Trains, funiculars, ferries and little railroads with kids around Los Angeles

For a train fan, the ride is the destination. Los Angeles offers everything from a $1 funicular to real steam engines, and San Gabriel Valley families have one huge advantage: the A Line light rail runs right through Arcadia, so there's no driving Downtown and hunting for parking.

Easiest is boarding the A Line at Arcadia station: 15 minutes to Old Pasadena, 40-some minutes to Grand Park and the Central Library Downtown, then a walk to Angels Flight, the world's shortest railway at $1 a ride. In one corner of Griffith Park, Travel Town is free for climbing real trains and riding the miniature; in another, the Griffith Park & Southern Railroad has run for 70-plus years. Orange County's Irvine Park Railroad loops under century-old oaks. For a change, the 1916 carousel and Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier, or the Balboa Island Ferry in Newport, three minutes across the bay and a frozen banana on the other side.

• 7 places
• 1 free
• 7 stroller-friendly
• closest is 5 min away