Nostalgia & History > SP Western Div. Building & Amtrak Incident

A previous MDO post on our old building caused some recollections...
In the 1970s and even more so as time progressed, some of the asphalt wore off the parking area on the south side (facing the SP depot) just a few feet from the sidewalk next to the SP Western Division building at 1707 Wood Street. As it deteriorated, an older, slightly lower sidewalk began to be exposed. It had an old rusted metal edge, correlated to the way concrete streets or sidewalks were once poured, with the iron pouring form or edge left permanently in place. A picture from 1913 on page 72 of John Signor’s 2003 book “Southern Pacific’s Western Division” shows the depot, street and the SP’s electrified loop line (Franklin St. to depot, franchised for operation to Peninsular Railway Co.) that once ran there. In the mid 1990s SP leased out this area that had once been used for SP passenger and later Amtrak parking, to a trucking company which used it to store semi-trailers. It was only a matter of a week or two and their tractors made quite a mess, even gouging out a large muddy crater almost a foot deep mid-lot where SP once had greenery and a garden-like setting in the depot’s earliest days. Even after this eyesore had developed, tourists and railfans would still show up to photograph the old depot through the surrounding chain link fence.

Examination of that 1913 photo shows the old loop line tracks curving off through where the concrete foundation for the SP building would later be poured in the 1960s. By then the tracks were changed and SP had a branch line that crossed Wood St. just behind this building (perhaps 400 feet away) and continued for several blocks up 18th Street. The odd thing during the years when I worked there was that every time a heavy truck or semi-trailer drove over the tracks on the Wood Street crossing, you could feel a strong vibration through the solid concrete foundation. Old photos depict that part of Oakland as once seashore so the ground was likely never highly compacted. This leaves me wondering to this day if some part of those loop line rails were left behind, buried under concrete, which might account for the transmittal of those vibrations.

The 1989 earthquake resulted in the immediate closure of the old SP depot on Wood Street in Oakland. The Amtrak ticket office was quickly set up in the SP Western Division building next door. Eventually the new Jack London Depot was opened and all Amtrak operations were moved there. Some time later the four track mainline and sidings that had been outside the depot were removed as the new freeway construction began. Around 5 PM – just about the same time as the last San Joaquin train for the Santa Fe connection at Port Chicago and then on to Bakersfield would have left - had there been any tracks - I happened to look out my window, which faced the now empty parking lot in front of the old depot (before it was leased out to the trucking company). A taxi drove in and braked hard to a stop. A guy jumped out, rapidly handed cash to the cabbie and ran off in full sprint to the rear of the old depot with his briefcase and jacket in hand toward where the tracks had been. Just as quickly the taxi roared off in the opposite direction. About two minutes later the guy very slowly walked back, obviously having learned that no one could ever catch a train there again and probably regretting having tipped the cabbie too!

Great story and all true too. My desk and chair used to jump every time a truck drove north or south on Wood Street.

mdo

As mentioned above Southern Pacific once ran a street railway system in Oakland using center door cars lettered Southern Pacific. They as ran a interurban system and mainline passenger rail. I'm trying to think of another American city where a class one ran all three types of service. Marine ferryboat operations excepted.

From 1912 thru 1933, the SP ran their large 72-foot suburban electric trains on the trackage you just mentioned. They ran the cars into the 16th Street Loop and Garden area as well as up to the top of the elevated structure right next to the TOWER. This connection came from their 18th Street line which ran down Franklin and Webster to Alameda via the Harrison St. Bridge.

They also ran a local service, streetcar style, using center-entrance cars which got the nickname "Dinkeys"..
A big junction point was 14th & Franklin Sts in Downtown Oakland where the downtown merchants garage is located. This was the location of SP's downtown Oakland depot.
After 1933, the track connection to the elevated structure next to 16th Street tower was removed...
There is a complete story about the DINKEY service with maps, in Bob Ford's book "Red Trains Remembered" ...
Very interesting and also a great companion to Bob's first Red Train book: "Red Trains in the Eastbay" ...

Cheers.

"Key Route Ken"...