions at the park with a new Cars themed attraction taking over Tom Sawyer’s Island and Rivers of America and a Disney Villains land headed towards the back side of Haunted Mansion.
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