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.

Abbot Kinney contracted John J. Coit to build the line, which opened on July 30, 1905, with 18-inch gauge track running 7,500 feet through the canal district. After a dispute, Coit left the company in 1907. The railway closed on February 13, 1925, after an order prohibited further operation.

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 line ran from a roundhouse at Lake Avenue and El Camino Real, today's Venice Boulevard and Abbot Kinney Boulevard, clockwise along Mildred Avenue, around the post office, over the canals at Riviera and Rialto, then back via Washington Boulevard. A five-cent fare covered the loop; a $1.00 ticket book cut it to two cents a ride.

The locomotives were oil-fired 2-6-2 "Prairie" types built by Johnson Machine Works, each costing $4,510, with boilers from Pacific Coast Boiler Works rated at 175 psi. The two engines differed only in their cab windows: 1-Spot had rectangular windows with rounded upper corners, while 2-Spot's were crescent-shaped at the top.