Nostalgia & History > Taylor Hump:Just before closing

Three images from 1982, correct me if I am wrong.But I do remember it was two weeks before it closed forever.The first view is towards the receiving yard. The second shows the bowl. The third shot shows the hump tower.All views from the pedestrian bridge.Hard to believe this once vast facility ever existed.My grandfather introduced me to trains here and my cousin too.My cousin had a company issued pass and the shops mixed and bottled paint for his models.Bill Webb

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It was amazing that yard was done away with but, the land was worth more than the yard wasn't it?

The manifest or loose car business was going away fast and the West Colton facility could handle it.Plus the City of Industry had a hump.The land now sits mostly vacant awaiting conversion to park space.The diesel shop closed much later and Metrolink now occupies the lower end with their main shops and yard. Bill Webb

As "loose car" railroading goes, so goes classification yards.

Had SP and ATSF merged, I wonder if either West Colton or Barstow might have been shut down. Having two huge yards like that located a little over seventy miles from each other would seem a little redundant.

Thanks for posting those Bill. A LOT of great work memories flashed back as I looked at them.

Since they closed Taylor yard, did the yard crews from Taylor have seniority rights in WC?

That is a great trio of shots, been there done that.
JB

All the same seniority district,so when the switch jobs were abolished a lot of bumping occurred.Bill Webb

Great shots! I didn't know the hump closed in '82. I could have sworn it was some time between 1985 and 89. My memory on this is admittedly fuzzy though.

Great shots.

~Ryan

The book "The Southern Pacific in Los Angeles 1873-1996" by Larry Mullaly and Bruce Petty wrote that it closed in the Fall of 1985.

spider1319 Wrote:
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> All the same seniority district,so when the switch
> jobs were abolished a lot of bumping occurred.Bill
> Webb


True in a way.. The Los Angeles Dvision engineers had seniority from Los Angeles to Yuma. The San Joaquin Dvision included Los Angeles westward and including Bakersfield, Mojave and Fresno... the Coast , the jobs at Gemco, San Fernando, Oxnard, plus the run from LA to Bakersfield..

West Colton seems to have a nagging problem with how the tracks are laid out, according to previous SP employees. Was this yard better in terms of layout, productivity of cars sorted?

I wonder if UP wishes it had it now?

coach Wrote:
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> West Colton seems to have a nagging problem with
> how the tracks are laid out, according to previous
> SP employees. Was this yard better in terms of
> layout, productivity of cars sorted?
>
> I wonder if UP wishes it had it now?


Yes Taylor was more efficient in my opinion..I worked in and out of this yard from 1970 until its closure. I remember working one of the hump jobs and between our crew and the other hump job we humped over 550 cars in 7 hours. In the hey day of the 70's there were as many as 100 trains a day in and out of Taylor.. including tramp jobs, Coast, Bakersfield, Dolores and eastward trains. Most of the tracks were straight except for the tracks at the low end of C Yard because of the curvature of the LA River. It was accessible to the freeways 2 and the 5.. great place to work...