LA Area Trains and kid stuff

Take amtrak to San Diego, while there go see the toy train museum in Balboa park. The San Diego 3 railers have one of the best layouts I've seen! You should go to Sea World while you are there, lots of fun for an 11 year old.

Oh, and I hear they have a pretty good zoo there too :-)

also try;

http://www.daytrippen.com/californiatrainrides.html

Thanks, We've done the Sand Diego area a couple of times already.  It is truely a fun  area to go.  My son wanted to see Universal Studiois, hence we are targeting LA this time.

How about a ballgame. This is always a good father/son activity. Of the three LA area teams, one of them will be home for your trip. The new park in San Diego is beautiful. Take the train and you have an added treat.

Orange Empire RR Museum: http://www.oerm.org/

In that case then, Knott's Berry Farm, one of my all time favorite places :-)

Ditto on Knott's........grew up down the street...spent lots of time there.....lots of trains too....

buy your tickets online and SAVE $$$

We're about 2.5 miles South of the end of the 110 freeway in San Pedro. If you have some time on Saturday, you can drop by and see us wreck -- I mean run trains. Your son can take over the controls -- most of us let the kids run our trains since they pay attention better than we do. Directions are on the web site.

AGHR is a must, the boy will have a ball!

AGHR is a nice visit!  For sure!!  A few other thoughts:

Try the Fillmore and Western Railway (the "Movie Train").  You'll see many familiar places....  http://www.fwry.com/

Also, the Los Angeles Live Steamers in Griffith Park....http://lals.org/

Try the Autry Museum is outstanding and, too, located in Griffith Park.  http://geneautry.com/museum/

Then there's the Train Shack on Hollywood Way in Burbank.  Don't miss it.  http://www.trainshack.com/

You could take the Gold Line trolley from Pasadena to Union Station and then walk across the street to Olvera Street and have lunch. From Union Station you can take a train anywhere. A ride on the Red Line subway is an experience.  When you come down the ramps from the station tracks, gold line replaced track one and two, one way goes to the waiting room the other direction takes you to the transit center and red line subway.  New Getty Art Musuem is worth a trip as is the Space Shuttle and the tar pits. 

If you end-up at the AGHR here in San Pedro, the Lomita RR Museum isn't very far away (maybe 15-20 mins).  It's small (they have a 2-6-0 Mogul, two cabooses, a tank car, and a box car, plus a collection of railroad items in a replica station) but worth the trip if you're nearby anyway.  You can go into one of the cabooses and up into the cab of the Mogul.  The museum has an interesting backstory and the staff is courteous.

http://www.lomita-rr.org/

-Dustin

If you make it to San Pedro, don't forget the USS Iowa.