Nostalgia & History > Bayshore Shops - Archaeological Site?

A week or so ago Brett, Cris and I spent a while at the ruins of the old Bayshore passenger car shops. What we found took a while to sink in - at a few spots broken through in the floor of the shops, probably done during demolition, we found trestle tops - huge timbers, way bigger than normal ties, with 60 lb rail, still spiked to gauge, under the floor of the shop. The only thing we can figure is that these have to be some of the trestles used around 1904-1907 during the filling in of the bay. The tops were in amazingly great shape, having been buried under the shops for over 100 years. The timbers didn't show up too well in the photos, but standing there, they were quite obvious, especially in certain spots.

Hope you enjoyed.

Walter
Sanfranciscotrains.org

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Interesting. Any photos of the area itself to show location?
Dave

dmaffei Wrote:
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> Interesting. Any photos of the area itself to show
> location?
> Dave


Yes, and no. I took a chance and "borrowed" a Google Earth image, (Sorry Google) and lined in a couple of spots. The two pics were taken near the center "line" I added. The other lines are general areas where the floor is broken thru, and trestle can clearly be seen, running generally north - south. If I ever get time, I'm thinking of digging up a bit in the shop's old "garden", to see if trestle extends outward. Might be a while before I get around to that. Please keep in mind, the lines are really generic, and not exact, spot-on locations.

Thanks

Walter
Sanfranciscotrains.org



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/14 10:18 by drumwrencher.

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Wondering if what you found was old fill trestles to help fill the bay??? Signors Western Division book has a photo of the bridge on the main line in that location if I remember right...

dmaffei Wrote:
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> Wondering if what you found was old fill trestles
> to help fill the bay??? Signors Western Division
> book has a photo of the bridge on the main line in
> that location if I remember right...


I'm pretty sure that's what we found - fill trestles. I haven't had time yet to take measurements, but the trestles appear about 50-ish feet apart. I have to imagine the Espee used contractors to actually fill in the bay, so I don't know if they (the contractor) used established railroad specs (if such specs even exist), or if they just trestle'd, dumped, filled, and trestle'd again wherever they felt like... Either way, it's an unexpected find.

Thanks again

Walter
Sanfranciscotrains.org

Looks like a great location for some rail transit oriented development. What is the hang-up? Is the Bayshore Yard site a brownfield requiring remediation? Does UP still own the property?

BSB

BigSkyBlue Wrote:
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> Looks like a great location for some rail transit
> oriented development. What is the hang-up? Is
> the Bayshore Yard site a brownfield requiring
> remediation? Does UP still own the property?
>
> BSB


Long, long story - the shortest I can condense it is Brisbane doesn't want it "in their backyard", so they won't okay the plans. That ain't exactly it, but it's close. Some is brownfield, at least the old Schlage Lock site, but the rail yards were not as polluted as you might think - especially when compared to the nasty chrome-making chemicals Schlage plumed off for decades. I understand remediation is ongoing at Schlage.

SP sold the property to a holding company in 1989.

Walter
Sanfranciscotrains.org

I found a tie with a date nail in it the other day at Bayshore! It's cool to find this old stuff.

sliderslider Wrote:
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> I found a tie with a date nail in it the other day
> at Bayshore! It's cool to find this old stuff.


Okay, sliderslider, how's about coming out and lending a hand sometime? We could use all the help we can get!

Walter
Sanfranciscotrains.org

PS What was the date?