FOR KIDS : Travel Town Keeps Chugging Along : Griffith Park: The exhibit features 35 locomotives, the iron muscle that helped to build Los Angeles.

As children, most of us probably dreamed of being a railroad conductor, at least for an afternoon of imaginary play as our steam engines forged across mountainous terrain.

“My parents first took me to Travel Town when I was about 6,” said Grace Boggs, 32, who lives in Elizabeth, N. J., with her twin 5-year-old girls. “We’re out here visiting, and I’m back with my kids. It’s deja vu.

“Look how they love it, running around all the trains. It’s not just for boys, and it’s not just for girls. It’s just for fun .”

Travel Town, which opened in 1952, covers 30,000 square feet and includes the largest collection of steam locomotives in the United States. The outdoor exhibit features 35 authentic locomotives--passenger, freight, industrial, short line, transcontinental and experimental--that helped build Los Angeles and surrounding communities from the 1880s to the 1930s.

“When I began six years ago, Travel Town had lost some of its steam, so to speak,” said Linda Barth, who directs planning and development for the Los Angeles city-owned railroad exhibit in Griffith Park. “But the public’s interest in trains, especially for the older ones, is definitely making a comeback.”

Travel Town is restoring several locomotives that will run from the Los Angeles Zoo to Travel Town in three or four years. A library to warehouse railroad history and other memorabilia is also planned.

“This has always been a happy place, a place that families enjoy,” Barth said. “I think our greatest joy is that kids learn so much here without being hit over the head that they’re learning. And when you learn about the railroads, you are learning about the history of struggle and success.”

Barth estimates that about 450,000 people visit Travel Town annually, including a large portion of schoolchildren and families who take advantage of the exhibit’s free admission.

And dreams of riding the rails don’t necessarily die with childhood.

“This is ageless, absolutely ageless,” said Chellis Hurdle, 56, president of the Whittier-based Southern California Scenic Railroad Assn., one of two groups that volunteer weekends to maintain exhibit equipment and help with railroad restoration at Travel Town. The American Southwestern Railroad Assn. in Long Beach is the other.

“The fascination with trains and the railroads is so unique. It’s different for each person,” said Hurdle, whose devotion began at 4. “I’d say it has to do with movement. There’s something about a train’s action, its sound. Why, there’s even a special smell. You can’t put it into words. You’d have to stand next to an old steam engine to understand.”

“They’re like a gift from heaven,” Barth said about the two groups. “They’re out there doing the job that has to be done. They even lay track the old-fashioned way, like the Irish and the Chinese did.” (The volunteers lay the track by hand, while today’s rails are installed by machine.)

Travel Town’s oldest locomotive was built in 1864. Except for the miniature train ride that travels the perimeter of the grounds, the trains are stationary.

But a little magic does happen every now and then. On the first weekend of every other month, the volunteer groups take passengers out for a 400-foot authentic train ride, steam whistle and all.

“It isn’t much as this point,” Hurdle said. “But you can see the excitement on everyone’s face. I guess riding a train from the 1880s brings out the kid in all of us.”

Travel Town, Griffith Park, 5200 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles. From 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, an authentic locomotive will run continuously. Admission is free. Call (213) 662-5874.