A gift from the heavens. Cloudy all day, the sun finally broke out during the golden hour just as this southbound transfer run from Hobart Yard appeared on the horizon. I’m standing on the south sidewalk of Pacific Blvd., facing north. Malabar Yard is directly behind me. The tank cars are from Exxon/Mobil about a half mile to the north.
There’s nothing that makes me feel more alive than visiting an industrial rail site in person. The experience isn’t even close to the same as what you get from photos and videos. The sites, the sounds, the energy, the people you meet. Everything seems so much bigger and richer. Then there’s the thrill of the photographic hunt.
At the top of the pyramid of experiences is LA. I’ve always loved the city, its energy, prosperity, and work ethic, the industrial urgency, the laidback friendliness of the people, the optimism. As luck would have it, there was a very heavy, low cloud layer most of the trip. During the golden hour on the first day, the clouds parted, and I was able to get some art shots. The rest of the photos will be extremely useful from a documentation standpoint, but will need some significant time with the photo editor to clean up. Malabar was hopping. Vernon was buzzing with citizens on the sidewalks, food stands on the corners, workers doing their thing, noise from the industries, and trucks flying everywhere. Follow along as I walk you through my two-day odyssey.
Now we’re about a mile to the north at UP’s “J Yard”. Facing East/Northeast with the iconic Art Deco Sears building on the horizon. My guess is the tank cars are for Sweetener Products a short distance down the Alameda Industrial Lead.
The Malabar yard job/local blocks cars with a series of north/south shoves. We’re looking south towards the yard. The cars are for Exxon/Mobil. Two major streets were blocked for a good ten minutes. That was great for me but the motorists stuck behind the crossing gates were less impressed.
The weather was gloomy so the number of beauty shots was very limited. Nonetheless, I did a get a lot of documentation photos a few of which I’ll post here. We’re starting at the north at the LA River crossing to Harbor Junction, and then doing a hard turn to the south towards Malabar.
Since I only had a limited amount of time, I planned my list of “targets” carefully and limited the scope to a fairly small area. It’s only about 1.3 miles from Harbor Junction to the end of Malabar, about a thirty-minute walk. Parking was plentiful, so I used both car and foot to move around. It can be hard to get a sense of distance from looking at a map, but a lot of these photo locations are only a ten-minute walk from each other. It’s a safe walk too, students with backpacks, workers, moms with strollers, food vendors on the sidewalks.
Facing north up the LA River. The Harbor Subdivision branch to Malabar is on the smaller bridge in the foreground.
The first rail-served industry is Dar Pro Solutions. We’re facing eastward with the river just beyond the blue tanks. Note the “Harbor Junction” sign in front of the blue tanks.
Reliance Steel is an imposing landmark structure seen in a lot of railfan photos and videos. It is no longer rail-served.
Located mid-point down the branch is Exxon/Mobil, the largest customer.
Here’s the “money shot” scene of Malabar seen in so many photos. Pabco Paper is on the right, Kennedy Name Plate is on the left. Fairly recent aerial photos show a boxcar spotted on the Pabco spur. I’m not sure if it’s still rail-served. If you look into the distance, you’ll see the locos tied up for the day. There’s a bus stop behind me, so in a lot of photos you’ll see pedestrians taking a shortcut through the yard to get to it.
Kennedy Name Plate flanks the east side of the entrance to Malabar Yard. It appears in numerous historic photos.
Looking east down 46th Street we get a block’s worth of street running. The rails turn right beyond the yield sign and run two blocks to the team yard.
The historic team yard seen in so many photos. It’s now run by a logistics firm called Arrow Re-loading. We’re looking south towards Fruitland. The yard is fairly full with hoppers, gondolas, and steel coil cars. I’ve seen flatcars of steel in there as well.
49th Street cuts across the middle of Malabar Yard. That must be fun for the crews! On the right is Centennial Steel, a visual landmark. It’s not rail-served though.
BNSF uses this shoving platform for it’s moves between Hobart and Malabar, a modeler’s dream!
I have another hundred or so photos but these give a sense for things. Because of the heavy cloud cover, editing them to make them presentable will take some time.