Nostalgia & History > ATSF Alcos 50+ years ago

Nothing special,  just photos with some interesting scenes.

1.  RSD7 #611 switching by the Hobart yard office in Los Angeles.  11/19/67

2.  RSD15 #802 by the San Bernardino, CA  sand house.  6/18/67

3.  RSD15 #809 at Redondo Jct, Los Angeles.  8/22/64

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Really nice trio. That first one is the original Hobart Yard office. Long gone when I hired on in MAY '78 with the crew office on the other side of the yard and much safer with no mainline to cross to get to the parking lot. Amazing to see the big Gator switching the yard.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:

> Really nice trio. That first one is the original
> Hobart Yard office. Long gone when I hired on in
> MAY '78

Any idea when it was removed?  Gustafson & Serpico's Santa Fe Depots - Los Angeles Division says it closed in 1978 and was demolished the following year, but it sounds like it was gone well before that? 

3rdswitch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Really nice trio. That first one is the original
> Hobart Yard office. Long gone when I hired on in
> MAY '78 with the crew office on the other side of
> the yard and much safer with no mainline to cross
> to get to the parking lot. Amazing to see the big
> Gator switching the yard.
> JB

Not to mention that office was across the street from the Bandini fertilizer piles.  On a hot summer day.........

Ah Bandini Mountain, still remember the commercial with the guy skiing down it's mighty slope.

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/20 22:09 by callum_out.

Looking through my old timebooks I didn't find and don't remember any of the big Alco's working switch jobs at Hobart.  The 602 and 604 frequently made an appearance at First Street Yard,  The SP transfer to Dayton interchange was an easy move all the way upgrade with a single 6-axle unit rather than the usual doubleheaded Alco low-tops.  Sometimes one of the big units worked the 1st St Top End Job but were no good for the downtown warehouse-industrial jobs; the tight curves would derail them.  The photo of the 611is interesting.  I think the engine foreman with his back to the camera is LD Reed - don't recognize the other two.  The crew is using the old set-out track as a tail to switch the New Yard.  Hobart Telegraph office located in the yard building gave permission to use the set-out.  The Hobart trainmaster had a corner office opposite the man walking away.  The silver-gray locker room was hot and oppressive but had some rip-roaring card games.

About that Hobart parking lot... there was a small lot across the main tracks but not too many switchmen used it.  Much better was to come in from the Washington Bl side and park along the backside near to the elevated yard tower.  Too easy to get stuck by rail traffic when hurrying for beans or not wanting to burn your "quit" time sitting and waiting.

Is that steel building, at the extreme right in photo No. 1, where I found the nicely framed photos of
Santa Fe retirees circa mid-1970's? 

I mentioned that experience in my account of being 'hurried' out of "Beans" by an SP trainmaster in
"An Amtrak Trainmaster Tale" here: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,2874179,2874680#msg-2874680 
If that's the place, I'm not seeing the yardmaster's tower; perhaps hidden or not close-by in this photo.

Charlie

Charlie,

The framed photos you mentioned were in the crew locker room after it was moved from the frontside of Hobart to the parking area off Washington Blvd. adjacent to diesel service.  There was another separate metal buidling housing the crew office and trainmaster.  The photos were very historical, unfortunately I heard that someone used them for karate practice and the glass coverings were broken. One of the crew clerks rescued the photos and not sure what became of them.  They were never replaced.  I took a few photos of them but not good quality images.  Wishing now that I had used a better camera, right time of day, tripod, etc.  Didn't we tend to think, "Oh, it will always be there?"  The elevated yard tower is out of sight and was nearly opposite the parking lot road crossing the tracks at far left of frame.

Rich

I was at Hobart for a short time in March 1977 and the old yard office was still there. When I returned in March of '78 it was gone and paved over for straddlebuggy tracks. The Supt's Office was located adjacent to it across E. 26th St.

I worked at the Hobart Yardoffice in 1973-74. I remember crossing the main tracks to the parking lot, but there weren't that many passenger trains back then and just a few Harbor trains you had to watch out for.

Good show, Alan.  Thanks.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Wow, what great history from all you guys who worked there.  I was with Fred Worsfold that day in 1967 and we were making the rounds, as we used to say, and chanced on the big Alco.  I shot most of the 600s when they came west,  but mostly at Barstow.  A number of RSD5s came west around then too, again mostly worked at Barstow.

Thanks for the "Alco" samples of my Santa Fe. Other than the quartet of S-4s around Emporia in 1977-78 I was too young to see the regular Alco power Uncle John stabled...

Lance