Railroaders' Nostalgia > A Little Bit Of My Past Went Up In Flames This Past Weekend

During the first half of the 1980s, I spent many hours working as a towerman at Redondo Junction tower near Washington Blvd. and E. 23rd St. in Los Angeles, CA.

It was kinda like being a traffic cop at an intersection directing traffic, except it involved trains of the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Union Pacific and Amtrak. Only Amtrak and UP survive today, the other two having been gobbled up in mergers. The tower was made obsolete when the surface intersection was replaced with a flyover bridge, which I watched being built while working for Amtrak. The tower was built in 1906 and was deactivated in 2001.

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

Although it didn't involve the interlocking tower, one of the site's claims-to-fame was a bad wreck in 1956 involving a passenger train and excessive speed on the 15 MPH curve.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redondo_Junction_train_wreck

I can't even imagine how many hours I spent in that tower. Getting paid for it obviously made it worthwhile. The isolation wasn't an issue as there were frequent phone, radio and intercom conversations with other workers, plus visits by signal maintainers and others. Frequently I would have time to walk over to the now-razed roundhouse and grab some food when the "roach coach" was paying a visit.

It was nice not having a boss looking over my shoulder for eight hours or working in a windowless office building. Some of the clerical jobs that I also worked at Santa Fe met that description.

I remember seeing the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey circus trains pass by there several times. They, too, have come upon a sad ending.

It's interesting to consider that Redondo Tower was continuously staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week from 1906 until 2001. From the worn out condition of some of the steps on the stairway, I can believe it. Most of the tower looked like it did the day it was built. There were very few modern updates. Using the bathroom at the bottom of the stairway was like taking a step back in time.

There's a story behind that "2550" that you see stenciled on the side of the tower in the first photo. That's the street address on what is now a retired Butte Street so that first responders would be able to find the place easier in the case of an emergency. The railroad had to figure all this out the hard way after a towerman (whom I knew well and who trained me at Mission) died of a heart attack at Mission Tower and the first responders had extreme difficulty trying to figure out how to get to the place to try and save him. Sadly, he died at the Tower and left behind a wife and daughter.

I should have taken more pictures.

Rest in peace, Redondo Junction tower. Sorry that you had to have such an undignified ending -- at the end of an arsonist's match.

Photos courtesy of Paul Jansson and Victor D'Agostino II



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/17 12:51 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

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The SP's various towers in the San Francisco - Oakland area were always a refuge for me and a place for a call to the office, use the restroom and have a short visit with the tower operator. Those little chats were really comparable to talking the pulse of the railroad in the general vicinity as the tower operator was a blt like the usher in a church - he knew a great deal about what was going on.

Thinking back, the one guy I cannot recall seeing at a tower was the tower operator's supervisor, whether a terminal manager, trainmaster or whomever. A tower operator seemed to be a manager unto himself. Like the caboose, railroad towers are something I will always miss.

That was one of the nice things about the job. If you did your job competently, management pretty much left you alone. I can only recall a couple of instances where things got so screwed up that a manager had to show up on the scene to straighten things out. A sleeping towerman and a whole bunch of trains looking at red signals would be one of those scenarios! Sometimes managers would show up if they were bored and couldn't pin the goods on anyone else. They'd come around to investigate whether any alcohol was being consumed or if anyone was watching a portable television or even reading newspapers. That's what managers do. They have the "job justification" dilemma just like everyone else.

My understanding is that the meth head's barbecue fell over. They've been living in there for some time so the only surprise, to us, should be that it took so long for this to happen. I guess we all just assumed that, sooner of later, it would get moved off site and preserved but, I suppose, from the railroad's perspective, this was the best possible outcome. No one was injured, the nuisance is gone and they can wipe their hands of it, without being pressured by some pesky historical society.

Yeah, many times I would look down at it from the flyover and wonder how long it would be before it got torched.

I have my answer now.

On another discussion board I heard that the interlocking machine was offered to Orange Empire Railway Museum and they turned it down!

At least Hobart, Mission, Terminal and Dayton are made of concrete so it will be a little harder for those to burn down.

I used to have a large collection of signals, semaphores, searchlights, wigwag, etc. In the basement workshop of Mission tower, there was an eight lever interlocking machine that was used to adjust and test levers before they were installed upstairs. It was, essentially the same machine ans the one upstairs, just smaller and without the wood cabinet. The maintainer told me he would give it to me, to operate my semaphores, once the tower had closed but when the time came, he said some high up at Metrolink wanted it. I wonder what ever happened to it?

Maybe it's in Washougal, WA. ;)

I worked the J Yard to West Colton hauler that originated at J Yard. I had to call Redondo to get across the limits of the interlocking to proceed either towards the Shops or towards Commerce yard. Had to deal with the cantankerous Louie... plus he had several nicknames,, Screwy Louie and a few others. I used to laugh when he would say , " I have a Amtrak due out of LAUPT in a hour... and have an Amtrak leaving San Diego in two hours.. Do you think you can get across the tower by then??? Most of the time we had a small train of about 20 cars." He was always entertaining !

That affliction even carried over to dispatchers. An ex-SP conductor at Amtrak told me about a female dispatcher who once held their train at Dike at a red signal as they were trying to make their way up Cajon Pass. After a long wait they called her and asked when the opposing train would show up.

"Well, he's just now leaving Palmdale."

(For people unfamiliar with the area, Dike and Palmdale are about sixty-to-seventy miles apart and there's several sidings between the two places.)

Yes, it was offered to Orange Empire. Bids were solicited and the building would have had to have been cut in to at least 2 sections, maybe more and then moved 90 miles or more. The cost was off the scale and donors for that much didn't step forward. The money just wasn't there without a huge donation. A sad end to a very neat structure.

My fondest memory of "Santa Fe Redondo" is a guy named Wendell, whose last name escapes me at this late date, and who was the regular first trick operator during the late '70 - early '80's. He spoke in a very deep and concise voice over the radio and I pictured him as a man of herculean proportions.
So, one day I'm in the Supt's office on 26th St talking to the Trainmasters' clerk when I hear this deep, familiar voice and it's not on the radio. As I turn in direction of this voice I see a little squirt of a guy about 5'5" having conversation with the Hobart Telegraph operator. It was Wendell in the flesh!

To CA_Sou_MA_Agent especially, and everyone else.

I have been asked to rebut the post that speculated that an interlocking was moved to Washougal Wa. by the man that now lives there. Enough said.

In case there was a misunderstanding, please pass along to our mutual friend that I was just joking, as evidenced by the little smiley face on my initial post.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/17 17:01 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

Chico43 Wrote:
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> My fondest memory of "Santa Fe Redondo" is a guy
> named Wendell, whose last name escapes me at this
> late date, and who was the regular first trick
> operator during the late '70 - early '80's. He
> spoke in a very deep and concise voice over the
> radio and I pictured him as a man of herculean
> proportions.
> So, one day I'm in the Supt's office on 26th St
> talking to the Trainmasters' clerk when I hear
> this deep, familiar voice and it's not on the
> radio. As I turn in direction of this voice I see
> a little squirt of a guy about 5'5" having
> conversation with the Hobart Telegraph operator.
> It was Wendell in the flesh!

I worked 3rd trick at Redondo Jct for a couple years in the 70's. Wendell relieved me most mornings. I think he had started out on the NP in Washington in the 50's. I have mentioned before on Trainorders, Wendell always had a sack lunch he brought to work. The first thing he did at 7 am was dig into the bag and get something to eat while he was taking the transfer, which wasn't much of a transfer. He would start talking while chewing his food and chunks would be flying out of his mouth. I don't think there was anyway his lunch ever lasted until noon.

I can remember in 1999-2000, I used to visit Redondo Tower often just as a railfan. One day, an operator in the tower named Jean invited me up. So I got some pictures/video from inside the tower. Not sure what ever happened to Jean.