Miniature Train Exhibit, L.A. County Fair
Today I have four fun photos from the L.A. County Fair - they're undated, but certainly from the 1950s. And they feature an impressive outdoor model train setup!
In this first view, we can see a roadway near the center of the image, it seems to pass a small "whistle stop" town. Maybe a diner, a gas station, a hotel... that sort of thing. Looks like there's a grain elevator too. I wonder if the tiny trucks could move along what appear to be some sort of tracks in the roadway? To our left is the train depot, complete with ample parking.
My assumption is that this setup was displayed at the County Fair year after year. The plants don't look brand new. While most people seemed content to stand outside the chain link fence, it looks like folks could come in for a closer look if they wanted (or maybe the fellow in the hat is a Fair employee). This gentleman is appreciating the sleek passenger train as it passed by. In the lower left is a comfy motel.
Of course trains hauled plenty of freight as well. If I had a model train, would I want it to be a fancy passenger setup? I need to get those widgets across country somehow. Folks need their widgets.
This display must have been sponsored by the Southern Pacific Railroad. "America's Most Modern Trains". There's just something about this whole thing that makes me happy, as a kid I probably would have stared at it until my Dad got tired of waiting for me!
15 comments:
Major-
I'm with you... I could [and did] stare at it for hours, but I don't recall your dad 'getting tired of waiting'.
I believe this display proves that "plants have scale".
Thanks, Major.
The last time I was at the L.A. County Fair, about 6 or 7 years ago, this train setup was in the same location. I think it has been redone over the years, but it still looked great.
And the strangest thing....in one of the exhibit buildings, there was a restored Disneyland PeopleMover car, and Autopia car. I can't remember exactly what the exhibit was about and why they were there. I took pics of them, and the miniature train set. I would search for those pics now, but I have to go to bed early...for once! Darn it! Goodnight!
#1: The 400 ft. high drapery in the background seems a tad incongruous. It's "Land of the Giants"!
It sure looks like the trucks move along those tracks, Major. The trucks are probably modified train engines.
#2: I have to think that Pa Kettle, standing inside the fence, is one of the participants/builders of the train exhibit. Someone connected with the fair, like you said, Major.
I wonder if that "comfy motel" might be a California Mission?
#3: Speaking of widgets, what are those orange things being hauled on that flatbed train car in the foreground? Generators? Is that a clothesline next to the generators?
That crouching photographer on the left is doing a poor job of looking inconspicuous. He looks like he's trying not to frighten the freight trains flying to far flung places.
#4: That shiny black engine does look pretty sleek and modern.
I think we can see the backside of that "comfy motel". Still can't tell if it's a Mission or not.
Thanks for letting us see the model trains, Major. I too, would have been staring at this setup for quite a while.
Wow! I have never been to the LA COUNTY FAIR and have never seen this layout . Looking at the images I couldn’t identify a single manufacturer’s item….. and the scale wasn’t quickly recognizable. I assumed most of the equipment must have been custom made. I had a hunch the track gauge was probably old LIONEL Standard Gauge … a 1/2 inch scale popular during the 1920’s and 1930’s and almost non existent by the end of the depression being replaced with smaller 1/4 inch Lionel train scale. I read the layout was first created in 1924 - placing it in the heyday of the large standard gauge trains. Old Standard Gauge was close to the later LGB garden trains from Germany now known as G SCALE . LGB stands for Lehmans’s Gross Bahn “Lehman’s Big Train. It debuted in 1968 and was first sold as “K” Scale for KING SIZE. Looking at current images of this layout it appears little of what we see in todays images survives , and I see a great deal of LGB trains and track and accessories that seem to have replaced much of the older equipment. But very impressive how much must have been custom made when this scale wasn’t being manufactured.
I forgot …. In the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s There were some kits in 1/2” scale by little engines ( live steam trains models) that offered about a dozen freight car kits that had to be machined … and some “bolt” kit locomotives all of which would require the builder to have machinist experience and some milling equipment. Knowing this makes the fair ground layout back then more impressive.
These are real beauts! I remember seeing this at the LA County Fairgrounds on a couple of visits, once to the Fair itself in ‘95 and once for a model train show held inside several of the adjacent exhibit halls the year before. I don’t remember the trains running during the train show but they were definitely active during the Fair.
As I recall, the trackage looked much like it does here and the trucks along the roadways did move, but I don’t remember the scenery being quite as lush - in fact, I think it was pretty bare during the train show. It looked like a lot of the equipment (particularly the trucks) was custom-made. I wonder if I took any pictures? Time to consult the Oracle (a.k.a. the 56 scrapbook/photo albums my wife put together over the first 15 years we were married before life got in the way and the excessive number of images permitted by digital photography made it too hard to keep up).
Nope. If I took any pictures, they didn’t make the scrapbook. All of the negatives and culls are in a box in a storage unit, so additional research will not be happening today. Thanks for jogging the memory, though. I had totally forgotten this.
I would have stared for hours at this as a kid, but alas, the County Fair was too far from the hills of Palos Verdes to make the trip. Pomona is far. It's actually not far, but to my parents everything was far. I don't get "far"...it just is where it is. Brooklyn is far from Manhattan, so I don't go there. It's actually not far at all. I digress. I am a bit of a Storybook Land snob, so I do enjoy these, however I can be a bit Judge Judy. Plants have scale. A lot of scale. Also strange curtain tents have scale. I went to the County Fair in the 80's and don't remember this- I think I would if I saw it. Friends of mine won a pie contest or something like that, so we went to look at pies, then the Budweiser Clydesdales, then the tiny piglets and other animals. I still like these things to this day, and try to visit the County Fairs around me when I can. Giant pumpkins! Strangely, we went on no rides at the LA County Fair...any that I remember. I remember seeing TV Personality Huell Howser...who was big in the LA PBS circuit, and Ron Popeil of "Ronco". They were there separately but as visitors- or maybe they were hawking things?...a strange collection of peoples. RIP to both of them. They are "look-up-able" if you have the time, both with their own stories. I wanted to put a train in my backyard- probably like all of us...but weather and elements...probably not very practical. I think a mini-train anywhere is not very practical. But I did have an HO set up in my garage, and I loved it...until my sisters rock band friends took over...I suppose it was good for them...they became very very famous. It all sounded like noise to me and still does listening to their music on the iTunes , and I couldn't play with my trains- so I went on to the next hobby. There is a train store...or there was...in I think Culver City. It was a cool place IN an old train station...but the prices were a bit crazy...I started building miniature Victorian Mansions and I needed fences and people and things....Where ARE those houses I built? So elaborate with cedar shingles and whatnot. So sturdy you could stand on them. Thanks for jogging some memories this morning Major.
Bu: you are probably thinking of TERMINAL HOBBY SHOP in Culver City. That train store was outstanding during its heyday. It had been in West LA since the mid 40’s and in the late 80’s? Or early 90’s had expanded so big it went into a replica of LA’s Union Station. Sadly during the 2007 economic downturn it greatly downsized to a different location down the street . It closed forever in 2015. Sometimes I’ll look at old Model Railroad Magazines and count in the dealer directory in back how many model train and hobby shops their used to be. I think the record was around 1969 …. Orange County had about 16 model train based shops ( today there’s 3) San Diego had 8 or 9 ….. (today there’s 1 …. Kinda 2 when it’s open) Los Angeles had about 10…. I think there’s still 3 left.
The times they are not a changing ….. they already changed a long time ago!
Ah, trains trains, wonderful trains!
I agree that the trucks are probably modified trains. Their tracks seem exactly like the train tracks.
I also think that you had to be a "special person" to be inside the fence. Like really special, not Barney the Dino special.
At the State Fair of Texas they have a garden train display that runs by Texas landmarks, but someone decided that all the landmarks would be built out of brown wood chips and then varnished. It looks...not great.
I'm glad to know this one (or a descendant) still survives!
There’s something about miniature worlds that are so engaging. Storybook Land, model train sets, those little Christmas villages, architectural models of Big Thunder RR or elementary schools, people just love them. If you want to sell a concept, build a model.
I had a little train set for a while, but never any buildings, just the train. The Hot Wheels were my substitute. I never had a Ronco Steam-Away or a Popeil Pocket Fisherman either. Those guys sure made a dent in my memory, Mom never missed Huell Houser once we could get his show where we lived.
I would have been fascinated by this too, until dragged away to look at the dairy cows or quilts or something.
Those model cars are interesting, with shiny chrome windshields. I have a plastic toy car still, about that size and era, with shiny chrome “glass”. I wonder if they are from the same source? My car has no words or identifying marks at all. I think we see the motel again in the last picture.
Thanks Major!
JG
Hey guys, I love all the comments! I was going to respond to everyone individually before I headed out the door, but some of those comments are long, and I don't want to do a crummy job of responding. I'll be home late tonight, hopefully I will have time to get caught up!
I do remember seeing the County Fair layout a couple of times. Once in 1961 and again sometime in the early 80s. I loved it. I’ve even seen it at night which was particularly fun since I believe the passenger cars were lit from the inside.
Mike perhaps you mean ALLIED MODEL TRAINS? I used to visit once and a while in the 80’s when I got interested in electric trolly stuff. Bought lots of magazines but never actually built anything. That’s me, Mr. Armchair Modeler!
Yes. I very much meant ALLIED MODEL TRAINS …for sone reason I we thinking Walther’s Trains distributors ( and their giant train catalog) doesn’t promote Terminal Hobby Shop anymore ( that’s their retail outlet - in Milwaukee) and wondered if they were still operating … then I typed in the wrong shop name! Crossed wires! Lol.
I remember for decades the anticipation of the new WALTHER’S TRAIN REFERENCE catalog each year….. model makers , architects , designers , model railroaders … even graphic design studios always had a copy of it. Even WDI keeps updated issues of it in the supply room office. I no longer purchase it every year but about once every 5 years . The main reason is they began to mostly list manufactures items rather than show them so it was no longer as useful in model development.
Nanook, um… what?? ;-)
TokyoMagic!, wow, I’m amazed to learn that they kept a miniature RR display for so many decades. I wonder who sponsors it now? Cool that they had an exhibit with those ride vehicles, I wonder what that was about?
JB, yeah, I wondered about that weird drapery too! “Pa Kettle” might have had something to do with the train exhibit, but in the last photo you can see where a woman has just strolled in through that gap in the fence. So… presumably anybody could get in there? Maybe? I still think that little building is a motel… it doesn’t look fancy enough to be a California Mission, to me anyway. I do think those orange things are large generators, probably on their way to some huge hydroelectric dam project. Or a tiny one, rather. And it’s a motel! ;-)
Mike Cozart, I figured this display must have been built by a small army of model train enthusiasts, with some sponsorship money from the Southern Pacific Railroad. I love that larger scale for the models, but understand that it would be way too big for the average person’s home. Still, imagine being able to really “go to town” with a big setup like that! Since I assumed that this exhibit had ceased years ago, it never even occurred to me to look for contemporary pictures - I’ll have to do that either later tonight or tomorrow. Wow, imagine buying a freight car kit that required you to have access to a milling machine!
Chuck, I haven’t been to the L.A. County Fair for decades. The last time I tried to go with my old girlfriend, the traffic on the freeway was backed up for what seemed like miles, ALL people heading to the Fair. At some point (after a long time crawling slowly forward), we decided to NOT go to the Fair, and went to do something else.
Chuck, well darn, I was hoping you could find your photos!
Bu, I think I only went to the Fair three times in my life - as you said Pomona is far, at least it always was from wherever I happened to live at the time. I remember the first time I had no idea what to expect, and had so much fun. The first little roller coaster I ever rode on was at the L.A. County Fair! I don’t mind the out-of-scale plants for the miniature railroad, they were doing the best they could on a non-Disney budget. Of course I remember Huell Howser, I never saw him in person, but I had a friend who got into a discussion with him at the Tiki Ti, a famous local Tiki bar. My friend said, “He was really smart!”. I guess his “aw shucks” onscreen personality did make him seem kind of dopey. But who didn’t love Huell? Darn your sister and her rock and roll friends! Those hooligans. If they became famous you can tell us who they were! The Beatles??
Mike Cozart, I never went to the Terminal Hobby Shop, but there was a famous train shop on East Colorado Blvd, I think it was called the Whistle Stop, I went in there once. It was a fun, old-timey hobby shop. Which is right up my alley! A hobby shop that is near me that had been open since 1947 just closed, much to my sorrow. I think it was a combination of COVID and the owners (sons of the original owners) just got tired of running the business.
Stu29573, it makes sense that those trucks would be modified trains - there was already a well-established method for making little vehicles move. Why mess with success? Wow, that display at the State Fair of Texas sounds disappointing. Brown wood chips? WHY??
JG, I agree, and I think that the appeal of those miniature worlds is fairly universal. And as I’ve said before, I’ve loved looking at miniature train setups since way back - the Museum of Science and Industry in L.A. had a wonderful setup, I vividly remember being so enchanted that the scene would go from day to night and back again. Such a simple effect, but so powerful! Meanwhile, I’ve never had any toy trains that I can think of, nothing significant at any rate. Bummer! I’ll bet those cars in these photos were available at toy stores, somebody bought 50 of them in various colors and arranged them artfully.
Sunday Night, oh man, I would have loved to see this layout at night! If only film was able to capture such a scene back then. Ha ha, you’re like me, I had lots of dreams of building a great train layout, but never even had a darn train.
Mike Cozart, it sounds like your anticipation for the Walther’s Train Reference was like my anticipation for the Sears “Wishbook” every year!
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