Malabar Yard

[jwb]

Malabar is a small yard on the BNSF Harbor Sub in the Los Angeles area. It's pretty convenient to where I live, and I visit there frequently. There's also a lot of info available on it in forums and books like Charles Freericks's Southern California Local Freight Trains. On the other hand, I see a lot of discussion on industrial switching layouts, or ISLs, and from what I see in the Los Angeles area (a very, very large metropolitan area), I'm inclined to say that when I look at model ISLs, even those by well-known professional modelers who shall remain unnamed, I keep thinking of my favorite commercial http://www.marketmenot.com/esurance-beat...ommercial/ and want to say, "That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works."

I sometimes think about putting together an article for MR, RMC, or MRH with this material, but frankly, I've dealt with all of them, and it's a pain that's not worth the few hundred bucks I'd get (if I got it from RMC at all, which is a no-pay or slow-pay). So I'm posting it here.

Here is a diagram of Malabar that I found on the web. I think it's about 20 years old, and some of the trackage shown has been removed. Almost all the industrial spurs shown have not been served in many years -- it may be that BNSF keeps the names on the books in light of the possibility that one might come back to use, but I don't think that's going to happen.

   

However, it's worth pointing out several things. One is that every track has a number, and often a name as well. This is related to the fact that every track has a clear purpose. Railroad tracks cost money. They don't get built because someone thinks a crossing would look good here. They are straight unless there's a good reason to curve them. A lot of shelf layout builders don't seem to understand this.

More in the next post.

[jwb]

Here's a shot of Malabar looking north from the south (less interesting) end. A couple of points are the station sign, the relay case for the crossing signals, and the old tire:

   

Here's a shot looking toward the left or west:

   

What's interesting here is that the industrial building on the left is one of the big clichés of ISLs: Hey, all you need is a piece of foamcore with a couple of doors in it, and wow! Instant scenery, instant operation! And there's an example of just that thing!! I'm gonna get my 1 x 6 and start right to work!

The problem is that this is one of the spurs on the diagram (2797) that hasn't been used in many, many years. If you want to model it, be my guest, except that if you're going to run BNSF or CSX or NS equipment, you'd better leave that track empty. These sorts of industries have very, very little carload traffic. Some of them may have container loadings off a street door, but the firms that originally occupied these places are by and large gone, and now they're either empty or occupied by some company importing party decorations from China.

No question, if you want to research the ATSF Harbor District in the 1960s and 70s and put cars of that period on the spur, that's great. My impression of the guys that build a lot of ISLs, though, is that research isn't their forte, and they want to stick with stuff they see.

[jwb]

Here's a view from the north, more interesting, end at Pacific Bl in Vernon.

   

There are several things to point out here. The gensets are working job Y-LAC0112, the Malabar Switcher. It's worth mentioning that it costs money to run trains, and every train you see has a specific designation and specific purpose. Y-LAC0112 switches this yard, serves the last four industries left on this part of the Harbor Sub, and builds or breaks down the transfer run that comes in from C Yard, a separate job. I see a lot of guys portray their ISL as just a place where a loco moves a few cars around at random. That's not how any of this works!

Another issue is that this end of the yard is simply more interesting. The spur to the right is 2751, if anything, less used than the other in the previous post. I've read on a forum that this received boxcars of rags destined for Pabco Paper, the customer here, up to about 2000. There's a little more reason to have this spur active in the modern era, though another point is that Pabco Paper is an interesting building, to say the least:

   

So which layout would you rather see, one with a piece of foamcore with a couple doors cut in it, or one where the guy actually spent some time, effort, and creativity making a low relief of this scene? I'm not against ISLs per se, but I do disagree with the idea that limited space is an excuse to be lazy.

[jwb]

According to Charles Freericks, there are four remaining customers served by Y-LAC0112. These are Mobil Lubricants, a few blocks north of the yard, Ancon Transportation, which appears to be basically a team track, which is reached via street and alley running a few blocks east of the yard, Darling International, which is a renderer of slaughterhouse materials at the junction of the Harbor Sub and the Alameda Corridor, and Air Products, which is on the Alameda Corridor main. I have photos as good as can be had of the first three.

The 500-lb gorilla of these customers is Mobil Lubricants. I would say that somewhere around 80% of the carloadings are for Mobil, almost all tank cars. Here is a shot of Y-LAC0112 shoving a tank car into the plant:

   

Security is tight, and this is about the most you're going to see from the street. It's worth pointing out that you could represent this with some creative work using commercial model oil tanks and refinery parts, but it's another good reason to stop thinking about a sheet of foamcore with a few doors in it.

Ancon Transportation is hard to shoot from the street, again, very tight security. It has some loading platforms with roofs and a gantry. Here is a view of the gantry down an alley:

   

Again, none of these looks like a slab of foamcore with a door In it, or any slightly fancier variation.

Here is Darling International:

   

There are several meat packing plants in the area, and I assume their remnants come here.

[e-paw]

That's an interesting spot. It's just the right size to fit into most model railroads.

[lajry]

Did you happen to check out the Vernon Team just a few blocks SE of Malabar? It's right next to the LAJ Fruitland Team at Fruitland & Seville. It's reached off the 2(750)? track. Going to be using a stub end version of Malabar for staging on my LAJ layout

[jwb]

According to the Freericks book, the "Vernon team" is actually Ancon Transportation <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://local.yahoo.com/info-20435023-ancon-transportation-vernon?csz=Vernon%2C+CA">http://local.yahoo.com/info-20435023-an ... rnon%2C+CA</a><!-- m --> which I would guess is a transload operation and is probably the consignee for loads going there. It may have been an ATSF or BNSF team track in prior years. When I mention Ancon Transportation, I'm referring to what you call the "Vernon team". Here's another link <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.anconmarine.com/transportation.html">http://www.anconmarine.com/transportation.html</a><!-- m --> As far as I can see, Ancon refers to this location as one of their facilities.

[jwb]

Let's look at the rolling stock that comes through. It's overwhelmingly tank cars:

   

On one hand, that's understandable given that the biggest customer is an oil company, and another one is a renderer. On the other hand, it ought to be a reminder that contemporary railroads don't have that much boxcar traffic. On another thread, we found that typical boxcar loadings on NS and CSX in a given week were less than 10%, and that represents an average. It's a lot less than 10% in this area.

Some of the cars going to Mobil Lubricants are MBLX:

   

Others are going to Darling International, stenciled "inedible Tallow":

   

Cars for at least SHQX and UTLX are stenciled this way.

Cars for Ancon Transportation seem to be carrying steel in one form or another, in gons or coil cars mainly:

   

One thing to keep in mind is that gons and flats coming in with loads need to have these loads modeled. I think a good part of the appeal of boxcars for ISLs is that not only do you get the fantasy that you can have an industry that's just a piece of foamcore, but the boxcars don't need to have loads visible. But we're back to the problem that limited space isn't an excuse for being lazy. There's a lot to model in the real world.

On my various visits to Malabar, I'm lucky to see a single boxcar:

   

My guess is this is going to Ancon Transportation as well.

[lajry]

Here's a USGS map of of the ATSF now BNSF & LAJ team tracks w/ the facilities on the Vernon side IDed. The Santa Fe team gets all kinds of metal products including steel & aluminum on all kinds of coil cars, flats & gondolas. The LAJ team gets mostly hoppers of grain, flour & pellets. If you want to see the two teams, Google or Bing 2695 Fruitland Av 90058.

   

[jwb]

Again, the designation "ATSF Vernon Team" would be pre-1995, almost 20 years ago. Malabar is currently a very different place, since it's on a one-mile spur off the Alameda Corridor, with no traffic south. Before 2002, the BNSF Harbor Sub went to the LA-Long Beach port area, and the farther back in time you go, the more traffic was on the Santa Fe through here. In the 1950s you could see FM H16-44s and I think also Baldwin transfer locos on this line. All very interesting in itself. I'm just talking about Malabar the way it is now.

[lajry]

What it is now sounds very boring compared to the good old Santa Fe days.

[jwb]

Another point to be made is that two trains actually run out of Malabar Yard, not just one. The other one, according to Charles Freericks, is Y-LAC2042, or the 204 Job or Yard Hopper. This works around BNSF's Commerce Yard, the Los Angeles Junction C Yard, Malabar Yard, and some industries on the BNSF. Among other things, it's the transfer that sets out and picks up cars from Malabar. Because it shoves south from the Alameda Corridor main and goes over several crossings, it uses a shoving platform. Here is a photo of an outbound cut.

   

It appears to be sitting on track 2704, which suggests that the exact purpose of the tracks in the diagram shown in the first post is not longer followed.

A big point to make is that the usual thinking about ISLs is that there's just one train involved, the switcher that spots the cars at the final industry location. The cars actually come from someplace else. If any sort of space is available, it seems to me that a small local yard, like Malabar Yard, ought to be added and operated something like the real thing, handling a transfer out of staging. This doubles the interest and operating opportunity.

[faraway]

I have been a week on vacation but followed this thread on my iPhone but posting via iPhone is ......
I think a contemporary situation like this http://goo.gl/maps/G1bw0 is a nice example to combine "shoeboxes" and today rail served industries. Some industries get inbound material via covered hoppers but use very simple unloading facilities. Here is a similar example http://goo.gl/maps/iaR5A with a row of tanks suitable for small layouts.
Similar shoebox industries can be found getting inbound goods in tank cars and sometimes (very sometimes) there might be a lonesome boxcar at a loading dock

ps. Modeling shoeboxes is not necessary lazy but a preference for modern uncomplicated design like Bauhaus, Porsche, Braun, Apple etc.

[jwb]

Well, each to his own, and no question that now and then you can find a shoebox that unloads covered hoppers -- though even there, that isn't what you see on the "conventional wisdom" ISLs on forums like rmweb. On the other hand, why do that when a few blocks away, you have this:

   

As I asked above, which layout would you rather see, one with only shoebox industries, or one with industries that had shown some combination of research, effort, and creativity? (And yeah, Bauhaus is a school of architecture, but on the other hand, if you read Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House, it's not something to admire or emulate. Ideas have consequences. There are places, styles, and times, the Confederacy and others, that I simply would not wish to model.)

The question isn't ISLs, although one issue might be whether ISL is an exact synonym for "small layout". I built several small layouts when I was young and living in apartments and didn't have any choice. However, I'm not sure I would have characterized them as ISLs. Nor do I think the late Carl Arendt would have said they're anything like the same thing.

The problem I have with what I would call "conventional wisdom ISLs", (CWISL) as opposed to a "small layout" in exactly the same space is that the CWISL treats only one kind of train, the retail local delivering individual cars. For whatever reason, CWISL builders seem to focus on boxcars, even though they're less than 10% of rail traffic, and less in many places. And they don't weather or tag their boxcars, or even paint the shiny wheels! (I have a feeling it's because they aren't that committed to the hobby and are worried they'll hurt the resale value -- that's the sense I get from rmweb.)

I'm interested in Malabar Yard, and I'm talking about it here, in part because I wish I'd known about it when I lived even closer in the 1970s, when there was more traffic, and I wish even more I could learn more about it in the 1950s Baldwin transfer loco era. This is because I keep rethinking how I would have done a "small layout" as a Malabar-inspired prototype with a number of features not in a CWISL, like different kinds of trains, yard operation, traffic other than boxcars, industries other than shoeboxes, or serious research into other eras.

Each to his own, it's your layout, but I find CWISLs boring, and even sort of claustrophobic. I guess it's just me, but I build my own layout.

[jwb]

By the way, here's a Santa Fe company photo (presumably public domain) of one of the Baldwin transfer locos, I think at the Redondo Jct roundhouse a couple of miles from Malabar Yard:



I have a DVD with railfan footage of one of these at Mission Tower in 1953, presumably working a transfer from Hobart Yard to LA's First Street Yard. I've also read that there was a fantrip in the early 1950s on Santa Fe's Harbor District that used one of these. So I'm hopeful I can find proof they ran regularly on the Harbor District, and possibly even on transfers to Malabar in that period. If so, it's Katy bar the door as far as trying to track down a model.