No More Humping at City of Industry?

[Anonymous]

The June issue of Trains describes UP's City of Industry yard (ex-SP) as being a flat-switching yard. When did they take the hump out? When I photographed it back in 1983, there was indeed a small hump at the east end, complete with a hump "tower" (more like a ground-level office).

[mudchicken]

I would have thought that VSmith, DHarmon, DREHEPE or the other left coasters would have jumped all over this..

(1) Flat switching at this location is more effective than humping and considerably cheaper...
(2) West Colton Happened in 1985....Industry, Taylor, the Bull Ring, Wilmington and many of the others became satellite or holding or holding yards. Much of SP's industry in the basin went to crap, dried up and abandoned....Bad service, poor track (especially the old PE lines) and no money ran off a lot of business. ATSF & UP made sure SP was demoted to second string. (SP had some really good people, but the operating department culture was really corrupted by the 1980's....Anschutz and the DRGW folks could not stop the hemoraging. ATSF was fortunate that SPSF did not happen.)

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. My question still stands: did they remove the hump from Industry? Seems like it would be tedious to do flat switching back and forth over a hump, fighting gravity, increased slack run-in/run-out, etc. Also, you say "West Colton Happened in 1985." What do you mean? I thought W.C. opened in the 1970s. Are you referring to some big expansion or increased usage at W.C. in 1985 that finally sucked the life out of those other yards?

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

I would have thought that VSmith, DHarmon, DREHEPE or the other left coasters would have jumped all over this..

Well ....I know...but it was too easy....figured it was a trap..ambush..you know....


not a left coaster by choice.........need to get my act together for the parole hearing....

[vsmith]

Dont do a lot of trainwatching, especially near Industry, too many nutcases roaming the streets there, so I wouldnt be one to offer an opinion, at least regarding operations...

Oh... and yeah, I steered clear of the obvious jokes, didnt want to go there...

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

Oh... and yeah, I steered clear of the obvious jokes, didnt want to go there...

Hmm..Humping and Steered, shame on you! is there something we should Know? [:p]

Jay

[Anonymous]

Well, you guys seem fully qualified for that Managing Editor position at Trains. Now, can someone who really knows something chime in?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

I would have thought that VSmith, DHarmon, DREHEPE or the other left coasters would have jumped all over this..

(1) Flat switching at this location is more effective than humping and considerably cheaper...
(2) West Colton Happened in 1985....Industry, Taylor, the Bull Ring, Wilmington and many of the others became satellite or holding or holding yards. Much of SP's industry in the basin went to crap, dried up and abandoned....Bad service, poor track (especially the old PE lines) and no money ran off a lot of business. ATSF & UP made sure SP was demoted to second string. (SP had some really good people, but the operating department culture was really corrupted by the 1980's....Anschutz and the DRGW folks could not stop the hemoraging. ATSF was fortunate that SPSF did not happen.)

Hey MC, I didn't jump on this because I'm not left coast anymore! Or, actually, maybe I'm all coasts--depends where the plane lands that day (gotta do something about this lifestyle!). But since you threw out the bait, here goes......

MC is right, and the exodus of facilities was beginning to happen when I was left coast. SP had been trying to get its volume yard switching out of what mostly amounts to downtown LA since before I left--too much congestion and the real estate got just too valuable. And what their customers didn't accomplish by shutting down and moving out (mostly over air laws, since everybody in SoCal KNOWS industry causes smog and certainly not all those voter-driven cars!), SP did for them by running them off. UP and SF moved out ASAP too--ATSF to Barstow and UP to WC just as soon as they got SP--Hobart and ELA (which also used to be a hump yard) are both just intermodal terminals now, which really screws up the traffic on my old 60 bypass, Washington Ave, by the way.

There is just no good reason to have to haul trains all the way in and classify them, particularly now that most of these lines are commuter districts, when you can get the job done in the boonies and run through on down to the harbor. A flat yard should handle what local switching volume is left quite easily and economically. And MC is also right, SP had some good people, but Operating and Business Reduction (OOPS, I mean Marketing) departments left a whoooooooole lot to be desired.

For those of you who may not have lived in lala land and don't really know the territory, unless you were ATSF, you had to come into the basin to get back out, back in the good ol' days. If you were UP (LASL), you came in and terminated, or gave it to SP to get it up into the south end of the SJ Valley or to about SLO on the coast line, or even if you had to get it to Burbank, etc. If you were SP, before the Cajon cutoff, you had to run right through downtown to get back up north. Even after Cajon, which was the real reason for the development of WC, you came in at least that far before you went back up the hill to get out. ATSF split off the Valley line at Barstow, way out in the Mojave, so it made exceedingly good sense to do the volume classification and reblocking for all CA destinations there--they were lucky and got to bypass the heavy city traffic. When the local switching business started drying up, even Hobart wasn't needed to break stuff up, but it and ELA (which sit side by side, for you who reside east of Beaumont Pass) are almost perfectly located to drop pigs and containers right into the middle of where they need to go.

Hence, Industry becomes a flat yard, Taylor goes partially to Metrolink and the rest gets redeveloped, ELA and Hobart become pig terminals, the Bull Ring disappears, 8th St to Redondo officially go to ATK, the UP Orange County properties get significantly realigned, the Exposition Blvd Daylight bites the dust (always loved that funky city whistle), Fullerton gets 3 main tracks, the LA Junction starts to hurt for switching business, and the Alameda Corridor roto-roots the stopped up lines to the harbor.

Oh, the times they are a-changin'...............[:(][:)][?]

[Anonymous]

And my question still stands...did they REMOVE the hump from City of Industry?

[vsmith]

The Direct answer is YES, they did, but when they did it, I dont know. I remember seeing alot of track reworking back in the late 80's or very early 90's, probably then.

Everything out here is becoming more dedicated to intermodal container shipping. A real freight train is a rare sight these days Taylor Yard is long gone, all that remains is the diesel repair facility and the Metrolink Yards . Even the old ROW has been realigned to the river now, no more following San Fernando Road. There have been plans to develope The Remains of Taylor Yard into either a Grand Park or just mixed use building development. With the States fiscal foulup nothing has happened though.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Stelli

Well, you guys seem fully qualified for that Managing Editor position at Trains. Now, can someone who really knows something chime in?

OK, I really know somehting about Garbage cans, Skunks, and one-humped Camels.. does that apply?

[Anonymous]

Kevin, the answer is "no." And vsmith, many thanks.