3 Reasons Toddlers Love the Travel Town Museum in Los Angeles, CA

Does your child think trains are the greatest things that have ever existed? Looking for somewhere fun to take a family outing? Visit Travel Town Museum at Griffith Park in Los Angeles for a one-of-a-kind experience. Travel Town Museum has been offering family-friendly fun with trains for years.

Oliver and the Fire Truck – Photo Credit: Kelly Short

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Travel Town, part of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California, was founded in 1952 (Fun Fact: in front of the Griffith Park Carousel, is where Walt Disney supposedly came up with the idea for Disneyland!). It houses old vehicles and a few old trains. These old vehicles are from all sorts of time periods and acquired from different people. They even got an one-horse shay from Knott’s Berry Farm! There is a locomotive, the Southern Pacific 3025, where you can climb into and play inside it’s empty car, even inside the cab. You can pretend it is a real train which is heaven for a toddler.

Pretending to be a Train Conductor – Photo Credit: Kelly Short

When I was little, we would play in the locomotive and then have a picnic in the nearby grassy area. We would go sometimes on Sundays after church and at that time, there were a ton of kids there. It was so much fun!

Fun with the train – Photo Credit: Kelly Short

Chugging down the tracks at the Travel Town Museum

My son loves walking on the tracks at Travel Town and I must admit, we’ve gotten some cute pics of him there. There are some really great photo opportunities at Travel Town. Inside the building with a lot of the old vehicles is an AWESOME miniature train set. While it is behind glass, kids love watching the train go over bridges and through tunnels. In this building is a Thomas the Train play table as well, it’s BYOT (bring your own train) and great fun for the kids. For Oliver though, nothing compared to the small train ride that goes around the perimeter of Travel Town. It costs only $2.75 a person! And it’s the only thing (other than food or gifts) that costs money in the whole place! And people think that LA is so expensive! HAHA.

Depot Day and special events

Once a year, Travel Town hosts Depot Day, where you can tour and hear the history of some of the usually not accessible trains. It was so fun to see some of the old time trains and see how people used to travel.

Depot Day at Travel Town – Photo Credit – Kelly Sort

They also have music and a transportation safety fair which have representatives from other organizations. Last year, we met a blacksmithing club which made my husband so excited because he had been wanting to try blacksmithing for years. He is going to sign up for a class this summer. A local fire department was there and they were letting the kids sit in the fire truck. Oliver was so excited to be in a real fire engine. It was such a fun experience and we can’t wait to go again this year.

Travel Town hosts birthday parties as well. We’ve seen some set-ups in the grass, and one of the railroad cars is available for use as well! How fun would it be to have a party inside a train! You can even have Thomas the Train or Chuggington play areas set up for a party!

Coming to visit the Los Angeles area with a train loving toddler? Then Travel Town is for you! While you are here, check out some of the other awesome Griffith Park activities including the Los Angeles Zoo!