Western Railroad Discussion > Los Angeles - Redondo Junction Tower is GONE

Reports from BNSF Hobart Yard are indicating there is a fire ongoing right now inside the abandoned Redondo Junction tower near downtown Los Angeles. I guess the local transients finally got the better of it?

Will update if I get more details...

1615 * Could see smoke and flames from security cameras west end Hobart Yard complex. Amtrak 8th St Yard management reports fire personnel are on scene.

1620 * UP and BNSF Dispatchers are holding trains short of the Redondo Junction area for UP LA Sub, BNSF San Bernardino Sub, and Alameda Corridor.

1645 * On scene pictures appear to show the structure has been lost. Sad day for historic So Cal rail landmarks.

1700 * Picture below is not mine. Credit goes to Victor D'Agostino II. Publically sharing for historical value.


~ Mr. MRL



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/17 00:24 by MrMRL.

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Holy Moly !....I always liked looking down at it while riding the San Diegan from the Flyover...Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/17 16:49 by the_expediter.

Oh, dear..... I hope no one gets hurt fighting this fire.
How sad to lose another historic structure.....

I was just told, by somebody who was there, that it's gone.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/17 16:50 by crackerjackhoghead.

What a loss. Now where are the crackheads going to sleep?

Posted from iPhone

CPRR Wrote:
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Now where are the crackheads going to
> sleep?

Hobart.

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CPRR Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> Now where are the crackheads going to
> > sleep?
>
> Hobart.


Already there, no one seems to give a _ _ _ _ the structure is being squatted in. It's only a matter of time now. Damn shame.

Mr. MRL

Oh the good old days..........WB......Nov 2001

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Technically what RR owns this and Hobart?

Posted from iPhone

Fantastic photo of better days, miralomarail!

Here's an official history, courtesy Metro's Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive:

http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/eirs/alameda_corridor/2001-alameda-corridor-project-redondo-junction-tower-1906-2001.pdf

My old 'hood! I spent a lot of afternoons hanging out there in the late 90s. I'm sorry to see it go, though I'm surprised it lasted this long.

- Loleta Fernbridge

Loss of the tower aside, that's a great photograph. Kudos to Mr. D'Agostino.

Jim

.....and twenty-three years ago this past January 6th.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

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No surprise. Amazed it didn't happen sooner. You can't leave anything open and unattended in today's times without it getting destroyed.

just like all the cars that burned in old mexico yards

No, that stinks. What a shame that it couldn't have been preserved.

Nathan

The Redondo Junction train wreck. http://lafire.com/famous_fires/1956-0122_SantaFeTrainWreck/1956-0122_SantaFeTrainWreck.htm

CPRR Wrote:
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> Technically what RR owns this and Hobart?
>
> Posted from iPhone


Redondo was built and funded by UP (LA&SL), and was operated by ATSF.

Interesting how the fire burned off the newer vertical siding to reveal the original horizontal siding underneath. I've heard the vertical siding was installed following a less disastrous fire some decades ago.

Redondo Junction Tower may have been financed by UP, but it was built to a variation on a Santa Fe standard plan, and was the last surviving example of that standard I know of. Tower 19 at the museum in Frisco, TX is the only other surviving Santa Fe (GC&SF) frame interlocking tower I'm aware of.

In California, there are at least five other closed interlocking towers still standing on their original sites, and only one of them is preserved (Santa Clara).

So, Redondo Jct. is gone and Hobart tower has bums living in it. How is Mission tower faring in the urban jungle?