The yard job pulls a cut of cars out of the Fruitland Team Track, lays on the horn, and prays it doesn’t spear any motorists as it crosses Leonis Blvd. (LA RailProductions video)
As long as I’ve been studying it, I still continue to be amazed at the modeling potential of the Fruitland Avenue Team Track (now operated by Arrow Reload) adjacent to Malabar Yard on the northern remnants of BNSF’s Harbor Sub. Every research foray seems to lead to a new discovery.
The geometry of the facility lends itself well to modeling. Logistics yards are always good modeling subjects. Modern ones, however, have the drawback of being on the antiseptic side visually. The Fruitland facility is a step back in time and is surrounded by vintage structures. The breadth of car variety spotted at the team track is astounding; you have: coil cars, gondolas, hoppers, boxcars, “regular” flats, low bulkhead flats, and high bulkhead flats.
There is an unusual amount of present-day, high-quality video documentation (Primarily by LA Rail Productions and Pasadena Sub). Enter “BNSF Malabar Job” in the YouTube search panel and you’ll see over a dozen videos that feature the several block transfer hop from Malabar Yard to the team track. It gets better, this short run features a one-block section of street running. One video even shows them using an old BN shoving caboose.
Street running and a caboose/shoving platform. It doesn’t get much better than that!
From a modeling standpoint the entire operation is a gift from the gods: compact facility, vintage structures, car variety, street running, and a caboose on some transfer runs. Whether you model this exact facility or not, the concept in general deserves a hard look.
Here’s a labeled aerial for reference. Click on the image for an expanded view. The one thing that isn’t obvious, and only apparent when you’re actually there, is how relatively small the area in question is. It only takes a few minutes to walk from the Malabar yard throat to the entrance alleyway to the team track on Leonis Blvd.
LA’s billboard culture is long-standing. In the 1950s, you had the iconic “Methyl” ads created by the Foster and Kleiser ad agency. Many of the sign creators went on to become artists in their own right.
Billboards. Depending on personal tastes, opinions vary from “hate ‘em”, “tolerate ‘em”, “sorta of like ‘em”, to “love them!”. I fall into the last camp. By their nature, they’re created by professional artists at ad agencies. Sure, you have your personal injury lawyer and insurance ads, but many are very skillfully executed from an artistic aspect.
Zoning treatment varies wildly from region to region. Some cities, like Washington, DC, have a total ban. You won’t see a single one. Other cities have a fair, but not overwhelming, representation. Baltimore, NY, and Miami are examples. (Many in Miami are Spanish language which adds an interesting regional stamp.)
And…then….there is….LA. Jesus. I have to admire a city that doesn’t apologize for who it is and just lays it down. The billboards in LA are on an entirely different plane. They are in a different world in terms of size, quantity, and of particular note, artistic execution. They are in your face. They are massive. They are striking.
When you drive out of LAX in your rental car, you feel like you’re on a different planet. The message from the city is, “This is who we are. We are film, we are art, we are a commercial juggernaut, we are a place of energy and optimism.” It’s hard not to be swept away and feel uplifted. Let’s take a photographic journey through a few examples.
One note before I get into a few photos. The nature of photography is such that these images don’t come remotely close to capturing the size and impact of being there in person. Here we go…
Facing west down Sunset Blvd. Entire sides of mid-rise structures are covered with signage, most of it entertainment-related.
Leaving LAX’s car rental lot and hitting the 405 on my most recent trip, you’re hit with this massive image from Sky Posters, Inc.
LA does things that the rest of the country wouldn’t consider for a split second. Massive billboards aren’t just by the side of roads, they arc completely over them. Pretty hard to miss. The trend is towards LED signage because you can change imagery via programming. As big as this sign looks in the photo, it’s downright shocking in person. You’re looking westward towards the airport on Century Blvd.
Another Hollywood-themed ad on Century Blvd.
Bridging into our subject of interest, scene composition on our layouts, LA’s billboards extend well into the rail-served industrial regions. From a modeling standpoint, you have to be careful. You have a very narrow window to work with artistically. Get it right, “it” being billboard treatment, and you add some nice “snap” to your scenes. They are also a way of adding a regional stamp. If handled carelessly, however, you’ll end up with a dopey caricature that gives you that hokey “model railroady” look that you want to avoid. The best way to stay out of trouble is to copy ads that actually exist. Also, place your signs in locations that would be logical for your prototype. Finally, match the size of your models with those on your prototype. Regarding dimensions, if you err, do so on the small side. Better too small than too large.
A blank billboard across the street from the LAJ’s Horn Lead in Vernon.
A mid-sized billboard on Pacific Blvd., across from the entrance to Malibar Yard.
A sidenote on the art you chose, you can give yourself a lot of flexibility if you just model blank boards and then photoshop the artwork onto the blank.
As LA’s Central Manufacturing District (the area I model) evolves, older structures are being replaced by more modern concrete tilt-ups. Not ideal but that’s life. There is a bonus, though, and something unique to the area. A number of these tilt-ups are emblazoned with utterly massive and colorful logos. By copying that feature I would get another stamp that says, “this is LA”. The key is not to overdo the idea, model one large logo tilt-up framed by more mundane subjects. The nature of these boxy structures is that if I want variety, I could simply pluck a building off the layout and rotate in a different one.
Here are a few photos of the more iconic structures, the ones you see as drive about.
Crystal Promotions in Vernon. The lead to the LAJ Fruitland Team Track is in the foreground.
4 Seasons is one block to the west of Crystal Promotions. The track in the foreground has been abandoned.
C.R. Laurence is a few blocks north of Malabar Yard. That’s the lead to the yard on the left.
As you head into the Central Manufacturing District from the east, and cross the LA River, you’re greeted by the massive Alkam Home Fashion logo. Welcome to beautiful downtown Vernon baby!
Shown above is a design for a proto-freelance, removable module extension to the current LAJ layout. Sweetener Products is no longer rail-served under this plan, and its spur serves as a lead into Arrow Reload, a logistics/team facility.
In my June 21st blog, Time For A Change, I wrote about feeling “stuck”. Both my primary layout (The Downtown Spur), and the two smaller ones (East Rail 2, LAJ), were finished. With no compelling projects in front of me, I was drifting and not getting much modeling done outside of work.
Thinking about my options, one was to take a crowbar to The Downtown Spur and replace it with a modern BNSF, Harbor Sub. theme. I also have a really nice, unfinished loft above my shop, which could be finished for about 5k and house a fourth layout.
I decided to reach out to my informal “board of directors,” grizzled veterans who are extremely experienced and have been around the block. A few were in the same position I’m in. Opinions varied from “go for it, build a new layout” to “go slow and think about it”. The loft idea? Pretty much a unanimous opinion that I was totally insane for even considering building a fourth layout. Okay, guys, point taken.
Although The Downtown Spur is totally done, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not ready to take it down. So much work went into it. It holds many fond memories, and it’s great for operations. All of this put me back to square one.
Off and on I’ve considered extending the LAJ layout. The problem there is that the room conversion and renovation to a mid-century modern sunroom and mini-library was very successful. I’m not interested in breaking up that experience with an expanded layout hatchet job.
Adding all of that up, it brings me to what is admittedly a temporary path. I’m going to follow the advice of “my board of directors” and go slow. For the time being, I’ll spend my time building up my fleet of modern era BNSF/LAJ rolling stock.
Although I don’t want to disrupt the LAJ layout room, after much thought, I decided that I could expand the layout “IF”, the expansion was a removable module. Extending the layout about four and a half feet to add a team track inspired by Arrow Reload vastly improves the operational potential and gives me another six months or so of projects to keep me busy while I think things through.
The LAJ/BNSF extension. This particular window frames the sunset and bathes the room in sunlight. I don’t want to permanently block it with a layout extension. The solution is to make the extension easily removable.
The extension is supported by a small shelf on the left and a removable shelf bracket on the right.
I needed for the shelf bracket mount to be totally hidden behind the blinds. The solution was a sidemount design.
In order to be viable, the extension module needs to be both strong and extremely light. I came up with a design using 1.5″ thick extruded foam framed by 1/4″ by 2 1/2″ lattice.
Will this expansion prove to be viable? Will installing and removing the extension prove to be too cumbersome? Who knows. It does buy me some time while I consider my options.
P.S. Prototype sidenote. Between my own site visit and a number of YouTube videos, it seems at least for now that switching operations around BNSF’s Malabar Yard are very intense as they serve Arrow Reload and Exxon Mobil. LA Rail Productions released a new video today in which the first segment documents pulling a cut of cars from Arrow. Note the ragged caboose tucked in behind the power!
BNSF GP50 #3175 (Athearn Genesis) and BNSF GP39E (Broadway Ltd.) approach District Blvd. for a shot staged on my LAJ layout. Both models are superb runners and finely detailed. Other than new couplers, they didn’t require any additional detail work. The weathering was another matter. Different eras, prototypes, and paint schemes all require their own unique approach. Not wanting to botch the look of some fairly pricey models, I used that self-imposed pressure to take a go-slow, numerous light layers approach to both units. I’ve noticed the lighting in Southern California is slightly different, particularly in the afternoon. While I was editing the image, I shifted the colors a bit more towards red and yellow to compensate.
As I ponder what direction to take for my future modeling efforts, I’m spending my time building up modern-era BNSF rolling stock.
Finally, if you want to see the prototype for this scene, take a look at THIS video and scroll to the 15:54 mark. You’ll immediately recognize the Nathan Anthony structure in the background.
Matt Sturgell and Kelly Regan guide the local off the CSX main onto The Downtown Spur at the start of the op. session.
It’s been far too long since I’ve had an op. session on The Downtown Spur. It should come as no surprise that getting off one’s fat ass and actually inviting people over has a productive outcome! Kelly Regan and Matt Sturgell came over on Sunday for what I’d consider one of my better sessions.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought over the past few years as to how to make these sessions a better experience for guests, more realistic, and just generally a smoother affair overall. The root of the problem is the hobby operations culture that we, as hosts, follow,….myself included. Hosts don’t want guests to be bored. They want to show off their hard work in all of its glory. In our benignly misguided attempt to do the right thing, our solution is to create a session full of gimmicks, complexity, and puzzles. The hope is that the guests will find this entertaining. News flash, they don’t. Newbies are totally disoriented when they arrive in terms of geography. Essentially, what happens is that we hosts give our guests a throttle and an arcane switch list and say, in effect, “figure this out, it will be soooo much fun!” Throwing somebody in a pit and watching them scratch their head and try to crawl out of such pit isn’t cool. It isn’t realistic either.
Between discussions with Kelly and my own thoughts this is what I’ve done.
-First, the layout owner is the conductor. He has the switch lists. The guests don’t see the paperwork unless they want to (and….big surprise, they really don’t want to see it). The guests handle the throttle, coupling, and turnouts. That, in and of itself, solves a ton of problems.
-Second, limit the session to 90 minutes. That’s quite enough for most people.
-Follow the prototype example and have the train correctly blocked at the start of the session. No sorting and re-ordering of cars mid-session.
-Limit the number of artificially difficult switch moves, such as digging a car out on a spur from behind several others. This does need to be done sometimes, but it’s the exception, not the rule.
-Don’t switch every industry, every session
-Not every industry entails a “loads-for-empties” swap. The larger ones often do, the smaller industries generally do not. I caught myself mid-session with one of these and plucked the offending car off the layout and removed the move from the switchlist. Smaller industries generally entail picking up an empty and nothing more or spotting a load and nothing more.
I’ve experimented with props over the years. My opinion changes back and forth. Right now, I skip most of them. I do still use the operational fusees and gates. I don’t use the locks on the turnout throws (but may in the future). Prototype operations are marked with frequent pauses. I handle this by explaining to the guests at various junctures what would be happening (conductor walking, air tests, etc.), but don’t get too hardcore about it. The one thing I’m a stickler for is keeping the running speeds realistically slow but this generally isn’t a problem with most guests.
Click HERE for a short YouTube clip of the end of the session.
