Nostalgia & History > Traction Action: Berkeley, Calif. F-train

Not too far from the scene in this recent post:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3533896,3533896#3533896

was the Eunice Street bridge. A low bridge for street traffic. I wonder how often it was hit by a truck?

Slightly north of Eunice St. was the scene shown here:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3477154,3477154#3477154

The little Eunice St. bridge was built by SP for their electric train service. They even had a small yard one block railroad west of the bridge. When Key began running their F line on those tracks, the pocket yard was ripped out and it was a vacant lot for years.

After Key trains were discontinued in 1958 the bridge was removed and the right of way became a wide street. Eunice Street then dead-ended where the bridge once was.

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Nice one! Thanks for posting.

Here are a couple of inbound trains at Eunice St. from the IER era from the Western Railway Museum Archives. The first is an Addison Laflin shot from 1940; the second is undated and unattributed. Love those lower quadrant semaphores.

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Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Love those lower quadrant semaphores.

Those things are rare as hell. They're electrically operated instead of pneumatically (a number of the pneumatic dwards are around). I've only seen one, and it was a single-arm at the Strasburg Rail Museum in Pennsylvania about 14 years ago. I had larceny in my heart.

A friend who worked as a signal maintainer in San Jose once told me the model, but I can't recall. He also said they were the first things the Key scrapped, all of them, in the process of adapting the line in Berkeley to 600v.

Edited to add:

I wonder whether these were the kind on the signal bridge between WO and Kirkham St yard (see other thread).

-and-

>the second is undated and unattributed.

I think it's a Waldemar Sievers pic.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/14 22:10 by EtoinShrdlu.

Too bad the numbers on the IER cars are illegible--it would be interesting to see if they among those that went to Pacific Electric.