Venice Miniature Railway, Miniature railway in Venice, California, United States.
The Venice Miniature Railway was a small steam-powered train in Venice, California, that carried passengers through the canal district built to resemble the Italian city. The coaches were designed to echo Venetian architecture, matching the canals, bridges, and colonnaded buildings around them.
The railway opened in 1905, shortly after Abbot Kinney founded Venice and built his canal network to attract visitors to the new seaside development. It closed in the 1920s, around the same time many of the canals were filled in and the area began to change.
The railway appeared in several silent films shot in the Venice canal district, including Harold Lloyd productions such as "By the Sad Sea Waves" and "Number, Please?". The canal streets and small train gave directors a ready-made set that looked unlike anywhere else in California.
The railway no longer exists, but the remaining canals of Venice can still be explored on foot along the quiet residential paths that run beside them. Walking the area gives a clear sense of what the district once looked like, especially near the canals that were not filled in.
The two steam locomotives ran on a track so narrow that it was smaller than most standard narrow-gauge lines of the time. This allowed the train to move through passages in the canal district that would have been too tight for any larger vehicle.
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