| Located just five miles from downtown Los Angeles, the city of Vernon has a population of just 112 people (according to the 2010 United States Census), making it the city with the smallest population of any incorporated city in the state of California. (In contrast, adjacent city of Los Angeles had a population of 3,792,621 people in the same 2010 US Census.) Vernon is primarily composed of industrial areas (rail yards, meatpacking plants, a now closed battery recycling plant and warehouses) and touts itself as "exclusively industrial." As you can see, Vernon is a real garden spot! On April 8, 1983, a pair of recently acquired Western Pacific GP40-2s, consecutively numbered 3554 and 3555, lead the Union Pacific's westbound Mead Local past a billboard for new owner UP as it passes through the typically gritty landscape of Vernon. The Western Pacific (along with Missouri Pacific) was merged with the Union Pacific just the year before, and it would take several years for the much larger Union Pacific to wipe out the WP's identity. Southern California railfans, however, enjoyed the infusion of WP power while it lasted. |