Lifestyle
You can now ride a train through a lovely oak grove at Descanso Gardens
All aboard! Starting this week, the Descanso Railroad train ride is open to riders once again. And model trains winding their way around a new railway garden promise to charm a generation of engine-obsessed little kids.
Imagine a garden where cedar trunks and fallen branches from nearby oaks uphold an overhead miniature railway, with more rails and trains running at toddler eye level. The landscape is dotted with small plants and miniature versions of iconic American train stations, including L.A.’s Union Station, made of natural materials like acorns and seedpods.
The experience inside La Cañada Flintridge’s Descanso Gardens was created by a company called Applied Imagination. If you’ve ever strolled through a model garden made of natural materials in a major American city, Applied Imagination likely built it. The company provided the cedar tree trunks, which are scrap from furniture factories, and built the tiny train stations out of natural materials, including some sourced from Descanso Gardens.
The garden and railways in the model train experience are permanent, but the tiny stations are not, said director of communications Jennifer Errico.
“Every six months or so, those are going to change out, and Applied Imagination will bring another exhibition to the train garden,” she said. The next rotation will be roadside attractions and include a miniature Randy’s Donuts and Corn Palace. And after that, something sure to excite the preschool crowd: dinosaurs.
Part of the Descanso Gardens model train experience is miniature versions of iconic American railroad stations, like this model of Union Station.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The model train area is modestly sized; a brisk walk around it with brief stops to admire the tiny train stations would take only a couple of minutes. But with a lingering toddler, you could be here for hours. The walkways are wide enough to accommodate ample stroller traffic, and the low fences let kids get a full view. On the Friday before the experience opened to the public, a gaggle of children gathered in wordless thrall to witness a maintenance worker repairing an engine overhead.
The train ride — a one-eighth scale model of a diesel engine — first arrived at Descanso Gardens as a seasonal attraction in the 1980s, and became a permanent feature in 1996. Its location in the central promenade “never really made sense,” Errico said. The gardens’ director of horticulture visited one of Applied Imagination’s botanical train displays in another state, she said, and decided Descanso Gardens had to have one.
The train ride closed in 2023 for the renovation, including an upgrade to be completely electric. Riders take a 4-mph train trip that loops through the seasonal display (currently sunflowers and other summery blooms), up by the mulberry pond, through the oak grove and then down past the camellia forest. The ride lasts six minutes. You straddle a low bench to ride, rendering it not entirely skirt-friendly.
People ride the new electric train at Descanso Gardens.
(Descanso Gardens)
There is also, naturally, an on-site gift shop in the shape of a train car.
A few things to know: The model trains run from 8:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. (Before 9 a.m., the experience is limited to members.) The train ride runs from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. Visiting the model train experience is free with admission to the Descanso Gardens; tickets for the train ride are $5 per person, with a limited number sold each day. Riders must be over 30 inches tall.
Guests admire an elevated railway with a miniature train at Descanso Gardens.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Pat Finn
‘The Middle’ Actor Dead at 60
Published
Veteran comedic actor Pat Finn — who starred in sitcoms like “The Middle” and “The George Wendt Show” — is dead from a cancer battle … TMZ has confirmed.
Family sources tell us Pat passed away Tuesday morning at his home in Los Angeles, and he was surrounded by his family.
Pat came up in Hollywood around the same time as his good friend Chris Farley. He and Chris attended Marquette University in 1987, played rugby together there … and were roommates in Chicago when they both joined the Second City comedy troupe.
In the early 90s, Pat landed a guest role as Joe Mayo on “Seinfeld” … and went on to play Dan Coleman on “The George Wendt Show,” and Phil Jr. on “Murphy Brown.”
He’s probably best known for his role on “The Middle,” where he played Bill Norwood from 2011 to 2018.
I don’t like to be the guy who post pics with celebrities that pass. But this guy wasn’t just a celebrity to me. He was a friend. One of the best dudes I knew with a PERFECT sense of humor. I love you Pat Finn and I’ll see again in the after , we can sing together and shake our… pic.twitter.com/pQhobHKbCZ
— Jeff Dye (@JeffDye) December 24, 2025
@JeffDye
Several of his co-stars and friends, including comedian Jeff Dye, have posted online tributes.
While Pat’s family sources would not confirm what kind of cancer he’d been fighting, there are reports he was diagnosed with bladder cancer several years ago.
Pat is survived by his wife Donna — to whom he’d been married since 1990 — and their 2 children.
RIP
The Tin Soldier, one of Nicolas Coppola’s marionette puppets, is the main character in The Steadfast Tin Soldier show at Coppola’s Puppetworks theater in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.
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Every weekend, at 12:30 or 2:30 p.m., children gather on foam mats and colored blocks to watch wooden renditions of The Tortoise and the Hare, Pinocchio and Aladdin for exactly 45 minutes — the length of one side of a cassette tape. “This isn’t a screen! It’s for reals happenin’ back there!” Alyssa Parkhurst, a 24-year-old puppeteer, says before each show. For most of the theater’s patrons, this is their first experience with live entertainment.
Puppetworks has served Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood for over 30 years. Many of its current regulars are the grandchildren of early patrons of the theater. Its founder and artistic director, 90-year-old Nicolas Coppola, has been a professional puppeteer since 1954.
The Puppetworks theater in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.
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A workshop station behind the stage at Puppetworks, where puppets are stored and repaired.
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A picture of Nicolas Coppola, Puppetworks’ founder and artistic director, from 1970, in which he’s demonstrating an ice skater marionette puppet.
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For just $11 a seat ($12 for adults), puppets of all types — marionette, swing, hand and rod — take turns transporting patrons back to the ’80s, when most of Puppetworks’ puppets were made and the audio tracks were taped. Century-old stories are brought back to life. Some even with a modern twist.
Since Coppola started the theater, changes have been made to the theater’s repertoire of shows to better meet the cultural moment. The biggest change was the characterization of princesses in the ’60s and ’70s, Coppola says: “Now, we’re a little more enlightened.”
Right: Michael Jones, Puppetworks’ newest puppeteer, poses for a photo with Jack-a-Napes, one of the main characters in The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Left: A demonstration marionette puppet, used for showing children how movement and control works.
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Marionette puppets from previous Puppetworks shows hang on one of the theater’s walls.
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A child attends Puppetworks’ 12:30 p.m. showing on Saturday, Dec. 6, dressed in holiday attire that features the ballerina and tin soldier in The Steadfast Tin Soldier.
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Streaming has also influenced the theater’s selection of shows. Puppetworks recently brought back Rumpelstiltskin after the tale was repopularized following Dreamworks’ release of the Shrek film franchise.
Most of the parents in attendance find out about the theater through word of mouth or school visits, where Puppetworks’ team puts on shows throughout the week. Many say they take an interest in the establishment for its ability to peel their children away from screens.
Whitney Sprayberry was introduced to Puppetworks by her husband, who grew up in the neighborhood. “My husband and I are both artists, so we much prefer live entertainment. We allow screens, but are mindful of what we’re watching and how often.”
Left: Puppetworks’ current manager of stage operations, Jamie Moore, who joined the team in the early 2000s as a puppeteer, holds an otter hand puppet from their holiday show. Right: A Pinocchio mask hangs behind the ticket booth at Puppetworks’ entrance.
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A child attends Puppetworks’ 12:30 p.m. showing on Saturday, Dec. 6, dressed in holiday attire.
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Left: Two gingerbread people, characters in one of Puppetworks’ holiday skits. Right: Ronny Wasserstrom, a swing puppeteer and one of Puppetworks’ first puppeteers, holds a “talking head” puppet he made, wearing matching shirts.
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Other parents in the audience say they found the theater through one of Ronny Wasserstrom’s shows. Wasserstrom, one of Puppetworks’ first puppeteers, regularly performs for free at a nearby park.
Coppola says he isn’t a Luddite — he’s fascinated by animation’s endless possibilities, but cautions of how it could limit a child’s imagination. “The part of theater they’re not getting by being on the phone is the sense of community. In our small way, we’re keeping that going.”
Puppetworks’ 12:30 p.m. showing of The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Nutcracker Sweets on Saturday, Dec. 6.
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Children get a chance to see one of the puppets in The Steadfast Tin Soldier up close after a show.
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Left: Alyssa Parkhurst, Puppetworks’ youngest puppeteer, holds a snowman marionette puppet, a character in the theater’s holiday show. Right: An ice skater, a dancing character in one of Puppetworks’ holiday skits.
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Community is what keeps Sabrina Chap, the mother of 4-year-old Vida, a regular at Puppetworks. Every couple of weeks, when Puppetworks puts on a new show, she rallies a large group to attend. “It’s a way I connect all the parents in the neighborhood whose kids go to different schools,” she said. “A lot of these kids live within a block of each other.”
Three candy canes — dancing characters in one of Puppetworks’ holiday skits — wait to be repaired after a show.
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Anh Nguyen is a photographer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can see more of her work online, at nguyenminhanh.com , or on Instagram, at @minhanhnguyenn. Tiffany Ng is a tech and culture writer. Find more of her work on her website, breakfastatmyhouse.com.
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