Nestled into Griffith Park’s northwesternmost corner, there is a zoo of sorts. Not one of frolicking beasts and glass penitentiaries, but of steel and steam power, a petting zoo for railroads — well, that’s how the museum’s pioneer, Charley Atkins, referred to it anyhow. Dedicated on Dec. 14, 1952, Travel Town Museum is a monument to the products of the American transportation industry that shaped this very nation. The museum displays all manner of locomotives, from the Oahu Railway to the San Francisco Cable Car, as it endeavors to inspire interest in this bygone era for younger generations as well as preserve a nostalgic past for those in their golden years. So read along for a storied railroad ride down to Travel Town as this train is about to leave the station — all aboard!
Located at 5200 West Zoo Drive, this attraction is free to the public seven days a week and open between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., making it the perfect addition to anyone’s afternoon in the park. Once you pass through its gates and over the bridge, you are met with an antique train yard whose oldest resident dates back to the 1860s. As you finish descending the flat staircase, one of the first vehicles on display comes up on your left. This warped wood construction is none other than one of the now-iconic San Francisco cable cars. Originally developed by Andrew S. Hallidie and first operated in 1873, these passenger vehicles have become as synonymous with the city as the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.
One of the best parts of Travel Town is how accessible the information about their trains is. Posted on placards throughout the museum are QR codes for the Whistle Stop Tour, which are completely free and viewable on any mobile device. All you have to do is take out your phone, scan the code with your camera and voila! Right in the palm of your hand is a brief dossier about the vehicle right in front of you that lists the year it was manufactured, when it was donated to the park and its function. It is little details like these that truly allow history to come to life at Travel Town.
Inside the first show building, children can run around the cornered-off play area that features a couple of toy train sets and a penny presser, which probably cost $0.50 plus an additional penny — back in my day, these machines only cost the penny. The main attraction housed within the barn are three Southern Pacific Line cars. Both built around 1890, the more enclosed car is a Carter Brothers narrow-gauge Railway Post Office Car: a typical example of a wooden, open platform passenger car that does exactly as the name suggests. To the right is an open-air, narrow-gauge stock car that was used to transport livestock from rural farms to centralized stockyards or processing facilities.
Scattered about the side walls of the enclosed space are a selection of accompanying vehicles. One of which is the Railway Express Agency delivery truck, which essentially acted as the Amazon of the 40s. And while this particular model no longer goes door to door, it remains fully operational and is occasionally brought out as a part of parades, demonstrations or other educational exhibitions.
As you leave the massive barn, right in the middle of the main courtyard, there is an unassuming little building that, while easy to walk right on by, is actually one of the more fascinating installations at the museum, the Fred Harvey Exhibit. This 300-square-foot exhibit highlights the goings on inside passenger cars — especially the culinary culture of the locomotive. Multiple sets of fine china plates and mugs, as well as metal tea pots and utensil sets, highlight how lavish dining was on these vehicles. A series of menus showcases the affair travelers were accustomed to during this era. A typical breakfast in 1952 included options such as a V-8 cocktail, fried cornmeal mush, bacon and French toast. Lunch on the Texas Chief in 1961 served shrimp cocktail, steamed frankfurters or braised short ribs. For dinner as a passenger aboard a Fred Harvey dining car in 1955, riders could expect Lobster Americaine — meanwhile, in 2025, people lost their minds when Delta Airlines started offering Shake Shack to their first class travelers.
Additionally, there is also a small collection dedicated to Judy Garland in the acclaimed 1946 film “The Harvey Girls” — the nickname given to the rigorously-trained women employed at Fred Harvey’s restaurants and hotels along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway — whose refined presence contributed to a more civilized environment in the Wild West.
Once you’ve sufficiently cooled off in the museum’s soul air-conditioned space, there is one final showroom to admire — the massive train garage. This is where Travel Town keeps its most impressive additions to its collection. Some of the more colorful standouts are the red electric locomotive and the yellow dormitory club lounge car. Nicknamed the “Electra” — Daredevil’s girlfriend unrelated — the red car is a one-of-a-kind machine that features sloped ends on either side of the cab, which store tender tanks filled with water or sand to increase the weight of this already 50-ton vehicle. Onto the mustard-colored lounge car named “The Little Nugget,” this luxury liner is one of the few remnants of the pre-World War II streamlined passenger car era. In its prime of the 1930s, The Little Nugget chauffeured Hollywood’s elite, the likes of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, from coast to coast.
As you stroll past the caboose donated by the Oahu Railway and Land Company in 1953, the steam-powered Santa Maria Valley 1000 and the Rio Vista Waiting Station, which proved LA had better public transportation 70 years ago, our train pulls back into the station as our counterclockwise journey through Travel Town comes to a stop.
Whether you are deeply fascinated by transportation systems of a bygone era or just have time to kill, Travel Town is a darling museum that is a wonderfully enjoyable blast from the past.
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Featured Image Photographed by Gavin Meichelbock/BruinLife