Union Pacific Freight Depot for Glendale, CA

by Bruce Petty

Union Pacific owned trackage rights all the way from Mission Tower to the top end of Taylor yard that served a 1.25 mile branch line that terminated at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Midway along the branch at Fletcher Drive road crossing was built this a modern looking post WWII Freight Station.

Officially the freight Station was still in Los Angeles near the Glendale City boundary, however it was still known as the Glendale Freight Station.

Here box cars were unloaded into trucks for local deliveries of less than car load shipments, or LCL freight. Seen in the picture sitting on the loading dock is a steam radiator that had been unloaded out of a box car with a fork lift.

I remember seeing the station back in 1970 when the Union Pacific displayed their Centennial 1869-1969 display train at the freight dock. This train had flat cars with 2-4-0 locomotives and baggage car fitted out in a display of O-Scale models of UP locomotives through the 100 years.

Originally this branch was built in 1914 as the Glendale & Montrose Railway that ran thirteen miles of trolley line. Passenger and freight service operated until 1930 when this part of the railroad was abandoned. Union Pacific Railroad continued to operate into Glendale when the branch was scrapped in 1991.

The plans are from a June, 1967 Model Trains magazine. It's not often a modern looking railroad structure is seen, usually railroad structures are a falling apart hundred year old wooden building. This project has been a challenge for my model building skills and understanding of how the prototype building was designed.

This is the completed freight door side of the building. The doors were built on a sheet of .020 thick styrene with scale 2"x 6" styrene.

The station's walls were painted with Floquil, Rust and water based Latex paint whitewash was brushed on to the brick to collect in the mortar lines. The raised silver lettering was Laser cut from a silver card stock material.

I use Vinyl page protectors to hold the magazine plans saved for many years for this project. The front office windows section is built directly on the clear Vinyl as the solvent that bonds the styrene doesn't adhere to it. Windows and doors for other three wall sections were done using the same method.

Look for this detailed construction article to be possibly published in Model Railroader Magazine.

Los Angeles & San Fernando Valley RR