Steam & Excursion > Traveltown LA CA 60th Birthday today!

Local News 4 ran some shots this morning featuring only the commercial Kiddie Train ride! Go figure!

Our parents took us there about the first weekend. The SP 4-4-2 was the big steam engine, with 84" drivers (IIRC) being used for photo backdrops by many families.

They also had a WWII Japanese military plane open to climb on and in, after a few weekends of this the poor thing looked like it had been in an air raid, holes completely through the flying surfaces.

81 inch drivers

If I could own any of the engines the Atlantic would be the one. Imagine high stepping on the main

That SP Atlantic has been in several album covers and music videos. While it would be wonderful to see her restored to steam, Atlantics don't make good excursion engines because of their limited pulling power. Santa Fe used to use one on #42, the San Bernardino Local (via Pasadena and Pomona on the 2nd District in Southern California). The usual consist for #42 was an Railway Post Office car, a Railway Express car and a heavyweight chair car. If there were a lot of stops, those tall drivers would get the train out of town with just a few "chuffs", but a longer train would be more of a challenge.

Kimball Wrote:
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> Local News 4 ran some shots this morning featuring
> only the commercial Kiddie Train ride! Go figure!


And most of those shots were of the kiddie train ride down by Las Feliz, not even the one at Travel Town. ABC7 was the only TV news to even show at the actual press event, and of course it was the day of the school shooting so nothing they shot made the news.

Greg

Greg Ramsey
Las Vegas, NV



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/12 14:25 by atsfm177.