Travel Town Museum is a railway museum dedicated on December 14, 1952, and located in the northwest corner of Los Angeles, California's Griffith Park. The history of railroad transportation in the western United States from 1880 to the 1930s is the primary focus of the museum's collection, with an emphasis on railroading in Southern California and the Los Angeles area.
History
In the late 1940s, Charley Atkins, a Recreation and Parks employee, and some rail enthusiasts came up with the plan that a full-size steam locomotive would be an attractive addition to the miniature railroad ride at Griffith Park. The City of Los Angeles Harbor Department had two small locomotives destined for scrap that seemed to be suitable for this purpose. These locomotives had worked at a quarry on Santa Catalina Island, California, carrying stone to be used building breakwaters for the Port of Los Angeles.Best, p.3 With the support of former Recreation and Parks Department General Manager George Hjelte and Superintendent of Recreation William Frederickson, Atkins initiated contacts with major railroads in California to ask what equipment they could donate. At that time, the steam locomotive era was drawing to a close, and Atkins found a good response. The earliest locomotives were made accessible for children to climb on them.Best, pp.3&4 Travel Town was inaugurated on December 14, 1952, in an area used as an internment camp during World War II. The locomotives were accessible day and night until fencing was installed in 1955 to prevent vandals from breaking glass windows and gauges.Best, p.7 A Union Pacific Railroad dining car donated in 1954 was available for birthday parties.Best, pp.9&11 The park's narrow gauge Crystal Springs & Southwestern Railroad operated two locomotives from Oahu on of track beginning in 1955,Best, pp.11&13 but these locomotives were later returned to Hawaii for display.. In 1965, Travel Town's exhibits were regrouped and the park was rededicated.
Railway collection The railroad museum portion contains 43 full-scale railroad engines, cars and other rolling stock.
Exhibits + Number Model Build Date Photo Original Operator Gauge Notes #1369 3-truck Heisler 1918 HHRR The Heisler locomotive was used for hauling timber from the forest to the mill in the Mother Lode country. It was built by the Heisler Locomotive Works in 1918 and was the 369th locomotive built by them, so it was assigned shop number 1369. Heisler built a total of over 600 locomotives in various sizes. This geared locomotive weights 75 tons and all 12 wheels on the three trucks are driving wheels. The large parts that protrude diagonally from the sides of the locomotive just in front of the cab are the pistons. The pistons operate a crank shaft which rotates two drive shafts that turn all 12 wheels. The locomotive was originally built for the Hetch Hetchy Railroad to haul material for building the dam that supplies drinking water to San Francisco. In the mid 1920s the locomotive was sold to the Standard Lumber Company of Sonora, California, which later became the Pickering Lumber Company. The locomotive stayed there until it was donated to Travel Town in 1952. It was donated by Pickering Lumber Co. in Standard, California, while F.F. Momyer was their president. Its initial restoration was done as an Eagle Scout Service Project of Will Cosso and was completed on 25 June 2016 with the help of Arcadia Boy Scout Troop 111, Travel Town Volunteers, friend and family. Further restoration will continue.Display board at the Travel Town Museum #2 Class C Shay 1922 Little River Redwood Company The oil fired 3-truck Shay with 12 geared wheels was built in 1922 by Lima Locomotive Works (builder's number 3172) as #4 for the Little River Redwood Company railroad in Crannell, California. The locomotive was sold in 1935 to the Camino, Placerville & Lake Tahoe Railroad and renumbered #2. It was used on an eight-mile (13 km) long line owned by the Michigan-California Lumber Company. It was primarily a lumber-hauling line, carrying milled timber from the company's planing mill in Camino, California in the Sierra Nevada Mountains east of Sacramento, California to a connection with the Placerville Branch of the Southern Pacific at Placerville, California. It has a weight of . The drivers are in diameter and the cylinders are . It operated at boiler pressure and delivered a tractive effort of . #4439 Switcher 1918 UP The 0-6-0 switcher #4439 was one of 45 oil-fired S-5 class built for Union Pacific by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1918. It was used in Cheyenne, Wyoming and later on the Los Angeles Harbor Belt line, until it was decommissioned due to an order of the Air Pollution Control Board in 1957. It was the last steam engine to work regularly in the Los Angeles region. It has a weight of and operated at boiler pressure. It had a tractive effort of . It has drivers and cylinders. It was donated by UP to the museum in 1957. #6636 Sleeping car Rose Bowl (previously Telegraph Hill) 1937 UP The 18-roomette sleeping car #6635 of Union Pacific sleeping car was built in 1937 by the Pullman Company and derailed in the night of 12 August 1939 during the 1939 City of San Francisco derailment, when the streamliner train City of San Francisco was approaching a bridge in Nevada at nearly . Five passenger cars plunged into the river below the bridge, and three more down an embankment. Of the 13 cars in the train, all with fanciful names taken from San Francisco landmarks such as Nob Hill and Fisherman's Wharf five cars stayed on their wheels, including this all-roomette sleeping car originally named Telegraph Hill. On that night, 24 people died and 121 were injured. This car was renamed Rose Bowl after repairs and was then placed on the City of Los Angeles train. It is the original Telegraph Hill, a survivor of what stands as one of the most famous unsolved train accidents. Although found to be sabotage in a railroad hearing, no saboteurs were identified, and track conditions have always been questioned. It had a weight of 20 tons, a length of , and was traded in 1992 from the Railroads of Hawaii. #LA-701 Pullmann Dormitory/Club Car Little Nugget 1937 UP The Union Pacific No. LA-701, Little Nugget is a 1937 Pullmann Dormitory/Club Car. It was built by the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company, as part of the Union Pacific and Chicago & North Western Railroads' new passenger train - the Streamliner City of Los Angeles. At the time, it represented the zenith in modern railcar design and technology. It was one of the most lavishly equipped railroad cars of all times, served as the club-lounge for the train's first class Pullman passengers. #1544 Electra 1902 Pacific Electric Electric locomotive Electra built in 1902 in Sausalito by the North Shore Railroad. It was used during the cleanup after San Francisco's 1906 earthquake and fire. It was eventually purchased by the Pacific Electric and used as a work locomotive and switcher until 1952. #1543 Electric car 1911 SP Electric car #1543 built in 1911 for the Southern Pacific's East Bay Electric Lines. The Interurban Electric Railway discontinued the service in 1941, but the United States Maritime Commission reassigned this car and similar ones to the Pacific Electric for wartime service. They were called blimps because of their size. Part of the car is in red IER and PE colors, but one side is in the green livery of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operated it after 1958. Wooden caboose 1881 The wooden caboose was built in 1881. The transportation of this piece of equipment was donated to the children of Los Angeles by the Belyea Truck Company.Plaques on the caboose. Narrow gauge caboose 1900 OR&L Oahu Railway & Land Company No. 1, a 1900 OR&L built caboose. #1 Coach OR&L The wooden Oahu Railway & Land Company Coach # 1 is completely paneled in mahogany and originally had ornate detail-work painted on the ceiling. The original seats were most likely plain, wooden benches, since the car was used principally for carrying passengers on short trips between the towns of Hawaii. The exterior was originally decorated with detailed scroll painting. The car had an early-design water closet with a diameter hole cut into the floor board. Over the hole a funnel-shaped metal tube with a opening at the top was placed, with a round seat on it, also made from metal. The rolling stock from Hawaiian railroads at Travel Town was donated through the efforts of the local chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, who made all the initial contacts in Hawaii in 1953. Beginning in 1955, the Oahu Railway and Land Company Locomotive #85 pulled Combination Car #36 and Coach #1 on excursion rides right on the tracks of Travel Town. The track paralleled the route along which the Ventura Freeway would be constructed 10 years later called the Crystal Springs & Southwestern Railway. The fares were 20 cents for adults, 10 cents for children. The operation was discontinued in 1961.Travel Town: Freight Cars & Cabooses, Oahu Railway & Land Company, Caboose #C1. Retrieved 2017-08-28. #36 Combination Car OR&L A combination car carried passengers in one section and baggage, mail or both. It was commonly used on branch lines. Combination cars were usually on the head-end of a train with the baggage and mail section towards the locomotive tender, to prevent security problems of people passing through the baggage or mail area, if the wante to rach the seating area. Generally the seating in a combination car was second class, and was not as nicely furnished as a regular coach on the same train. Thus, it was often used as a smoking section and became often the exclusive domain of men, as women rarely smoked in public before World War II. In certain states combination cars served those passengers, who were not allowed to travel in the main cars due to the Jim Crow laws, by which segregation was implemented against people of color or those of lower socioeconomic classes. The car was built by the Oahu Railway & Land Shops. It had a weight of 11.5 tons and a length of . #1 American 1864 Western Pacific Railroad The 4-4-0 (American) locomotive was built by Norris Locomotive Works Lancaster plant in 1864 (builder's number 12) for the original Western Pacific Railroad. It was taken over by the Central Pacific Railroad in 1869, which used it until 1914, when it went to the short line of Stockton, Terminal and Eastern. ST&E operated it as Stockton Terminal and Eastern No. 1 until 1953. It was cosmetically restored in 2019 and now has a working hand-rung bell and air whistle.Joe Thompson: Travel Town, Los Angeles. July 2007. Retrieved 2017-08-28. #754 Haskell & Barker caboose 1910 WP Western Pacific No. 754, a 1910 Haskell & Barker caboose. #670 Tank car 1911 Richfield Oil No. 670, a 1911 tank car. #26 Consolidation 1909 WP The 2-8-0 (Consolidation) type steam locomotive is builder's number 46456 of thirteen oil fired locomotives of this type built by Alco in 1909 to haul freight on the Western Pacific. It worked for 45 years on the Western Pacific and was one of the last Alco Consolidations in use at the railroad. It was donated by the Western Pacific to the "Children of Los Angeles" in 1954. It is classified as a C-43 and has a length of . The engine weighs and the tender . It has cylinders and drivers. With a firebox, a grate area and of heating surface (including superheating), it had a boiler pressure of , delivering tractive effort. 1929 AT&SF Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe No. M-177, a 1929 motorized passenger Railcar, incorporating an EMD engine into a Pullman carbody. It has been under a full restoration since 2003. It is operational as of 2020. #664 Consolidation 1899 AT&SF