Taylor Yard, Los Angeles

Taylor Yard is a post-industrial site, a former railway station and classification yard in Los Angeles, California, and the former headquarters of Southern Pacific Railroad operations in Southern California. The site was purchased by the Southern Pacific in 1911 and continually reshaped, remade, and replanned over the course of the early 20th century for the purposes of inspection, repair, and storage of freight cars on the Southern Pacific Fruit Express line.

It is now the site of the Rio de Los Angeles State Park and the Bowtie projects.

Taylor Yard was established in 1911 on the previous site of Taylor Feed Mill (from which the yard gets it name). It was rebuilt in 1949. Competition from the trucking industry and the closure of American manufacturing plants led to the decline of the Yard after the 1950s. In 1983, an average of 25,000 railroad cars moved through Taylor Yard and 1,200 workers were employed in its operations, down from 5,000 in the 1950s. Southern Pacific closed the terminal on November 14, 1985, citing declining business. Workers and union leaders cited a merger plan between Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railway, which had been sharply criticized by the U.S. Justice Department, but endorsed by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Southern Pacific closed the facilities and bulldozed the site in 1988. In 1991, the County acquired the eastern portion of the site. In 2017 the city acquired G-2, the northern portion of it.

Taylor Yard sits adjacent to the Los Angeles River. As the river passes Taylor Yard, it flows through the Glendale Narrows. This portion of the river has an unlined channel bottom due to the high groundwater table. The soft-bottom includes riparian vegetation, open water, and sand bars, which are supported by year-round flows.

Among the most iconic features of the site was the Roundhouse and the Dayton Tower. The Dayton is the only building of the site that has not been demolished. It has been jinkered twice.

By the 1950s, Taylor Yard was the central node in the freight network into and out of Los Angeles for Southern Pacific, as the classification yard grown had grown in complexity and size concurrent with increases both manufacturing and the overall population of Los Angeles. The Classification Yard was split into three operational zones, "with the receiving unit at the west end, then the classification unit, and at the east end the departure unit."

...
Wikipedia