Not the Original Picture, but Good Enough

The informaiton below was gleaned from this webiste: https://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/rail.htm Venice, California (a beach resort town founded in 1905) was built on 3 kilometers of coast land west of Los Angeles. It was the result of the vision of Abbot Kinney, a millionaire who made his fortune in the tobacco trade. Ironically, he died on November 4, 1920 of lung cancer. Part of his vision included a transportation system based on a narrow gauge, miniature railway.

Mr. Kinney hired John Coit to oversee the construction and management of the mile and three quarter long railroad. The purpose of the railway was to take passengers from the Windward Avenue business district on a loop across canal bridges then return via a loop up Washington Boulevard, past the Lake Avenue maintenance yard and back to the Windward station along Mildred Avenue. Coit ordered a Prairie 2-6-2 oil burning engine at a cost of $4,510 from the Johnson Machine Works in Los Angeles. The locomotive was finished in black with brass rails and silver lettering. The first set of five, 12 passenger cars was painted royal blue, while the second set ordered later was painted cherry red. The Venice Miniature Railroad remained a popular ride and had run of weekend for twenty years. The train was opposed by merchants along its route on Washington Boulevard. Since the city of Venice planned an ordinance that would prohibit miniature railroads from operating on streets, Thornton Kinney closed it on February 13, 1925. They sold it to a man in Denver in 1928 who said he was moving it to Spokane Washington. However, the locomotives all ended up at scrap yards in northern California. One of the engines was placed on display at the scrap yard and, after several years it was purchased for use in Southern California again. Fortunately the railroad was acquired by Don McCoy, who, with his two sons, then spent three years restoring the train from the ground up. The train then began operation in 1972 at Legg Lake at the Whittier Narrows Recreational Area. It operated on its one mile long loop until 1978 when vandalism became a problem.

The post card was published by Olde Tyme Photo Cards, Bicentennial Station out of Los Angeles, California. A search on the internet did not come up with any information about the company, so I presume that it has ceased business. The post card in my collection is a sepia reproduction of an actual coloured post card from the early 1900s. The post card in my collection was printed after 1963; I know this because there is a zip code in the company's address on the back of the card.