Western Railroad Discussion > Landside Drill--Berkeley, Calif.

The Landside Drill track is being removed. It's already torn up east of Virginia Street, except for a spur off the No. 2 main to serve Flint Ink.

Anyone know if there is still service to National Starch in Berkeley?

Is this for new contruction of a 3rd or 4th main or is this UP down sizing for the short term?

mococomike wrote:

> Is this for new contruction of a 3rd or 4th main or is this
> UP down sizing for the short term?

My guess is downsizing. I once read that the third main, if it comes, would be from the waterside drill. I think Mike Ongerth was the person who mentioned that.

National Starch still gets regular service, a couple of days a week. I don't think Flint Ink does anymore, tho. Unless something has changed this week, there hasn't been a car in there since the first week of September. I don't ever remember, going back over 20 years, when there weren't cars in Cal Ink, (now Flint).

stash wrote:

> mococomike wrote:
>
> > Is this for new contruction of a 3rd or 4th main or is
> this
> > UP down sizing for the short term?
>
> My guess is downsizing. I once read that the third main, if
> it comes, would be from the waterside drill. I think Mike
> Ongerth was the person who mentioned that.
>
> [%sig%]

You mean to tell me that Mike Ongerth is still working for a railroad? What railroad? Wonders never cease.

steamjocky....over

stash wrote:

> The Landside Drill track is being removed. It's
> already torn up east of Virginia Street, except
> for a spur off the No. 2 main to serve Flint
> Ink.

Thanks for the heads-up Stash. The waterside
has been pretty quiet lately too. The sand place
still gets occasional hoppers, but they've gotten
to be *very* occasional over the last year or
so. By the way, what's the official name of
the sand place anyway? The ancient signs say
Crystal Amber Industrial Sand, but is that
the current name of the outfit?

I remember in 1980 taking the Sunday evening switch job originating out of West Oakland. We first organized our cars at the Shellville yard and then spotted on a whole host of weird and funky spurs on the landside in and around Emeryville and Berkeley. At Berkeley we took beans at Brennan's by University Avenue, then after getting permission from the dispatcher crossed over to the waterside to do more switching in Berkeley and Emeryville. Our SW1200 busted gut with all the cars we were toting (mainly loads for delivery). In the meantime 4 healthy box trains barreled westward into West Oakland, one I believe was the RVSFY. And at the time we thought things were a bit slow. Last time I was in the area hardly a trace of anything rail. Bummer.

hallawell wrote:

> I remember in 1980 taking the Sunday evening switch job
> originating out of West Oakland. We first organized our cars
> at the Shellville yard and then spotted on a whole host of
> weird and funky spurs on the landside in and around Emeryville
> and Berkeley. At Berkeley we took beans at Brennan's by
> University Avenue, then after getting permission from the
> dispatcher crossed over to the waterside to do more switching
> in Berkeley and Emeryville. Our SW1200 busted gut with all the
> cars we were toting (mainly loads for delivery). In the
> meantime 4 healthy box trains barreled westward into West
> Oakland, one I believe was the RVSFY. And at the time we
> thought things were a bit slow. Last time I was in the area
> hardly a trace of anything rail. Bummer.
>

Thanks for the excellent recollections! Time marches on, unfortunately for these old dying industrial spurs, especially for those back in my old 'hood..

One of my earliest memories of trains in Berkeley was of the Sunday evening special of an Alco S-6 switcher kickin' cars (screeching wheels all the way up and down the switch ladder at Berkeley Ready Mix as well as to slide a few tank cars and whatnot into DeSoto Paint company on Cedar Street. If I was lucky (even then).. I could catch them working the Crystal Amber sand company too.

Amazing to believe but I used to think "man.. when are they gonna get one of those modern looking SW1500s to do this work?" =)

Also, it seems that Truitt and White still took in a centerbeam flat full o' lumber a few months back, and at least Berkeley and the rest of the Cal-P seems to be overrun with passenger trains as never before.

Best Regards,
Harry

> hallawell wrote:
>
> > I remember in 1980 taking the Sunday evening
> > switch job originating out of West Oakland.
> > We first organized our cars at the Shellville
> > yard and then spotted on a whole host of
> > weird and funky spurs on the landside in and
> > around Emeryville and Berkeley.

Old SPINS books show a lot of odd spurs in
Berkeley proper. There's still a diamond in
the middle of 2nd St. where one long-disused
spur crosses the remaining lead to Truitt &
White. In places, you can still see the
remains of a spur that came off the land side
and wound around several city blocks, turning
about 270 degrees in the process, ending up at a
cement place near 6th.

tracktime wrote:

> Also, it seems that Truitt and White still took
> in a centerbeam flat full o' lumber a few
> months back,

I get the impression that Truitt's annual
centerbeam or two is a token gesture to make
sure they keep rail service as leverage against
truck rates.

The sand company on Cedar Street is Bulk Sand Service. This used to be Mallott, Peterson and Grundy and they resurfaced tennis courts in addition to the foundry sand business. About ten years ago this sand plant was spun off and they no longer had the resurfacing business. Over the years, one foundry after another has closed in the area, leaving only Berkeley Forge on 2nd. St as its last customer. In years past they took about six or eight cars a week, but now down to fewer than that a year. The next door business, Berkeley Ready Mix used to get all their gravel from the Livermore area (remember the Radum Turn?) however the Espee never wanted this short haul business in later years and they ran out of gravel so much they finally started trucking. It just seemed impossible to get those cars from West Oakland to West Berkeley. fyi - Truitt and White hasn't taken a car in this calendar year, ( last car was December 2001, so they may have given up on kkeeping service.

One of my favorite memories was watching a flying switch drop at Crystal Amber back in the early 90's. I used to bicycle from my house in North Berkeley to Aquatic Park next to the SP main.

The cab to cab SW1500's were facing eastbound. They accelerated and then cut off the two hoppers, went into the pocket track and then the brakeman threw the switch. The other brakeman rode the two hoppers while the fireman flagged Virginia St. The switcher set then coupled back onto the hoppers, shoved past Cedar St and then pulled them down past Berkeley Ready Mix, then shoved them into Crystal Amber.
As the crew was walking back, I said to the brakeman "nice flying switch". He was a bit surprised and replied "you liked my drop?", to which I replied "Yeah, I liked your drop". Ahh the memories.

WP Mike

riff wrote:

> The sand company on Cedar Street is Bulk Sand
> Service.

Thanks. Gotta get the slides labeled correctly.

> fyi - Truitt and White hasn't taken a car in
> this calendar year, ( last car was December
> 2001, so they may have given up on kkeeping
> service.

From personal observations, they've taken a
couple of cars this calendar year. The last
one I saw was pulled around May 1, 2002.