Travel Town’s trains are showing signs of wear and tear. : L.A.’s Run-Down Rail Collection May Be on the Road to Recovery

Travel Town in Griffith Park, an outdoor train museum and final resting home for antique locomotives, has been subjected to some rough going over the years.

Many of the trains are displaying signs of wear from the feet of thousands of children and railroad buffs. The cars have also been repeatedly vandalized and many historical decorations and artifacts have been damaged or stolen.

But Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department officials, who run the city-owned facility, may be getting ready to do something about the deterioration. Next week, recreation commissioners will examine a proposal to build an indoor museum and another plan to provide security for the existing outdoor facility.

The proposals, said Larry Reeder, interim director of Travel Town, are part of a long-term plan to restore Travel Town, which opened in 1952 and moved to its present location near the Los Angeles Zoo in 1965.

Dates Back to 1867

It has 17 locomotives on display, ranging from a two-ton “saddleback” to a 115-ton Southern Pacific engine. The oldest of them is a steam engine built in 1867.

“We want to provide a museum which would give hands-on displays for the children and give pertinent information,” Reeder said.

But the interiors of the trains have been so damaged by vandalism that they have been closed to the public. “There’s been a citywide vandalism going on in all the parks for several years, and our trains have had an ongoing deterioration from vandalism,” Reeder said.

A miniature steam train that travels around the perimeter of Travel Town has also been vandalized. The train’s delicate mechanism was ruined when someone poured a liquid into it, said Ralph Peterson, whose Burbank firm owns the miniature.

‘Vandals Kept Hitting It’

“People would just hop the fence, use the bathroom and just wreck up my ride and Travel Town,” Peterson said. “Two full-sized train bells were stolen once, also a full-sized train pump. I had to sell one of the beautiful steam engines Gene Autry had given me in 1979 as junk last week because vandals just kept on hitting it.”

However, vandalism has decreased significantly since lights were installed last June, Reeder said.

“The place is lighted up, and park rangers also pass by on their rounds,” he said. “During the last three months, there’s been no sign of any breaking in.”

Still, Reeder said, more needs to be done to upgrade Travel Town.