Quote:
Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug
Very interesting post....FW.
This is the Eastlake Park Scenic Railroad that ran all over the park and over the lake. Built and operated by master machinist John Coit and probably was a similar attraction like the small trains in Travel Town and in Griffith Park today. The miniature train did not last long at the park. When Abbot Kinney was in need of a light railway system for his Venice Pier resort area in Southern California, he contracted Coit to do the work. The popularity of the railway at Venice and the state of the not-so-popular Eastlake Park Scenic Railway [Lincoln Park] prompted John Coit to move the train to Venice around 1905.
Here is the little train before it was transferred to Venice. The maker, Mr. Coit is wearing his usual bowler hat.
Lincoln Heights WP
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All Aboard! Passengers take your seats!
LAPL dates this image of a ~3 foot tall Venice mini-train to 1935. Is the nearby telegraph/telephone pole also a scaled down version of the real thing? Or perhaps it is glorified hitching post?
Looks like the throttle is
wide open!
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics18/00008994.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009087.jpg
Could this have been a glorified movie prop? Hard to tell what, if anything, is mounted on the parallel track in background.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009038.jpg
Evidently, mini-trains were not exclusive to Lincoln Park or Venice. Source notes suggest this example was somehow affiliated with Pomona, circa 1914.
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...HJKIYAXUQL.jpg
Mini train a la Griffith Park
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics01/00010259.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00103/00103779.jpg