Nostalgia & History > Southbay Railroading in the early 1980s

Silicon Valley was a moniker yet to be assigned to the Santa Clara Valley when this July 1981 photo was exposed at Mountain View, California. An evening Southern Pacific commuter train passes one of the last drive-in theaters in the south bay as it speeds towards San Jose.

A year later, in March of 1982, a mid-day off-peak train prepares to pause at the Lawrence station stop on its way to San Francisco. A very cold, late winter storm has deposited snow on the surrounding east hills, lending a surreal quality to photo.

Though the term Silicon Valley (NOT Silicone BTW) was yet to be used for the South Bay area, many tech companies were already building their reputations in the area. For instance, at the time of the first photo I was an employee of Atari! The drive to work on the Lawrence Expressway offered photos ops twice a day, plus I was only 15 minutes from Alviso where I bagged many a freight during lunch hour.

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Great shots! Takes me back in time. Say, is that a GP-9 or an SD9? Thanks agan!

Love those "the way it was" photos.
JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/11 06:41 by 3rdswitch.

Actually the term "Silicon Valley" originated early in the 70's although it was only used within the industry and the general public was not aware of it until later. It was originally used because so many companies that actually made silicon transistors and integrated circuits were in the area starting with Fairchild Semiconductor and Signetics and then National, Intel, AMD and many others. Now the term seems to be used to relate to anything to do with computers and software, but that was not the original intent.

More please!

When I grew up, it was "The Prune Valley", though we tried to clean it up by saying "The Valley of Heart's Content". In any case, prunes and lots more fruit made hundreds of car loading a day and railroading was fascinating. I loved seeing on the SP GP9s, H12-44s, and SD7s on the Vasona Branch and three little Alco switchers gathering a hundred cars a day for the WP.

Are there even half a dozen rail shippers left in the Santa Clara Valley (the proper name)?

I'm sure glad Ken was around to take pictures, but I wish I had a good camera earlier and an endless supply of film ... and time.

Stan Praisewater

sagehen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I grew up, it was "The Prune Valley", though
> we tried to clean it up by saying "The Valley of
> Heart's Content". In any case, prunes and lots
> more fruit made hundreds of car loading a day and
> railroading was fascinating. I loved seeing on
> the SP GP9s, H12-44s, and SD7s on the Vasona
> Branch and three little Alco switchers gathering a
> hundred cars a day for the WP.
>
> Are there even half a dozen rail shippers left in
> the Santa Clara Valley (the proper name)?
>
> I'm sure glad Ken was around to take pictures, but
> I wish I had a good camera earlier and an endless
> supply of film ... and time.
>
> Stan Praisewater

Correction, Stan---it was "the Valley of Heart's Delight" and that was even one of the brands of Richmond Chase which became part of California Canners and Growers.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

CarolVoss Wrote:
> Correction, Stan---it was "the Valley of Heart's
> Delight" and that was even one of the brands of
> Richmond Chase which became part of California
> Canners and Growers.
> C.

D'oh! You are right, Carol. I have a very old Santa Clara Valley tourist brochure laying around somewhere with that slogan on it.

Remember how sickly sweet the air smelled when prunes were being dried (I'm old school: dried prunes come from fresh prunes)? My friend and I would ride our bikes to downtown Campbell to watch the afternoon switcher go about its work and get headaches from the pungent smell. We'd sit on top of a boxcar parked on the roofing materials siding watching the switching crew work and get no hassles. If we waited past dinnertime, we'd get to see the evening commute off the Los Altos Branch head home to the depot yard in San Jose ... a GP9 and at least 6 gallery cars.

Stan

If I'm not mistaken you are standing on Lawrence looking at the drive in theater off Evelyn with a 2 lane Wolfe Road at grade crossing in the distance. The prunes predate me but I do remember the best strawberries I've ever eaten from Hiyoshi farms nearby. Orchards were still there beyond the drive in on the left side of the track in photo #1 at least into the mi 70's. Sunsweet still dries the prunes in Live Oak, but it isn't the same. It's pretty tough to find apricots like they used to grow around that country too.

Great photos. Back in the day when the commutes got the job done without all the fancy stuff.

sphogger

sagehen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CarolVoss Wrote:
> > Correction, Stan---it was "the Valley of
> Heart's
> > Delight" and that was even one of the brands of
> > Richmond Chase which became part of California
> > Canners and Growers.
> > C.
>
> D'oh! You are right, Carol. I have a very old
> Santa Clara Valley tourist brochure laying around
> somewhere with that slogan on it.
>
> Remember how sickly sweet the air smelled when
> prunes were being dried (I'm old school: dried
> prunes come from fresh prunes)? My friend and I
> would ride our bikes to downtown Campbell to watch
> the afternoon switcher go about its work and get
> headaches from the pungent smell. We'd sit on top
> of a boxcar parked on the roofing materials siding
> watching the switching crew work and get no
> hassles. If we waited past dinnertime, we'd get
> to see the evening commute off the Los Altos
> Branch head home to the depot yard in San Jose ...
> a GP9 and at least 6 gallery cars.
>
> Stan

Well, as former prune growers (and pickers) and Carl was on the Sunsweet BOD for some years, I can safely say that technically speaking, on the trees they are plums but dried they are prunes. Some years back the prune growers went to all kinds of trouble to get rid of the word prunes and their laxative connotation and got them officially renamed "dried plums". However, I read recently that the latest Sunsweet product called "One's" which are individually wrapped PRUNES are being called prunes on the package and not dried plums. Alas, a few years ago we pulled out the last of our prune orchards in Ceres and are no longer prune growers/pickers, though Carl's brother still is over there. Sunsweet was founded in San Jose/Campbell but is now headquartered in Yuba City.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

I too remember the sickly sweet smell of drying prunes in Campbell. I remember my mother driving me home from St. Lucy's school along Railroad Avenue and the smell hitting me like a ton of bricks - until we hit a lot with stacks and stacks of shingles just before Campbell Avenue. That wood smell was always welcomed.

rattenne Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I too remember the sickly sweet smell of drying
> prunes in Campbell. I remember my mother driving
> me home from St. Lucy's school along Railroad
> Avenue and the smell hitting me like a ton of
> bricks - until we hit a lot with stacks and stacks
> of shingles just before Campbell Avenue. That wood
> smell was always welcomed.

St.Lucy's?? jeez. That parish didn't even exist when Carl and I were at St. Leo's and St. Patrick's respectively!! Didn't realize you were such a kid, Ken!! :-)
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

St Lucy's was around when we moved to San Jose in 1957 from Santa Clara. I went to 7th and 8th grade there only - graduating in 1963.

rattenne Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> St Lucy's was around when we moved to San Jose in
> 1957 from Santa Clara. I went to 7th and 8th grade
> there only - graduating in 1963.

Carl graduated from St. Leo's in '49 and I graduated from St. Pat's in '50. There are 23 of us still alive and well from my St. Pat's class and 12 of us are getting together for our annual lunch reunion on the March 17---this year at the venerable OJ's on First and San Carlos which also didn't exist when we were in grammar school OR high school!! Established 1957. :-)
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

scooter Wrote:

> Great shots! Takes me back in time. Say, is that
> a GP-9 or an SD9?

A ladder on the front of the nose instead of individual grab irons suggests an SD9 on the point.

...and Sunsweet seems to be proving Stan Freberg wrong. Forty four years and they still haven't gotten rid of the wrinkles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiC9IBNlrGw

This article in today's Murky sums up the story of the Valley of Heart's Delight morphing into Silly Valley

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_17415840?nclick_check=1

Walter Lester is quite the character and the last "hold out" from a bygone era.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

The original St. Lucy's church was located at the corner of Third St. and Rincon Ave. in downtown Campbell. The Priest's house was next door, on Rincon. The exact date of the founding of the parish can probably be easily determined, but I know the "Catholic Church" was there in the '40s, because I rode my bicyle right by it on my way to my Grandmother's house on 2nd st. Back on topic, I remember well the fragrance of the drying prunes and the roar or the dehydrator furnaces during the fall months. The school year started in mid-September to allow time for the many farm families in the area to finish the "prune picking." 0-6-0 switchers worked the Ainsley (later Hunt's Foods) cannery, Heavy Pacific 4-6-2's brought the Los Gatos commuter run through in the evening, and the Campbell Ave. Wig-wag got a good work out. Ah, for the way it was.

Allan Blaine
Lincoln Hills, Ca