Lomita Railroad Museum

Westchester Antiquers Club

As I have no doubt mentioned before on this blog, Tim and I belong to an antiques/collectibles club that's chaired by our best friend Karen. The club meets 10 months a year, then takes a summer field trip. This year's field trip was to the Lomita Railroad Museum, about 30 minutes south of Culver City.

Located, oddly enough, in the middle of an old residential area, the museum was started by Irene Lewis, who owned the Little Engines of Lomita, which manufactured miniature live-steam locomotives in the mid-20th-century. (Walt Disney reportedly owned several Little Engines and was a friend of the Lewises.) When her husband died, Mrs. Lewis had the museum built as a memorial in his name and then gave it to the city of Lomita in 1966. The museum is small but nonetheless fascinating, with its depot (modeled after a Victorian-style station in Wakefield, Mass.), water tower and steam engine. The museum also has not one, but two cabooses! It's a great place to spend a pleasant Saturday afternoon. 

Steam engine and water tower

 

Victorian-style depot: "We're Open"

 

Engine detail

 

Old railroad china, when "first-class" passengers used to ride in style

 

Conductor memorabilia 

 

Railroad lamps and such

 

Inside the caboose

 

Wood-burning stove inside the wooden caboose (yikes!)

 

Wearing my Mary Blair "trains" dress outside the yellow caboose