Western Railroad Discussion > Disappearing Harbor Sub

Probably old news to everyone,but just in case here it is.Metro has removed most if not all of the trackage along Slauson in preparation for the Rail to River bike and pedestrian corridor.Interestingly, the Harbor Sub is still listed intact in recent BNSF employee timetable.Metro Crensaw Line construction has resulted in a lot of rail removal around Lairport and Aviation Blvd.Pictured below is the YLA112 making an infrequent trip along Slauson a few years back I made this discovery a few months ago chasing the the "Torrance" after attending a memorial service. Like the thread about Taylor, it is sad to see longtime railroad infrastructure disappear. Bill Webb

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Looks like they were heading to the last major customer on the line east of Malabar Yard, Active Recycling, near Van Ness. I can't even place this scene? Are you standing in the middle of Alameda Street looking north? For a couple of years, in the early eighties, this job was unique amoung Santa Fe LA area YARD JOBS as it got a caboose due to fine print in the yard agreement which required cabooses on jobs going more than ten miles away from it's on duty point. This job met that criteria. After 1985, when cabooses were mostly discontinued, it was mute.
JB



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/21 15:18 by 3rdswitch.

Yes ,sorry about that .Middle of Alameda.Bill Webb

Most significant post, spider1319!
 
As for the Harbor Sub still being in the timetable, though the tracks are mostly gone, I have no direct knowledge of BNSF anymore, but UP’s timetables can last for years, and updates, such as for the Alhambra Sub, are circular-like, and carry a “d-“ prefix, as d-Alhambra.  BNSF may have something similar that lists the Harbor Sub as deleted.
 
I was fortunately to be along Slauson Ave. pre-Alameda Corridor and saw a westbound BNSF with a 4700-series GE pulling a rather long train to the beaches.  
 
It is a shame that the old track along the north side Slauson Ave. is gone.  When I was a kid, my parents went (with me) to a live Country & Western TV broadcast or two somewhere south of Slauson Ave., sponsored by Worthington Dodge in nearby South Gate, with Cal Worthington himself doing live commercials every ten minutes or so.  My parents after a show were westbound of Slauson Ave. (along the old Santa Fe track you photographed), and low and below, alongside us was Cal Worthington himself!  Impressionable kid me, I said to myself, ‘Wow!  Cal IS a real person!”
 
You post brough back more than railroad memories of long past times!
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/21 13:48 by ABHoffmann.

My grandmother lived somewhere near Western and Slauson back in the 1940s.  I loved it when we went to visit her since I could see Santa Fe trains on the other side of a big field behind her house.  There was one of those giant gas pressure tanks nearby which also fascinated me.  One night a train hit an automobile on a grade crossing back there and we all ran over for a look.

It was my first chance to see a steam locomotive up close.  I could hardly take my eyes off of it.  I don't know what happened to the people in the car but I remember the car was really mangled.  I knew something bad had happened and I was very wary of the panting monster engine.

I tried this afternoon to find that crossing on a satellite city map in the Slauson/Western area and found the railroad but of course I couldn't find any big tank or empty fields.  It's all gone.

JB - Omaha



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/21 14:12 by Copy19.

Commuter and light rail is often touted as the second "rail revolution", it's just a shame the alphabet soups and developers that push for these projects don't care about freight. If anything, they usually consider it something that'll just get in the way of their plans unless they eliminate it. Pretty ironic, "they" tout their projects as a solution to climate change, while doing their small part to put a couple more carloads onto trucks. 

It's like the railroads these days are so hot to deliver such freight to industries in town

masterphots Wrote:
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> It's like the railroads these days are so hot to
> deliver such freight to industries in town

Fair enough...which is why I said the agencies/developers are doing "their part", the railroads are certainly doing theirs as well. Together they'll make sure we charge straight into the climate crisis with a full head of steam and plenty of feel good PR. 

Agree.  I recently visited the area west of Alameda St at Slauson Av and there is trenching just west of Holmes Av where ATSF tracks were. My mom would drive her 1975 Pinto wagon down Alameda St all the way to the City of Long Beach and I loved seeing the diamond crossing there at Slauson Av and loved the wig-wags that were sprinkled throughout Alameda St.  Once on one of those rides I even saw a runaway empty flat car heading down the track on Alameda St near Firestone Blvd and didn't see any engine or other cars before it...I wonder if it activated the signal crossings along the way south towards Long Beach.

Does BNSF still have some of those GP7Us in storage? Is the Harbor Subdivision now just a branch line?

Do all GP7Us have the chopped hood?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/22 04:29 by Sp1110.

Sp1110 Wrote:
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> Will a freight track be built next to the
> Crenshaw Line tracks? Will the Harbor Subdivision
> still be a through route?
>
No.

It has not been a through route for years and years (since the Alameda Corridor was opened).