Removing Rail in Van Nuys
Pacific Electric maintenance of way equipment remove rail in Van Nuys near the Los Angeles River. The date is May 2, 1953.
Alan Weeks Photo
Alan Weeks Collection
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I strongly believe this is Rio Vista station on Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood, and that we are looking north at the Tujunga Wash Bridge. The Los Angeles River would be behind the photographer. Visit Google Maps for Vineland Avenue and Whipple Street and do a street view. The high voltage towers are still there. A different type of tower is used by the Los Angeles River. I would be very interested in the name of the street on the street sign in the background.
If we’re looking at the Tujunga wash bridge, the grade crossing is probably Acama St, which was the first street which crossed the PR r/o/w south of the wash. The next street south of Acama, which some maps show crossing the PE r/o/w and some don’t, is Aqua Vista Street.
Possibly more on point to the photo location, when the subdivision map was filed in 1911, Aqua Vista Street was named RIO VISTA AVE, And Acama St was named Acacia. Both were changed to there present-day names in 1917.
http://survey.dpw.lacounty.gov/landrecords/Tract/MB0018/TR0018-177b.pdf
Using the Google Map street view, take a look northbound between Aqua Vista and Acama, and there’s a high-tension line tower right where it “should” be. http://tinyurl.com/yajmwrq
Hi Guys
You both have good memories. I took this photo but don’t remember
which bridge is in the picture. It was near Rio Vista. Thanks.
Thanks Alan, but not my memory. I was born in 1971, almost 3 decades after service on this PE line was abandoned. The information I provided was good detective work; this did not look like the area on Chandler Boulevard so I knew it could not be in Van Nuys. That meant it had to be near Rio Vista, so it was a matter of finding the proper towers.
The steam derrick is probably 00194, an Ohio Locomotive Crane product from 1922. My first railfan photos were of this unit dismantling the Eaton Wash bridge on the Monrovia-Glendora line in late 1951. According to “Interurbans Special 37” it was built as a coal burner, but I’m reasonably sure it had been converted to oil by the time I saw it.
I believe the cross street is Bluffside Dr.
Now extinct due to Condos.
I used to live 2 blocks north on Vineland.