www.rgusrail.com - Travel Town, Los Angeles, CA

Travel Town is part of the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. It is located at 5200 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles, CA, in Griffith Park.

Travel Town started out as a possible addition to the existing miniature train ride already at the location in the late 1940s. It was a fortuitous time to be scouting unwanted steam locomotives, as all the major railroads were moving to diesel power. The collection has some interesting locomotives, mainly from railroads that operated in the western U.S. from the 1880s to about 1930. The museum was formally dedicated on 14 December 1952.

I visited in February 2010.

There is plenty of parking right next to the museum and there is no entrance fee. However, this is another museum with a no-camera-tripods policy although, because the collection is largely housed outdoors, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. The museum can also get quite crowded, so get there early if you want unimpeded shots of the equipment.

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This Consolidation (2-8-0) type oil burner was one of a batch of 45 built by Baldwin in 1899 for the ATSF. Originally #891, it hauled freight on divisions in and around Texas and Oklahoma and was still in active service when donated to the museum in 1953.

It weighs 161,500 lbs and operated at a boiler pressure of 180 psi, with a tractive effort of 33,100 lbs. The drivers are 57" and the cylinders 21" x 28".

#3025 is an Atlantic type (4-4-2), one of 13 built for the SP by Alco in 1904. It has very large drivers (81”) for speed, and probably hauled several name passenger services in California, including the Daylight, Starlight and Lark. It could reach 100 mph.

It weighs 186,000 lbs and operated at a boiler pressure of 210 psi, with a tractive effort of 24,680 lbs. The cylinders are 20" x 28".

#3025 was the first standard gauge locomotive to go on display at Travel Town in 1952 after being donated to the museum by the Southern Pacific.

In 1944, #1000 was sold to the Santa Maria Valley Railroad, which served oil refineries in Santa Maria, CA, as well as hauling produce to the Southern Pacific's mainline at Guadalupe, CA. The Santa Maria Valley Railroad donated #1000 to the museum in 1953 and the railroad is still in business.

#1000 weighs 195,000 lbs and operated at a boiler pressure of 180 psi, with a tractive effort of 35,700 lbs. It has 48” drivers, and the cylinders are 20" x 28".

Santa Maria Valley Railroad Company #1000 is a Mikado (2-8-2) type locomotive built by Alco in 1920 for the Hetch Hetchy Railroad. This 68 mile railroad was built by the City of San Francisco to develop the O'Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River in Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite, CA.

#1273 is one of 32 0-6-0 switchers built by the Southern Pacific at the Sacramento workshops. Six more were built at the Los Angeles shops.

It was an oil burner, weighing 153,000 lbs and operating at a boiler pressure of 200 psi, with a tractive effort of 31,020 lbs. It has 51” drivers and 20" x 26" cylinders.

#1273 was built in 1921 and worked in the Sacramento yards for most of its life.

During that time, it logged over 1,500,000 miles in its 35 years of service.

It was retired in 1956 and, the following year, was donated to the museum by Southern Pacific.

#31 is an (0-4-0T) saddle tank locomotive built in 1921 for the City of Los Angeles by the Davenport Locomotive Works of Davenport, IA.

It was purchased to work on the ongoing development of the Los Angeles Port of San Pedro, mainly on the island of Catalina hauling rock from the quarry to the shore, but also on the main land.

#32 is another (0-4-0T) saddle tank built for the City of Los Angeles by Alco in 1914 to work on harbour development. It was an oil burner, weighing 38,000 lbs and operating at a boiler pressure of 165 psi, with a tractive effort of 8,230 lbs. It has 33” drivers and 11" x 16" cylinders.

It was donated to the museum by the Los Angeles Harbor Authority along with #31 in 1953.

#31 was an oil burner, weighing 42,000 lbs and operating at a boiler pressure of 192 psi, with a tractive effort of 11,080 lbs. It has 28½” drivers and 11" x 16" cylinders.

Destined for the scrap yard, #31 was identified as a candidate for the museum’s collection and was donated by the Los Angeles Harbor Authority along with #32 in 1953.

#2 was built by the Heisler Locomotive Works, Erie, PA, in 1918 for the Hetch Hetchy Railroad to work on the O'Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River in Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite, CA.

An oil burning 3-truck Heisler, it weighs 150,000 lbs, operated at a boiler pressure of 200 psi and had 30,000 lbs tractive effort. The drivers are 38”, cylinders 17” x 15”

#2 was sold to Standard Lumber Company (later Pickering Lumber) in 1923, and donated to the museum in 1957.

You can see other Heislers on the Northwest Railway Museum and Sumpter Valley Railway pages of this website.

This 3-truck Shay was built by the Lima Locomotive Works for the Little River Redwood Company Railroad based in Crannell, CA, in 1922 as #4. It was sold to the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad in 1935 and renumbered #2.

The CPLT ran 8 miles from Camino in the Sierra Nevada Mountains east of Sacramento to a connection with the Placerville Branch of the Southern Pacific at Placerville, CA. It was primarily a lumber-hauling line owned by the Michigan-California Lumber Company.

An oil burner, #2 weighs 166,500 lbs. It operated at a boiler pressure of 200 psi, and produced a tractive effort of 30,350 lbs. The drivers are 36” and the cylinders 12” x 15”.

This locomotive was originally built in 1902 as a Mogul (2-6-0) type by Alco. It was one of four delivered to the Minnesota Land and Construction Company.

Sold to C. H. Sharp Construction Company in 1909, the two-wheel trailing truck was added to make it a Prairie (2-6-2) type.

#7 worked on building the Santa Fe Railway System through Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

#7 was an oil burner. It weighs 133,600 lbs, operated at a boiler pressure of 195 psi and produced a tractive effort of 27,900 lbs. The drivers are 56” and the cylinders are 19” x 26”

During WWI, #7 worked at Camp Kearney, San Diego, CA. During WWII, it worked at various ordnance depots, including Fort Wingate, NM, and the Navajo Ordnance Plant at Flagstaff, AZ.

#4439 weighs 156,000 lbs, and operated at a boiler pressure of 180 psi with a 24,680 lb tractive effort. It has 21” x 26” cylinders and 51” drivers. UP donated it to the museum in 1957.

#4439 is one of 45 oil burning S-5 class 0-6-0 switchers built for the Union Pacific by Baldwin in 1918.

During its early career, it worked in Cheyenne, WY. Later, it served on the Los Angeles Harbor Belt line until its operation was ended because of the order of the Air Pollution Control Board in 1957.

#26 was donated by the Western Pacific to the “Children of Los Angeles” in 1954, a role it has been fulfilling admirably at Travel Town ever since!

#1 is a 62,100 lb oil burner, which operated at a boiler pressure of 135 psi, producing 10,260 lbs tractive effort. It has 63” drivers and 16” x 22” cylinders.

In 1867, the Western Pacific ran out of money and halted work until absorbed by the Central Pacific in 1870. By this time "Mariposa" had become the second Central Pacific locomotive to be numbered #31 (the first #31 had exploded in Nevada earlier that year).

#1000 went into service as Hetch Hetchy Railroad #4. In 1924, it was sold to the Newaukum Valley Railroad in Washington state, where it was re-numbered #1000.

The locomotive was donated to the museum by Sharp & Fellows in 1954 after 45 years service.

Sharp & Fellows has been in existence since 1877, and still operates. It is based in Gardena, CA, providing track design, construction, maintenance, inspection, repairs and removal.

The Michigan-California Lumber Company donated the locomotive to the museum in 1955.

You can see other Shays on the Northwest Railway Museum, North Carolina Transportation Museum and B&O Museum Roundhouse page of this website.

#26 is a 203,000 lb Consolidation type (2-8-0) oil burning locomotive, one of 13 built by Alco in 1909 to haul freight on the Western Pacific.

#1 is an American (4-4-0) type locomotive built by the Norris Locomotive Works of Lancaster, PA, for the first railroad to bear the name "Western Pacific". This was organised in 1862 to connect the Central Pacific in Sacramento with San Jose, CA.

#1 was one of 10 locomotives bought by the Western Pacific. When received, they were lettered "A" to "J", and #1 was originally lettered "G" and nicknamed "Mariposa".

After forty years working for the Central Pacific, #31 was sold to the Stockton, Terminal and Eastern Railroad in 1914. The STE started operations in 1915, serving farmers and merchants in the San Joaquin Valley, and #1 was its primary power for many years. It ran continuously until the company donated it to the museum in 1953.

The STE is still an active, privately owned railroad operating on 25 miles of track out of Stockton.

#26 operated at a boiler pressure of 200 psi, producing 43,300 lbs tractive effort.

It has 22” x 30” cylinders and 57” drivers.

#1544 is the only engine of its type. It was built in the North Shore Railroad's Tiburon shops in Sausalito, CA, in 1902. The NSR was established by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company after taking over the Northern Pacific Coast Railroad's narrow gauge Marin County to Sausalito line.

#1544 was not entirely successful, however. When operating, it drew so much electricity that other cars along the line would slow to a crawl. For that reason, it operated only during the early morning. In 1906, it was shipped across the Bay to help clear rubble after the San Francisco earthquake. At some time, the Central Pacific bought it and renumbered it #201, but it appears to have stayed in storage until 1917, when it was bought by Pacific Electric.

The Pacific Electric Railway was an interurban system using streetcars, light rail and buses to carry freight, mail and passengers. By 1925, it interconnected cities in Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County. A few years after formation in 1901, most PE stock was purchased by the Southern Pacific.

PE was sold in 1953 to Metropolitan Coach Lines, a company intent on converting all rail service to buses as quickly as possible. The last service on the former Pacific Electric ran from Los Angeles to Long Beach on 9 April 1961. PE's freight service was continued by the Southern Pacific under the Pacific Electric name until 1964.

#1544 weighs 50 tons. It has 33" drivers and could produce 500 hp. The sloped ends on either side of the cab were taken from steam locomotive tenders, one end filled with water and the other with sand for ballast.

PE used #1544 as a work locomotive and switcher at various locations in the Los Angeles area. In 1925, it worked on construction of the Los Angeles subway system. It performed its last work as a switcher at PE's Torrance repair shops, south of Los Angeles, until retired in 1952. It was donated to the museum by PE the following year.

#1 is a 42 ton, 300 hp diesel-electric switcher, one of 3 built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in 1942 for the United States Navy. Only 11 of these locomotives were built between 1940 and 1943.

#1 hauled coal and supplies at the U.S. Navy's Torpedo Station on Goat Island, RI, as well as at the North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego, CA. In 1962, it was transferred to the McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft Corporation's Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant at Torrance, CA, where it worked for another 25 years. On 11 March 1988, McDonnel-Douglas donated it to the museum. It then started a new career as a switcher at the museum, christened "Charley Atkins" in memory of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks employee largely instrumental in forming Travel Town.

EMD's Model 40 is unusual in that it has two Model 6-71 diesel engines. Both engines spin a single, centrally mounted DC traction generator that powers a generator to supply power to a pair of four-wheeled trucks. To do this, one engine spins in the opposite rotation to the other.

Most diesel switchers of this size were equipped with two traction motors, one for each wheel set.

In 1963, Guy L. Dunscomb self-published his comprehensive listing of A Century of Southern Pacific Steam Locomotives 1862-1962 (click on the cover to search for this book on Bookfinder.com).

In 1980, with Fred A. Stindt, Guy L. Dunscomb also published Western Pacific Steam Locomotives, Passenger Trains and Cars (click on the cover to search for this book on Bookfinder.com).

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