Walt's Barn - The Carolwood Society
DETAILS:
Location: 5202 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Hours of Operation: Every 3rd Sunday of the month from 11AM to 3PM. Please see their Facebook page (provided below under “resources”) for changes to the schedule or for any upcoming special events.
Parking: Free gravel parking lot on site.
Cost: Technically free, but there is a suggested $5 donation, per person.
Time Commitment: 1 hour
Miscellaneous:
In conjunction with each month’s opening, there is typically a special event arranged for the day featuring guests who’ve contributed to the legacy of all things Disney. Please check their Facebook page (provided below under “resources”) for details. On the day of our visit, author David Koening was there to discuss and sign his book; The 55ers, which archives the personal accounts of various employees who worked at Disneyland during its inaugural year.
Walt’s Barn shares its property with LA Live Steamers Railroad Museum which makes for a great visit itself and offers rides every Sunday on their 7½” gauge model trains. Link provided below under “resources” for more information.
If you’re a Walt Disney fan or train enthusiast (or both), you can find a little piece of heaven every third Sunday of the month at Walt’s Barn located in Griffith Park. Containing the likes of Travel Town Museum, Griffith Park Train Rides, and LA Live Steamers Railroad Museum, some would call Griffith Park the unofficial train mecca of Southern California with Walt’s Barn serving as the crown jewel of this wonderful collection. When you arrive, there’s a good chance that you’ll have to stop at a miniature railroad crossing in order to let a model train ride pass (belonging to the LA Live Steamers Railroad Museum that shares the property with Walt’s Barn) carrying the smiling faces of everyone on-board, and just like that the mood is set for the rest of your visit.
It would be easy to confuse Walt’s Barn as a northern annex of Disneyland, but it’s actually maintained by the Carolwood Society; a non-profit organization founded to preserve Walt Disney's railroad legacy. Before the pursuit of global dominance, any of the theme parks, and even Mickey Mouse, one of Walt’s earliest passions was his love of the railroad. Whether it was as a little boy admiring his Uncle Mike who served as an engineer on the Santa Fe Railroad, to working as a “news butcher” on the Missouri Pacific as a teenager, or visiting the Chicago Railroad Fair of 1948 which is said to have inspired his desire to build a “Mickey Mouse Park” in Burbank (which would ultimately become Disneyland);Walt’s fascination for trains spanned his entire life. This coupled with the fact that Walt never did anything small led to the creation of an entire railroad system (1/8th in scale) throughout the property of his house in Holmby Hills in 1950. Walt dubbed his train line the Carolwood Pacific Railroad after his address on 355 North Carolwood Drive, which coincidentally meant that it shared the same initials with the famed Central Pacific Railroad of his youth. With a half-mile long track, a 46ft trestle that crossed Yensid Valley (“Disney” spelled backwards), a 90ft tunnel (so that he wouldn’t disturb his wife’s floral arrangements), and miniature rail-cars that Walt helped build himself (Walt had machinists from the studio train him in metalwork and carpentry), no detail was spared and Walt’s Barn served as mission control to the entire operation. The Carolwood Pacific Railroad soon became one of Walt’s biggest joys as well as an important safe haven from the rigors of his day job.
Years later when the Carolwood house was sold to new owners, it was Walt’s daughter; Diane Disney Miller, who saved the barn from being demolished in order to preserve its historical ties to her father. The barn was dismantled and stored away until the Carolwood Society was able to find it a new home in Griffith Park in 1999. Today, Walt’s Barn watches over numerous photos, artifacts, and keepsakes from Walt Disney’s personal and professional association with the railroad and provides an intimate glimpse into his life away from the mouse. In addition, the property around Walt’s Barn also contains an exhibition of working steam engines, an original Disneyland train car, and several miniature railroad tracks. Walt’s Barn is definitely one Disney ride you don’t want to miss, so all aboard!
