Where Mr. Disney’s imagination wandered
When Walt Disney and his wife, Lillian, considered buying the house at 355 North Carolwood Drive in swanky, mansion-filled Holmby Hills, they had two priorities. Walt needed space for his cherished miniature trains and Lillian for her beloved garden beds. They agreed on the house, but argued over the same plot of land for their respective hobbies. After some tense negotiations, Lillian won out, but that’s because Walt decided to build his railroad below his wife’s garden instead, creating a 90-foot S-shaped tunnel. The curves allowed for maximum darkness, making for a scarier train ride. That tunnel was just part of the nearly half-mile track Walt built in his backyard. Also included was a 46-foot-long trestle soaring 12 feet high. Atop the track ran his “Carolwood Pacific Railroad,” a small-scale live steam train, an eighth the size of the real thing. Passengers straddled the cars, like riding a horse.
Surrounded by the hand-laid tracks sat a red barn modeled after the one Walt loved as a boy on his family’s farm in Missouri. Within that barn, Walt ran the track switchboard, and tinkered and imagined. The barn was his respite from the demands of the studio. In fact, he spent so much time sheltered in its cozy one-room space, some believe the barn was where he hatched the idea of creating a giant amusement park.
Info
Address 5202 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027, +1 310.213.0722, www.carolwood.com/walts-barn | Getting there Free on-site lots | Hours Third Sun of the month 11am–3pm| Tip In Griffith Park, just west of Walt’s Barn, is the giant Travel Town Museum, where old locomotives and their cars from the 1880s to 1940s rest.
When Disney’s Holmby Hills home was sold, the barn was dismantled and rebuilt in its current location on Zoo Drive. About 80 percent of the structure is original. Inside, you’ll find exhibits on the history of railroads and pieces of Walt’s personal collection, like the black engine and tender in the middle of the room, ruined on its way to the States from England, where Walt had discovered and fallen in love with it. Of note is the original Carolwood control panel, with which Walt operated his train. In fact, it’s the first ride control system of its kind.
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