Commerce (Los Angeles), CA: UP East Los Angeles (UPLA) and BNSF/Santa Fe Hobart Railyards

UP Yard: (Satellite)

UP Roundhouse: (Satellite, long gone.)

UP Backshops: (Satellite, long gone.)

BNSF Yard: (Satellite)

Today, both yards are intermodal yards. Although the UP yard does have an engine servicing facility about where the backshops used to be.

Railroad Repair Shops and Roundhouses 1850-1950 posted
Layout of the Los Angeles & Salt Lake subsidiary of the Union Pacific at Los Angeles as they looked in 1927. (Railway Mechanical Engineer)

1926/1939 Alhambra Quad @ 24,000

An addition was added to the erecting shop building.

1966/68 Los Angeles @ 24,000

Jul 30, 1952 @ 23,600; AR1VP0000180011

Digitally Zoomed
Dennis DeBruler commented on the post
Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5jDMthm7Vgr1zuX97.
Research: https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2026/06/commerce-los-angeles-ca-up-east-los.html

"East Los Angeles Yard (UPLA): Situated in the City of Commerce along East Washington Blvd, this massive off-dock yard handles the bulk of domestic and international containerized cargo coming from the ports." [Google AI results]

The AI did a good job of combining information from PortsOfLosAngeles and wheree. UP's webpage is also of interest.

LaGrange, WY: Wood Grain Elevator

Wood Elevator: (Satellite)

Main Elevator: (Satellite)

The main elevator is in the right background of this view.

Street View, Aug 2007

Jerry got a trackside view of the elevator.

Jerry Krug posted
We are out touring this weekend.  Drove through tiny LaGrange, WY this morning and found this alongside a UP line. With Patti Orzel.

The wood elevator is in the left background of this view.

Street View, Aug 2007

Just south of the main elevator is the chemical sales facility.

Street View, Aug 2007

I wonder why this town had a wye on the southeast side to turn locomotives.

1960/62 La Grange Quad @ 24,000

Humphrey, NE: Two Wood Grain Elevators in a Feed Mill

(Satellite)

Once again, we see wood grain elevators still in use in the 21st century because they are part of a feedmill. The equipment they would have to grind and mix feed, along with the many small bins for the supplements, make them worth saving.

Street View, Jun 2023

Jerry Krug posted two photos with the comment: "Two elevators in Humphrey, NE on cloudy May 28, 2026:"

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The elevator also has some bolted-steel silos for grain storage south of the feed mill.

Street View, Jul 2025

And some steel bins north of the feed mill.

Satellite

The north/south tracks on this map are labelled Union Pacific. It has been a long time since the UP served this elevator.

1966/68 Humphrey Quad @ 24,000

Omaha, NE: 1885-1999 Stockyards

(See satellite image below, only the Livestock Exchange building is left.)

Russel Spawn posted
Omaha, Nebraska STOCKYARDS.

Martin Tjossem: Was just thinking how back in the 1980's I hauled cattle, hogs, and sheep in or out of the St Paul, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, Omaha, St Joe, Kansas City, and St Louis stockyards and they are all gone now.

Satellite

It is the area labeled South Omaha on this map. The Pacific label in the bottom center is part of the Rock Island label. So, going clockwise, the stockyards were close to the Rock Island, CB&Q, C&NW, UP and Missouri Pacific.

1956/68 Omaha North and South Quads @ 24,000

nebraska
By the end of the 1880s decade, " South Omaha was established as a major meat center, and by 1956 Omaha was the largest meat producing city in the world."

Steve Raglin posted four photos with the comment:

The "Newsmakers" theme for January should probably include the Omaha stockyards which ranked as the world's largest livestock market from 1955-1971 (a very large feather in the cap for the city). Several large meat processing plants were part of that mix, including Armour & Co. and Swift. By 1999, all the work had shifted elsewhere and operations in South Omaha had essentially closed.

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nps
"Designed by Omaha architect George Prinz and completed in May 1926, the eleven story H-shaped Livestock Exchange Building towered over the South Omaha stockyards, serving as the center of the industry in Omaha....To house the offices of meatpacking firms, the Union Stockyard Company built the original Livestock Exchange Building in 1885. By 1924, the business had outgrown the building and leaders expressed interest in constructing a new building that would symbolize the continued prosperity of the industry in Omaha. The impressive new building housed not only offices but the Stockyards National Bank, a bakery, cafeteria, kitchen, cigar stand, telephone and telegraph offices, apartments and sleeping rooms, a clothing store, ballrooms, and a convention hall....The livestock industry continued to grow during the 1940s and boasted sites of four national packing houses: Armour, Cudahy, Swift, and Wilson. In 1955 the South Omaha stockyards surpassed Chicago’s as the largest stockyard and meat processing center in the country. Changes in the market during the 1960s led to the decline of the industry and three of the largest packing companies closed. By 1976 the last major packing house closed, signifying the end of the great era of the Omaha stockyards....Despite the decline of the industry, the Livestock Exchange Building still stands in South Omaha, an impressive and unique architectural achievement, combining Romanesque and Italian Renaissance Revival styles. Renovated in 2005 and now houses more than one hundred apartments and two ballrooms that can be reserved for events."

clui
"The stockyards at Omaha closed in 1999, and the labyrinth of collapsing corrals and pens around the old Livestock Exchange buildings are now parking lots. In the 1960's this was the largest livestock center in the world, filled with thousands of animals on trading days, and surrounded by meatpacking plants. It surpassed the more famous Union Stockyard in Chicago as the busiest stockyard in 1955, when nearly 43,000 cattle passed through the yard in a single day. The industry trend of moving the slaughterhouses closer to the cattle feedlots, led by companies like IBP (which was purchased by Tyson in 2001), led to the demise of this and other stockyards, and changed the economy of the meatpacking cities like Omaha, Chicago, and Kansas City. There are, however, a few meatpacking plants still in operation at the stockyards, like the Greater Omaha Packing Company, which processes 750,000 steers annually."

Oshkosh, NE: Wood Grain Elevators

Oshkosh: (Satellite)

Denman: (Satellite)

Oshkosh, NE

Cory Jakeway posted

In the early morning hours just before sunrise in the town of Oshkosh, Nebraska. The abandoned grain elevator sits silent along the busy main line of the Union Pacific RR South Morrill Sub. which sees coal trains travel to and from Wyoming's Coal fields.  

Photographed: 03/12/26

Street View, May 2012

Street View, May 2012

Denman, NE

Cory Jakeway posted

Elevator Row in Denman NE 

These grain elevators sit alongside the UPRR Mainline of the Maysville Subdivision just outside of Gibbon NE. The main wood elevator is now abandoned and falling apart. Only time will tell how long it will be up. 

Photographed: 03/03/26

The street view drivers drove past the town, but not into it. Note that UP is using the old elevator siding to park MoW equipment.

Satellite

Rawlins, WY: UP Depot, Caboose and Coaling Tower

Caboose & Depot: (Satellite)

Coaling Tower: (Satellite, it was over the mainline, just east of 1st Street extended)

Roundhouse: (Satellite, the land is still used for engine servicing, but now that is fuel storage)

Dennis DeBruler posted
I've noticed that smaller towns that were created by a railroad are more inclined to celebrate their railroad heritage. This is Rawlins, WY.
https://goo.gl/maps/3LWjs21QQSiGCrMQ9

Patrick Doran posted
Walter Wells saw this amazing sight at the Rawlins coal dock on May 14th 1953 & took this picture of Union Pacific Challengers #3996 and #3947 at the coal dock. A hostler can be seen climbing the ladder of a coal hopper. When the 1950s had come many challengers were converted from coal to oil but others remained coal burners. #3985 was one of them before the engine was restored then converted to oil in the 1990s.
Raymond Storey shared

The roundhouse is now the diesel fuel storage facility.

1953 Rawlins Quad @ 24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Raymond's share
The coaling tower was over the mainline near 1st Street.
Nov 5, 1947 @ 27,700, AR1CM0000020098

Yoder, WY: Wood Grain Elevators

(Satellite)

Back in Sep 2007, the town had two wood grain elevators. Only the one on the east (right) side still stands.

Street View, Sep 2007

Jim JP Pallow posted

Dennis DeBruler commented on Jim's post
In this Sep 2007 street view, there used to be another wood elevator a little further West.
I wonder why the leg drops to each of the steel bins have been removed.
https://goo.gl/maps/myt9VgoQzo1N39Y16

Dennis DeBruler commented on Jim's post
There used to be eight steel bins. Google Earth Jun 1994

UP does rail serve this town.

Satellite

And the elevator has its own little yellow critter to move the hoppers.

Satellite

Columbus, NE: ADM Corn Processing Plant with Power Plant

(Satellite)

Craig Hensley Photography posted

A single UP ET44AH #2628 shoves a loaded coal train to be unloaded for the power plant at the ADM facility in Columbus, NE. 

Columbus, NE - September 2025

Ned Shaneberger: Gotta supply a lot of heat to make all that corn starch!

[I suspect that they need that heat in the form of steam. But I didn't realize that they needed so much stam that they consume unit trains of coal. ]

Given all of those tank cars, one of the outputs must be corn syrup.

Street View, May 2024

Obviously, the hopper trailer above carries corn. I wonder what these other two trailers carry.

Street View, May 2024

Todd Koch, Oct 2016

It is a green-field plant built between two railroads: UP+BNSF/CB&Q.

1958/59 Columbus Quad @ 24,000

Of course, the plant would have a loop of track to unload unit grain trains, so unloading unit coal trains would be no big deal. This is the first modern plant that I remember that is big enough to have two industrial spurs from both railroads. Note that the BNSF route (the one on the south side) now terminates at this plant.

Satellite

When I researched the David City depot just a few days ago, I wondered what plant in Columbus would cause BNSF to retain the CB&Q branch to Columbus. Now I know.

1902 via Dennis DeBruler

 I checked, and the ADM plants in Clinton and Decatur also have the grainPlant plus powerPlant labels. And I added the powerPlant label to the Ingredion plant near Chicago because I saw a tall building with three smokestacks.

Gothenburg, NE: Several old grain elevators

(Satellite, the town started north of the tracks and at the beginning of the alphabet in terms of the streets)

This town was on the Lincoln Highway.

Beatrice Area Railroad Enthusiasts posted
Gothenburg, NE 1910

I include Lake Hellen to help orient then and now maps because the roads have changed a lot. Note that the Lincoln Highway has yet to be built.

1902 Gothenburg Quad @ 125,000

Elevator row has been replaced by a big elevator. Note that this one is served by a Class I railroad, UP because it has a fall protector (skinny blue truss) and its own locomotive.

Street View, Apr 2012

It can handle unit trains because it has multiple sidings and its own locomotive. It looks like they are cleaning up a spill.

Satellite

And this siding also serves a fertilizer distributor with liquid and dry fertilizer.

Satellite

And that industrial spur continues north into a big feed mill. I wonder what they receive by rail. The grain bins along the north seem to be part of NSG Logistics.

Satellite

Or maybe they ship dried alfalfa.

feed-products
Alfalfa Dehydrator in Gothenburg

In addition to a truck scale in the fertilizer distributor, there is a scale and some bins on the east side.

Satellite

The towns along the original overland railroad were a lot closer than every 15 miles. Is that because they established work camps along the way?

Road Map