Tarzana Mansion With Train Tracks Hits Market

A Tarzana mansion with nearly a century of history and connections to Walt Disney and acclaimed actor John Huston is on the market.

The home, located at 4535 Vanalden Avenue in the Tarzana hills, is for sale for just under $20 million, Mansion Global reported. The backyard comes complete with its own railroad around the property and rideable steam engine, built in the 1950s by previous owner Gordon MacLean with the help of his friend Walt Disney.

Disney himself built his own miniature railroad through the yard of his Holmby Hills home and brought the project to life on MacLean’s 4.5-acre Tarzana lot. The main ranch-style home was originally built by actor and director John Huston in the 1940s and he lived there for about a decade before selling to MacLean in 1959.

The five-bedroom main house spans over 12,000 square feet and features a suite for guests. A recently built party barn with its own bedroom is also on the property, as well as a 2,000-square-foot depot for the family train. You can work up a sweat on the on-site tennis court, take a dip in a lagoon-style pool, or wander around seven ponds, a dog run and large grassy lawns.

An avid train lover, MacLean was a member of the Live Steam Locomotives enthusiast group at Griffith Park and later invited rail lovers from the park’s Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum to ride his train, according to MacLean’s 2004 obituary. Disney’s train ended up at the museum after his death.

The quarter-mile train track on the Tarzana property is unique in that it includes a long tunnel, trestles and cuts, or intersections where the tracks split in two directions. It can also run both steam engines and electric trains that are about a foot wide. Think you’ll miss your train? Check the on-site timetable. And if you’re worried about getting hit, there are railroad crossing signs scattered throughout.

MacLean sold the house in 1968 to move to Nevada, and the property changed hands several times since then. The railroad wasn’t cared for for nearly 30 years and fell into disrepair, but his son, Hawley MacLean, took on the endeavor of working with the current owners to get it back in service, documenting the journey on YouTube. The tracks became fully functional in 2021, according to a Santa Clarita Valley Garden Railroad Club newsletter.

The younger MacLean is continuing the tradition with his own garden train at his home in Reno.

— Chris Malone Méndez