Griffith Park Railroad: A Tiny Train To Nowhere

It won't take you out of town but it will take you in a circle and that's essentially the same thing (and for a fraction of the cost of Hawaii). Griffith Park's Travel Town of miniature trains has been in operation since the mid 1970s and in addition to the 1/4th and 1/3rd scale models of five locomotives and 21 passenger coaches, there's also a Buck Rogers-esque retro futuristic simulator on the premises. According to the official site, the railroads carry nearly 600,000 passengers every year, and weather-permitting, the trains operate 364 days a year, closing only for Christmas.