Nostalgia & History > Pre-drone foaming Stockton, CA

These aerial obliques of Stockton, CA are part of the Vernon Sappers collection at the Western Railway Museum Archives.  The photographer and date are unknown, but these two negatives are part of a larger set concentrating on downtown Stockton, the Port of Stockton, and some industrial areas.  It's a fair bet that whoever took these photos wasn't flying around shooting 4x5's just to railfan, and unfortunately the area around Stockton Tower #2 isn't covered by the negatives in the set.  However, by chance or by design, the SP and WP depots and associated facilities wound up at the very bottom edge of two of the negatives. 

69191: A blowup of this negative shows the 1930-vintage brick SP depot with a steam-powered eastbound passenger train just departing (make that "timetable eastbound" - the view looks west-southwest, with geographic south to the left and north to the right).  SP's small enginehouse and turntable across the tracks from the depot can be seen at lower right.  At the left edge along the SP main is a portion of the old SP passenger depot, and in the lower left corner is Stockton Tower #3 (Weber Ave.) where SP's secondary line to Oakdale, Montpelier, and Merced crossed the WP main line.

69190: By the time the photographer snapped the shutter again, the passenger train was between Lindsay and Fremont St.  Stockton Tower #3 is again at the lower left corner.

69190: Same negative, but blowing up the portion to the left of the previous detail view such that Stockton Tower #3 is now at the lower right corner.  South of Weber Ave., the WP passenger depot is visible along the bottom edge of the frame, and above it is the old SP depot that dated from 1909.  An SP switcher can be seen waiting at the signal bridge between Main and Market St., and below and to the left of that is the SP freight depot.  Also worth noting is the Stockton Electric streetcar on Main St., which puts the date some time before 1941.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/15 03:18 by Evan_Werkema.

---

---

---

Just for reference, this is what negative 69190 looks like in its entirety (4x5 in):
 

---

Boy, they have some great pictures.  Thanks for the post.

With SP's large freight yard a couple of miles to the south, I never understood why the turntable was installed here. Stockton was never a major passenger terminal, despite have a large brick depot very much like the one at San Jose, where passenger activity has always been high. Thanks for posting these great pictures.  

​​ I did not know there were 2 tracks on the WP portion of the subway. Evan, the Miner Avenue subway was VERY narrow and was only the basic two lane affair.  So, the city of Stockton closed the subway in 1977.  Construction took 3 years to complete and was opened in August, 1980.  In photo #2. The silver building in the lower corner is the Union Ice Company.  The building was destroyed last year in a fire. 
For those who don't know, downtown Stockton was the yard until SP built the new year in south Stockton in the 1920's. 
Evan, I hope you have some old Central California Traction Company.  Thanks for posting.