Railroaders' Nostalgia > Taylor Yard: Your home away from home!

After turning off Fletcher Dr you made your way past the Top End. But wait lets don't forget the Espee Federal Credit
Union. A busy place even after the "cut-off" almost killed a lot of westbound traffic. But between the credit union and the
top end was a two story brick bldg that manufactured "Chimes". I forget the name other than it might have been called
L.A. Chimes Company? It disappeared in the early 70's. Then a little bit further down the road, and on your right, tucked
up against the Glendale Fwy was several rows of small frame houses. Were these S.P. owned? Were they housing for
the B&B people or track gangs. The streets did have sign poles so maybe it was part of L.A. City.
So now down the road we came to 2800 Kerr Street, Los Angeles, California 90039. Terminal Superintendent and others.
Lots of parked trailers there account many " loaners" working from other divisions. On a good day, the brakemans extra-
board could and did call 75 men in one hour!
So you got to know a lot of people by voice and not their names. For a lot of people this was really home! You bitched
but you really wanted to get back there, hopefully on "spot". After a day of your old lady, we all knew that we had to get
back to those familiar sounds/voices-it was home. At that time there was a guy still popping off journal box lids and
shooting grease into the occasional car with friction bearings. And of course the Humpmaster saying the same thing
thousands of times, "on the yellow, come to the bowl".
Remember the movie set near the reefer yard?  Where Hollywood built a daylight steamer half buried in the dirt!
And that Bldg that had the huge air compressor. Maybe built in the 20's..The pedestrian bridge over San Fernando Rd.
The winery that lasted a few years? 
Yeah it was home.
The midway, cornfield, links, old shops, the river bottom where you could access it on a steeply sloped road near
Dayton. Remember the 100's of GE's stored out of service at the base of Chinatown.? The freight sheds near the flour mill.
Yeah it was home........

The name of the winery near the desk yardmaster or C yard  tower was Naive Pierson.  You did do a job of recanting history except for the fact when working the hump at Taylor the term "yellow shove to the bowl" was never used.. that term was used at City of Industry .  The term at Taylor was you are on the "yellow or we are humping."  Again you never told us what department you hired out in on the SP in 1967..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/16 04:46 by SanJoaquinEngr.

As always, no response...

SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
."  Again you
> never told us what department you hired out in on
> the SP in 1967..


I just checked my copy of the TY seniority roster for the LA Division. Here is what I found: NO brakemen hired out 6/18/1967 to 6/22/1967. NO switchmen hired out between 6/18/1967 to 6/26/1967. NO firemen hired out 7/8/1966 to 11/26/1968. So unless he was a clerk (again,NO clerks hired out 6/8/1967 to 6/22/1967) It looks like this person did NOT hire out in Los Angeles. Maybe in the Bay area? Maybe not at all?

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/16 15:16 by SLOCONDR.

In his mind he was hired

Yep,
He didn't answer ANY of the questions from last time.

And as mentioned before,  we shoved to the hump "on the green,"  then went to yellow as the first car started up the hump.  The  "HUMPMASTER" was the hump yardmaster, who did not issue movement instructions to the two sets of engines.   All radio instructions were given by the engine foreman of the crew that was humping at the time.

Please note that San Joaquin Engineer, SLO Condr, WAF, and me are all mid '60s employees of the Los Angeles  Division of the SP, and none of us have ever heard of "Valve Pilot!"
G 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/16 20:42 by ExSPCondr.

It was never home to me.  It was a good job until UP ruined it but I never wasted any time leaving to go home and dreaded the crew callers voice.  Most of the guys living in trailers in the parking lots were FORCED there and were not happy campers.  Not so sure about 75 men being called in an hour. I was on the brakemans board in 1977 and got out close to my rest but at most times I came in around 60 times out so 75 an hour you would need at least 500 men on that board.  My first system number was about 1400  and that was covering all outside points and the switchmens board too .
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/16 22:12 by switchlamp.

Cars with friction bearings take oil, not grease...

I'll bet you're right, but he won't admit to that either!

Next little problem is that the Credit Union wasn't on the way in.  To get to work, we turned off of Fletcher Dr. at the Foster Freeze, went one block, turned left, went another short block and turned RIGHT onto Kerr St.  This took us under the 2 freeway next to the tracks at the top end of A yard.

To get to the Credit Union would have required a LEFT turn instead of the RIGHT onto Kerr St, which would have taken us away from work instead of to it!  Or, a u-turn was possible at Fletcher onto the frontage road...
G  

Thanks, you guys ran him over the the Nostalgia & History board where he's spreading his old head B/S and not making sense there either to people who know the area. <G>



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/16 14:31 by Railfan58.

Sorry, but at least its legal there...
G

SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The name of the winery near the desk yardmaster or
> C yard  tower was Naive Pierson.  You did do a
> job of recanting history except for the fact when
> working the hump at Taylor the term "yellow shove
> to the bowl" was never used.. that term was used
> at City of Industry .  The term at Taylor was you
> are on the "yellow or we are humping."  Again you
> never told us what department you hired out in on
> the SP in 1967..

...also said "come to the hill."

The name of the chimes place just off Fletcher was the Maas-Rowe Carrilon Co. When I worked as an operator at Taylor Yard (OD) I'd come in from Fletcher, make a funny little "left+left" turn off Fletcher and that put you at the Top end of A Yard. Later on I worked Dayton Tower and you took the "Burma Road" alongside the diesel ramp and shops down to Dayton. I worked 1965-68 on the telegraphers' extra board. I've always been glad I was spared the misery of all the post-SPSF "stuff" that went on.
Have fun, be safe,
Bruce "Doc" Jones  Sierra Madre CA

A railroader wanna-be?

<> There was a guy who worked in the On Board Service craft at Amtrak who had a habit of spewing out tall tales.  One day he proclaimed he worked for a railroad in Florida as a conductor.  I knew he was BSing.  When I asked him what the name of the railroad was that he worked for, he couldn't name a legitimate one.  I caught him red handed and called him on it.  He may have continued trying to BS other employees, but from that day on he knew better than to try to do it with me.  

<> I believe Thomas Bros. maps even referred to that road behind the shops as the "Burma Road".  

<> The movie set with the Daylight steam engine mock up buried in the dirt was, undoubtedly, for the movie "Tough Guys."  

Remember the movie mock up they built at the Bullring / Cornfield Yard in the mid-90s that looked almost like a snowshed?  That was for the movie "Money Train" and they were replicating New York subway tunnels.

At about that same time, near Montebello, south of the UP Los Angeles Subdivision, they built a huge movie set for "Waterworld."    

The "Waterworld" set was along the south side of the UP mainline. When filming was going on traffic was stopped as UP had a Form B in effect with a MOW Foreman in charge of it. On the same property was a hugh warehouse made of metal. They used the inside for scenes for movie "Volcano". They also shot automobile comercials there. The movie company graded the dirt into the shape of a hull and built up a ship.It was loaded with used shipping containers stacked in unusal positions. As filming progressed as we would go by the ship showed various stages of being blown up and burned. They added the ocean by computer.

Geeezzz guys.....he is "play'n ya"

BB

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