Before (1953) and After (2003) at Taylor Yard

Nov. 15, 2009 | By John Rabe

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Yesterday, we played one of one of my favorite LA History games. Feed a random word into the LA Public Library photo archive website.

The word was “romance,” and I came up with a lovely old shot from Taylor Yards, evoking the romance of steam trains.


Photograph caption dated April 18, 1953 reads, "This is the Southern Pacific's old roundhouse near the Los Angeles River. It's a far cry from Dieselville, which is a sprawling yard. In the roundhouse, locomotives are stacked in stalls like silver stallions. On the turntable is the Dinky, a snub-nosed beetle on an engine which pushes the "biggies” hither and yon. “There still is romance in steam,” said one veteran railroader." (Herald-Examiner/LAPL)

So, what’s happened to the roundhouse?

Back in 2003, I was shooting pictures by the LA River and went on to the railroad property and found the answer. Look carefully and you can see many of the same elements in the photos I took almost exactly fifty years after the “Herald-Examiner” shot now archived in the public library.





From what I saw on a recent recent bike ride, I think all the superstructure is gone. (For scrap?) But the hole is still there.

Find some “before” shots yourself at the LAPL site, then take some “after” shots and let us know about it in the comments section below.

Check out John's weekly show Off-Ramp!

Joe Linton
3 months, 4 weeks ago

Nice photos, John. Demolition has been going on at that site for about a month now. There's a shot of what the round house looked like a couple weeks ago at the top of this post: http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/photographing-nearly-demolished-taylor-yard-rail-facilities/

John Rabe
3 months, 4 weeks ago

Hi, Joe. Good to hear from you!

I'm out of date on that because my back went out a while ago and Julian's tires blew out, so we haven't biked there in a while.

Too bad about that perfect circle of concrete.

Keep us posted, and keep practicing "sana sana."

-- John

Ironhorse
3 months, 3 weeks ago

Wow, isn't it amazing how fast landmarks come and go, this is exactly why we need to appreciate what we have now before it is gone like the railroads of yesteryear. Well done on the photos and may the turntable still live on even if it doesn't run.

FOREVER STEAM RAILROADING!

- Ironhorse

Kevin Kuzma
3 months, 3 weeks ago

For some more info on the recent demolition, please see a story I contributed to at the TheEastsiderLA blog: http://theeastsiderlahomehistory.blogspot.com/2009/10/end-of-line-for-taylor-yard.html

The article features a photo of the roundhouse crew from a day in 1949 taken in front of the dinkey. Thanks for posting the 1953 photo. Now I know what the rest of this locomotive looked like.

Chris
3 months, 3 weeks ago

The 1953 photo is of the Los Angeles General Shops roundhouse not Taylor. Both locations had similar shop dinkys. The General Shops round house was gone by 1960.

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john rabe
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Chris,

Was the General Shops roundhouse also by the LA River?

-- John

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