Nostalgia & History > A Couple of 'Links' Photos

Here a couple of shots taken in January 1964.

This is of the Cornfield, on the left of the lead and the Bullring on the right. Topper says that the 'Links' linked the two yards by the lead of puzzle switches. These were relatively easy to figure out as they only had one handle. If the first position didn't do the trick the other one would. The North Broadway bridge is in the distance and the Bullring yard office was located on the north side of the bridge at the bottom of the second arch.

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This is looking south toward downtown L.A. City Hall is recognizable. I count no less than 5 Baldwins in this picture, (including my office platform). The 'Links yard office is hidden behind the box car on the left.

Charlie

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cewherry Wrote:
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> Here a couple of shots taken in January 1964.
>
> This is of the Cornfield, on the left of the lead
> and the Bullring on the right. Topper says that
> the 'Links' linked the two yards by the lead of
> puzzle switches.

A nice pair of images Charlie. When you took the first one I was 6 months away from hiring on as a summer switchman with the Santa Fe. I still have an SP "LINK" brake club I picked up one afternoon when we delivered a cut to the Bullring.

Cheers,
Africansteam

LOOK AT THAT SMOG!!! Thats what I remember as a kid, the air was much dirtier back then.
"Purple Haze".
We have made progress.
Tom Helliwell

africansteam Wrote:
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>> A nice pair of images Charlie. When you took the
> first one I was 6 months away from hiring on as a
> summer switchman with the Santa Fe. I still have
> an SP "LINK" brake club I picked up one afternoon
> when we delivered a cut to the Bullring.
>
> Cheers,
> Africansteam
>
>Thanks, Jack.

That would have been on Downey 1 or 2. In later years ATSF would deliver to Taylor and SP would go to Hobart. It seems they alternated every other year.

BTW I am one of the 'Official' receivers of SP equipment, acquired however. I will give you my home mailing address off line so that you may return same brake club, no questions asked. ;-)...

I had to throw those switches a few times ("no Hearder available", yeah, right.) and I always did a 'double-take' to make sure things were lined correctly! When I was growing up, my Grandad would talk about those "puzzle switches at the Bullring". Little did I know (nor he) that 15 years later, I'd be talking about them too. Spent several of my basic training days getting on / off moving equipment, tying hand brakes, kicking cars, and yes, lining switches in the Cornfield and the Bullring, on old Sugar Beet racks!

Many miles of track (yard capacity) were lost for good when Taylor, the Links, Cornfield, and the "Bullring" were torn up. BTW, I'll always remember just how fast a train can get an air test and get "out of town", out of the Cornfield, (LAPCX) the evening that the "Rodney King" L.A. riots started. With trouble just a few blocks to the south of the yard, everybody left that area ... very quickly! Was that 1992?

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

cewherry Wrote:
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I will give you my
> home mailing address off line so that you may
> return same brake club, no questions asked.
> ;-)...
>
> Damn. Busted! :>)
>

Thanks for showing the track layout. As a northern Californian I didn't get to the L.A. Basin as much as I should have, so most of my photos here were when SP stored dozens and dozens of out of service diesels - mostly Alcos. - Tony J.

Great photos, thanks for sharing. 13,000 soldiers were used in the 1992 riot.

http://www.fragmentsweb.org/stuff/photking.html

The Gold Line ROW is now on the far left? Were the tracks really that rusty and unburnished
or is the film?

As for smog, there's some in the picture but it appears the sky is a broken up lingering marine layer. A ton of capacity left the scene when those yards were closed indeed.

As an aside that whole downtown LA district was a favorite haunt of my Dad's. It was
like entering a different world when we came in from the San Gabriel Valley. But we,
sadly, never had a camera. 'Twas a shame.

This past summer after many years away we had a chance to do the Gold Line, tour Union
Station and eat at Philippe's where it was like visiting a Twilight Zone set it was
so unchanged.

Nevertheless it's still an interesting area even if the railroad influence and activity is considerably diminished now.

That is the most slip-switches i have ever seen in a feight yard. please tell an Easterner what this yard's purpose was. Was it part of SP's Taylor yard, which I believe was a hump yard in LA and is now all gone?

tp117 Wrote:
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> That is the most slip-switches i have ever seen in
> a feight yard. please tell an Easterner what this
> yard's purpose was. Was it part of SP's Taylor
> yard, which I believe was a hump yard in LA and is
> now all gone?


That's a very good question and one I'm not sure I can adequately answer. The Cornfield of my experience, circa 1963-64 was used primarily as a clean-out for grain service boxcars, hence, I assume the name 'Cornfield'. This was in the era prior to covered hoppers. These 'dirty' cars would be spotted on tracks that had very wide centers to allow for access by car men to clean the interiors and repair, if needed, the grain doors which were inside the regular side door but which did not extend to the top of the car and provided access for loading, probing, and unloading. Other light repairs were also done.

The Bullring was used as a gravity switching yard. The normal routine used the 'Bull' engine to reach into a track south of the Broadway bridge, pull it northward and then using one of a group of 'riders' (switchmen who's sole duty was to ride the first car into a particular track) begin 'drifting' cars southward into their various assigned tracks. Gravity provided the motive power. The 'rider' would take the car to the exterme south end of a track, secure it, then walk back to the shanty north of the bridge where he would await his next ride. The traffic mix here was freight destined to the industrial area south of downtown L.A. There were two engines assigned to the Bullring, the 'Bull' and the 'Tramp'. The Tramp would make trips to the 'C' Yard and occasionally the lower end of the hump yard to bring cuts of cars down to the Bullring for switching so it was not technically a part of Taylor yard but certainly a part of the Taylor yard 'terminal'.

Charlie