Can you tell where north is in Burbank? Do you notice the angles and kinks of our city streets while traveling around Burbank? Why do Olive and Alameda cross over each other? The Chandler tracks are why.

Like all good small farm towns, Burbank was laid out on a grid parallel to the main Southern Pacific railroad tracks that run fom Los Angeles north: they are about 45 degrees from a north-south orientation.

The rest of the San Fernando Valley is laid out on a grid that matches much of Los Angeles, a north-south grid.

I believe the Chandler tracks were built at an odd angle as a direct shot from the Burbank Station wye (train turnaround area) to the Pacific Electric line at the border of Burbank and Los Angeles County near Clybourn Street. The Magnolia Park area of Burbank is laid out perpendicular to the Chandler tracks so it's at an odd angle, and that's why Alameda crosses Olive.

We, Burbank, are the "kink" at the east end of the San Fernando Valley, and that's why we have a "five corners," or a "four courners plus another one." Perhaps it's the designer in me or maybe I'm just "odd," but I find this to be an intriguing bit of our local history, and I believe it makes Burbank just that much more special.

But what gets me upset is that, after 10 years of trying to get the city of Burbank involved in supporting a suitable aviation museum I see my old friend Bud Ovrum quoted in the Daily News as supporting the idea that our Burbank rail equipment be sent over to the proposed North Hollywood Lankershim Depot project.

Bud, remember our several discussions about how great the aviation history of our area is and how, in this centennial year of powered flight, it's imperative that we honor that history here in Burbank? OK, nothing came of those converwsations and that's very sad to me, but please, don't try to take what little is left of our unique Burbank history over to your new Los Angeles home. We've lost our train statin, all the Lockheed factory buildings and the physical birthplace of the Lockheed Skunk Works (and the Earhart-Hughes hangar at the airport). That's too much for us to lose along with our last old-time railroad signal

Ron Dickson

Burbank, Ca

Ron Dickson, director of the Burbank Aviation Museum, leans against one of the railroad signal lights on the tracks at Hollywood Way and Chjandler Boulevard. Dickson thinks the Chandler tracks are an intriguing piece of Burbank history.