Of perhaps some interest:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/traff ... 9275.story

http://cbs2.com/video/?id=76738@kcbs.dayport.com

Please indulge me in one of my fantasies here. I had hoped that either here, or the remaining facilities at Taylor could come to host some sort of rail museum. Sadly, there is no active constituency for such a thing. Both sites have, or are in the process of becoming large urban parks. There is a real need for additional open space in Los Angeles, and not so much awareness (or appreciation) of history. Some manner of interpretive materials will ultimately be installed at the Cornfield State Park site, and the new park's design will "take cues" from the site's past, but it is too bad that a more significant memorialization of this site is unlikely to be built.

I would suggest that a site at either Cornfield or Talyor might make a decent site for an urban railroad museum. Taylor might be able to provide some actual railroad structures (not sure what's left though), and the Cornfield site would be close to Union Station, Downtown, and Chinatown. At the risk of alienating some folks, there are two significant collections, and an operable 4-8-4 that would probably benefit from a better, and possibly shared home in Southern California. How many of you are aware of the shockingly large number of preserved steam locomotives in Los Angeles County? I see these pieces as the makings for a major museum, but Railway preservation does not generally attract the kind of interest and support that would be necessary to make such a thing happen. Incidentally, the developer of the Cornfield park is the State Parks Department. This is the same agency that runs CSRM.

BTW, the news pieces on the archeological work were pretty well done, although it was silly that one of the reporters did his "stand up" from the hole.

A preservation site in the Taylor Yard area would certainly be handier for many LA area residents, both railfans and "normal people", the big catch is we already have Travel Town (which had limited operation for a while), Orange Empire (the largest and most active in Southern California, but a long way from downtown LA and even further from San Fernando Valley, South Bay, etc.), and a just-beginning group in Fullerton (Orange County). Trying to start another railway preservation effort at this late date is not for the faint of heart or thin of wallet. Has anyone discussed with the SBRHS (the ATSF 3751 group) whether they'd have any interest in a Taylor Yard site? (aside from the fact that it was always a Southern Pacific facility).