- Tuesday, December 6, 2016 9:37 AM
- DisneyDan
Hello everyone,
In October we had the opportunity visit a place that has a special meaning to Disney history - Walt's Carolwood Barn in Griffith Park, Los Angeles.
For those of you who don't know, the barn was part of Walt Disney's personal Carolwood Railway that he operated at his home in Los Angeles during his life. During the 1990s, obviously long after Walt had passed away and the family moved out, the barn still remained, but was under threat of being torn down. The Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum - of which Walt Disney was a founding member - came to its rescue, and transplanted it to Griffith Park. Over the years, many artifacts were given to the society to showcase at the barn, and today it stands as a very fitting tribute to Walt's passion for trains.
Walt's Barn is only open the third Sunday of each month from 11am until 3pm, weather permitting. Admission and parking are free. Donations are greatly welcomed to support this society.
Before I proceed further, I am going to take this opportunity to mention that, if you are interested in the personal history of Walt Disney, not only is this place a great place to visit, but there are some other locations worth mentioning to you, too.
Also within Griffith Park is the carousel that Walt used to take his daughters to, and where he got the inspiration for Disneyland. Further away in Burbank, if you are lucky enough to get tickets via d23 or some other means, you can visit The Walt Disney Studios (which includes the Walt Disney Archives) and Walt Disney Company headquarters. I visited both of the studios and carousel last year, and provided a detailed report,
which you can find by clicking here.
The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco is a fantastic museum, and highly recommended. I wrote a detailed report about my recent visit to the WDFM,
which you can find by clicking here.
Arriving at the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum you might think you're in the wrong place. Not that there is actually anything wrong with it itself, in fact it has a certain charm to it, but it just doesn't scream, "Hey! This is where Walt Disney's beloved personal railway collection is housed!" - and perhaps that is the best part of all, really. It isn't there to make a point. It doesn't exist to try to be bigger and better than anywhere else. It exists to house a part of history that only a few people truly relate with and want to willingly engage with. It is a perfect little hideaway for enthusiasts, hidden by its very normal appearance.
The rather unceremonious entranceway is staffed by very welcoming volunteers who give you a sticker as a souvenir of your visit.
Along the main entrance path there are some model villages by which a small passenger train passes by every so often. I should note here that the model villages and the train that runs around the site are not part of Walt's Barn itself, but are part of the overall Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum.
There is a small kiosk that sells a few books and souvenirs. We didn't buy anything this time as we arrived very late in the day and didn't want to miss anything inside the barn.
Before we get to the barn itself, I want to point out a few other things that are located at the museum.
The museum is also home to a carriage from the original Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad, from Disneyland of course. This carriage was apparently Walt's favourite one.
Just around the corner from the railroad carriage, there is a very small little building that belonged to Ollie Johnston, one of Walt's Nine Old Men. Ollie was also a railroad enthusiast, and this building was part of his private railway, up until 2008, when it was moved to the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum to be part of Walt's Barn.
Now we come to the main attraction - Walt's Barn itself. The barn is not altogether very big, but boy is it crammed full with amazing things! There are items from the Disney family collection that, while probably have little monetary value really, are priceless in their sentimental value. I was blown away at discovering one thing in particular. There was me, just walking along, leaning over the worktops, touching them - like a tourist does - only to find right at the end the tiniest little sign (that really could have been telling me the weather as much as it was anything else) declaring that all the worktops I had just spent the past twenty minutes gazing over were handmade by Walt! Crazy and amazing all at once!
I took a lot of photos, and it would be impossible for me to share them all here and have you understand everything without writing essays of explanation notes. I am going to share a (still fairly large) selection though, which I hope brings you a little closer to understanding this amazing place.
Visiting Walt's Barn was a very moving experience, and one which I can't recommend enough to all dedicated Disney fans.
Have a great day everyone,
Dan.