Nostalgia & History > Blossom Time Special

I've been having my father's old movies digitized. I found this scene I took with my father's camera at the San Jose Depot. It's 1962, I think, and the "Blossom Time Special" is being readied to go down the Vasona Branch. After the freight train passes, two passenger geeps arrive from the round house and will head the train of bi-level commute cars followed by Central Coast's private car "Ferroequinologist". This is an annual excursion that will go southwest to Vasona Junction, then hang a hard right and go up the Los Altos Branch to Palo Alto, then back onto the main and return to San Jose. The train got its name from traveling through miles of blooming orchards that dominated the economy before "The Valley of Hearts' Delight" became Silicon Valley.

Stan Praisewater

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Cool! Thanks Stan

Agreed, nice video!

sagehen Wrote:
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> This is an annual excursion
> that will go southwest to Vasona Junction, then
> hang a hard right and go up the Los Altos Branch
> to Palo Alto, then back onto the main and return
> to San Jose. The train got its name from
> traveling through miles of blooming orchards that
> dominated the economy before "The Valley of
> Hearts' Delight" became Silicon Valley.
>
> Stan Praisewater

Hi Stan,
Coincidently, I was contacted last week at the museum by an artist who is hoping to due a rendering of the "Blossom Time Special". SP's version only ran as special charters for a couple of years in the early 1960s before the county took over a large segment of the Los Altos Branch right-of-way to construct Foothill Expressway. The term "Blossom Time Special" goes back to the early 20th century when the Peninsula Railway used to promote interurban circle trips between San Jose, Los Gatos, Saratoga and back to San Jose via Meridian Corners. Interestingly, the San Jose Chamber of Commerce promoted self guided auto trips around the valley as "Blossom Tours" in the early 1950s. These guides included approximate dates when the different crops would be in bloom. Nonetheless, those "miles of blooming orchards" are now just a memory.
Ken