las-taylor-yard-always-something-differenthttps://www.trains.com/trn/railroads/history/las-taylor-yard-always-something-different/LA's Taylor Yard: Always something different - TrainsLA's Taylor Yard: A wise man once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It’s a nice thought. But he never met a train fan.https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/TRN_Taylor_1_5021_Lustig.jpgInStockUSD1.001.00historyrailroadsarticleTRN2024-01-152023-10-25166214
When you figure you know what to expect when train hunting, railroading throws you a curve
Always something different at LA’s Taylor Yard
A wise man once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It’s a nice thought. But he never met a train fan.
For decades, whenever I had a few free minutes, I’d drive down to Southern Pacific’s sprawling Taylor Yard complex in Los Angeles to see what was in town. Most of the time it was just regular power, and cookie-cutter freight cars. But just often enough I’d come across a stranger on the ready tracks, or a distinct piece of rolling stock.
Those are the days you really enjoyed. With the sweet smell of the Van de Kamp’s bakery adjacent to the yard’s north throat adding to the day, for some of us it was heaven on earth.
The photo above of SP No. 5021 is one of the examples of what I found over the years. Here are some others that illustrated why I would enjoy both the sameness of the scene as well as the unusual stuff that rarely made it to Southern California.
Today, Southern Pacific is gone. It’s now part of Union Pacific. Taylor Yard is history, as well. A facility 50-odd miles east is the new Southern California hub.
I’ve moved on, as well. I left the San Fernando Valley in my rear-view mirror years ago and moved to the next county north. But I’m still near the former SP Coast Line. The trains are fewer, the power more mundane. But that still doesn’t stop me from detouring to where the station once stood to see what’s powering the next train.
I’m pretty sure what the power will be. But I’ll show up, anyhow. Just in case.
One thought on “LA’s Taylor Yard: Always something different”
Mr. Lustig,
Your letter dated Oct. 25 containing memories of Taylor Yard arrived in this morning’s email. Your closing comments brought a tear to my eye. My earliest memory of train watching stems from the early-mid 1950’s when my family and I would often visit the Union Pacific depot in Topeka, KS. The depot was and is located at the divergence of the Rock Island’s golden state route, the UP “branch” which joined the UP’s Nebraska mainline at Gibbon, Nebraska, and the UP’s Kansas mainline to Denver. My wife and I have carried on that tradition first with our two boys, and now in retirement. In the 50’s, my duty was to walk down the brick platform, enter the depot, and check the arrival/ departure board to see which trains were on time and which were late. The image of leaving the depot one evening and encountering the last steam engine (an 800) in regular service I ever saw there, rolling west, double-headed with a diesel, is forever engraved in my mind. My wife and I still park in the same spot, having brought McDonald’s and a book, to “see what will show up.” Thanks for the memories.- Karl Landis, Grantville, KS
Mr. Lustig,
Your letter dated Oct. 25 containing memories of Taylor Yard arrived in this morning’s email. Your closing comments brought a tear to my eye. My earliest memory of train watching stems from the early-mid 1950’s when my family and I would often visit the Union Pacific depot in Topeka, KS. The depot was and is located at the divergence of the Rock Island’s golden state route, the UP “branch” which joined the UP’s Nebraska mainline at Gibbon, Nebraska, and the UP’s Kansas mainline to Denver. My wife and I have carried on that tradition first with our two boys, and now in retirement. In the 50’s, my duty was to walk down the brick platform, enter the depot, and check the arrival/ departure board to see which trains were on time and which were late. The image of leaving the depot one evening and encountering the last steam engine (an 800) in regular service I ever saw there, rolling west, double-headed with a diesel, is forever engraved in my mind. My wife and I still park in the same spot, having brought McDonald’s and a book, to “see what will show up.” Thanks for the memories.- Karl Landis, Grantville, KS