Due to budget issues, the restoration of the locomotive was suspended not long after its arrival, and its parts were planned to be placed in long-term storage in late 2003. The "Ward Kimball" locomotive's restoration efforts were resurrected soon after, when it was decided that its addition to the DRR would be incorporated into the celebration of Disneyland's fiftieth anniversary in July 2005. In late 2004, Boschan Boiler and Restorations led by Paul Boschan, a former roundhouse manager and engineer at the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad in Felton, California, was awarded the contract to complete the restoration of the "Ward Kimball". The restoration work performed included installing new driving wheels, attaching a new smokebox door, and applying gold-leaf silhouettes of Kimball's Jiminy Cricket character on the sides of the headlamp. The "Ward Kimball" locomotive, which entered service on June 25, 2005, became the DRR's No. 5 locomotive, and on February 15 the following year, John Kimball, the son of Ward Kimball, who died in 2002, christened the locomotive during its dedication ceremony.