Nostalgia & History > More Key System Spur, 26th St, Oakland (Plus a bit more)

A couple days ago, I posted this story about the former Key System 26th st. industrial spur:

 http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4144902

​I didn't think it would receive such favorable responses, but am glad it did. I went back yesterday morning to see if anything interesting might still show up. I'm not sure anything really did, but I'll let you all decide.

​Anyway, thanks to Evan Werkema and the Western Railway Museum Archives, pic 1 is a shot of a leased SN electric motor on what became the Oakland Terminal Railway tracks near 26th & Union. Pic 2 is that intersection today. The switch for the team track is still in the street, and, like so many others, will probably remain there until Oakland decides to repave 26th street. Also is the lead to the other side of the street. As you can see, the current occupant of that facility has an "out" building constructed right across the old lead. I doubt that'll ever change, either.

​There are literally hundreds of broken up tracks in this area - sidings to nowhere, spurs that run a while, disappear under pavement, only to resurface a block or two later, ala pic 3. That's a switch right in front of the Railroad Deli Cafe on 26th near Magnolia. The cafe name almost doesn't fit nowadays.

I didn't want to get into too many small details, but any railfan really should get down there at least once - I think one commenter on my earlier post was right - I'm betting there's more street trackage in West Oakland and other Bay Area sites than just about anywhere. Hell, my dad told me once that in the 1920's, 41 switch engines were dispatched daily from the West Oakland yards to work the many industries... well, at least the SP-served industries...



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/16 02:36 by drumwrencher.

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I actually started out at 26th & Poplar, which, IIRC, was Key's freight main thru the area? Pic one is looking south on Poplar, pic 2 north, and pic 3 is looking up 26th. At one point I was actually asked what I was doing by an Oakland cop. Those are his headlights way back in the distance on pic 3. I guess "Hi, I'm Walter Boland from San Francisco Trains, and we're doing a historical study of Bay Area freight rail trackage" worked, because we spent a while chatting about the whole area - with an admonishment from the officer to "leave before dark"... Don't worry if you do decide to take a trip there - during working hours, there's way more working people than, well... you know.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/16 02:40 by drumwrencher.

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I also decided to head west to 26th & Wood streets, where the "High Switch Stand", also mentioned in the first post, was once located:

​​http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3678792,3679736#msg-3679736

​I tried to recreate my father's photo location, but there's a sizeable homeless tent camp right up against the fence on the west side of the street. Pic 1 and 2 were as close as I dared to get. Pic 3 is looking west at the lead into 26th. Remember, this was an SP-ATSF shared track - not Key System - and it doesn't look like it's been used in a while, either...  Anyway, it's been enough decades since the stand has been removed that I couldn't even find a footing in the mud.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/16 02:29 by drumwrencher.

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Lastly, and maybe a bit off topic, but as long as I was down in the area, I had to pay my respects to an old friend. I drove south on Wood st to the old SP depot at 16th and Wood. I know it's been covered enough, so I'll try not to "dwell" on it here, but suffice it to say I was heartbroken. Last time I was there was in 1986 when the 4449 came thru with what, the "Tough Guys" train?  I don't even remember how many times my dad took the family on a trip to Disneyland on his pass - from this once great depot...

​I understand there's a group trying to restore the old girl. I find myself oddly jealous of them - they at least have a fairly complete building to restore - we at Bayshore are trying to restore a burned out hulk of a roundhouse... aw, hell, never give up!

Enjoy
Walter
Sanfranciscotrains.org
​Facebook - San Francisco Trains



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/16 02:12 by drumwrencher.

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drumwrencher Wrote:

> I actually started out at 26th & Poplar, which,
> IIRC, was Key's freight main thru the area?

The Key didn't have a "freight main," per se. Most of its freight customers other than the Port of Oakland were arrayed along the portion of the A and B transbay lines that traversed Louise, Poplar, and 22nd (West Grand).  Once upon a time, there were also team tracks on the C and E lines, and the C was also used to reach the Sacramento Northern interchange at 40th and Shafter.  When Key System sold its freight franchise (by then operated as the Oakland Terminal Railroad) to Santa Fe and WP in 1943, the Class-1's set up a new shortline called the Oakland Terminal Railway.  The OTRy had trackage rights on the A line as far as the Nabisco plant at 12th and Union, the B line as far as the Bekins warehouse at 22nd and Brush, and the C line to the SN at 40th and Shafter.  A new connection to the WP from 12th and Union in 1957 permitted the abandonment of the SN into Oakland, so when the Key System ceased its transbay rail operations in 1958, the Oakland Terminal Railway didn't need the C line anymore and didn't assume ownership.  They did take possession of the portions of the A and B lines where they had trackage rights.  Deferred maintenance meant the tracks and pavement were in terrible shape on those bits by 1958, and OTRy promptly set about rebuilding and single-tracking the formerly double-track routes on Louise, Poplar, and 22nd.  The OTRy was fully dieselized by 1958 (the SN motors were returned in 1955 and sent to scrap), so the catenary came down, too.

> I also decided to head west to 26th & Wood
> streets, where the "High Switch Stand", also
> mentioned in the first post, was once located
(...)
> Remember, this was an SP-ATSF
> shared track - not Key System - and it doesn't
> look like it's been used in a while, either... 

That switch serves Pyro Minerals through the chain-link gate to the right in photo #4.  After Kloeckner Metals at 20th and Willow closed a few years ago, Pyro became the last of the former OTRy customers on the east side of the UP still taking cars.  I don't know if they are still getting covered hoppers of foundry sand, but they were until a few months ago.  The switch itself probably hasn't been thrown since the OTRy quit, however.  The new contract switcher uses a trackmobile which can "run around" cars on the street and do other things locomotives can't do in order to avoid having to throw a switch.  The submarine switch outside Kloeckner had been spiked and otherwise disabled before the plant closed, and I don't know if the switch at Pyro has been used since the OTRy quit in 2012.

I get the impression that Poplar wasn't popular with railfan photographers even when the Key was still running.  The Western Railway Museum Archives has relatively few photos along that stretch compared to, say, 40th St. or the F line in Berkeley, where the scenery was better.  Consequently, there aren't a lot of photos of the OTRy in action on Poplar in the postwar 1940's and 50's, and even fewer that show OTRy and Key System trains in the same frame of film.  I don't know what OTRy's normal pattern of operations was in the postwar 1940's and 50's - nighttime would make sense to stay out of the way of the bridge trains - but the few photos that do exist demonstrate that they did work in the daytime at least occasionally. 

Photo 68997 below by I.J. Brain from the Western Railway Museum Archives shows an inbound B-line train at about 22nd and Poplar (the wigwag on the left protected the B-line as it diverged from the A-line and turned east toward 22nd), an outbound A-line train on the other track in the distance, and one of the leased SN motors following the B-line train with a cut of cars from the Shredded Wheat plant. 

Photos 88713 and 88718 were taken by an unknown photographer whose hand I'd dearly like to shake, as these photos are the only ones I've seen so far showing OTRy DS-4-4-1000 #101 switching on Poplar in its as-delivered black with orange stripes scheme.  Again, they show the OTRy switching in daylight in between Key trains .

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Thank you Walter and Evan. Being a San Francisco boy I did most of my photography in San Francisco, Bayshore and down on the peninsula, However, I did like the Oakland area as well, and I did occasionally follow along the street trackafe to see what was there. Not knowing rail operations around Wood Street anything I saw in the 1970s-80s (even just abandoned rails) was interesting to me. Somewhere I have a couple of shots of an SP Alco S-6 crossing a diamond in that area, Looking forward to more railroad archaeology from you,

Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for posting these.
Bob

I'm pretty sure the parked Ford stationwagon next to the Baldwin switch is a 1956 model.

pwh Wrote:
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> I'm pretty sure the parked Ford stationwagon next
> to the Baldwin switch is a 1956 model.

I second that thought, but nice photo anyway.

Incredibly interesting post. Thank you.

The GMC truck is at least a late '55 model, and possibly a '56.

Mark

Despite all the years that have passed since this area was active with rail service, it is still quite interesting. As for the potholes, can't say I recognize any of the current ones, but plenty of new ones have certainly "surfaced". 

Many thanks for taking this expedition and posting the results.

That is a 1957 Ford station wagon next to the Baldwin. 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/16 22:43 by norm1153.

Evan -

I can't thank you enough for looking into this. I find it an interesting subject, having grown up in Oakland, but your responses are way over the top.

Thank you, sir.

​Walter

TonyJ Wrote:
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> Thank you Walter and Evan. Being a San Francisco
> boy I did most of my photography in San Francisco,
> Bayshore and down on the peninsula, However, I did
> like the Oakland area as well, and I did
> occasionally follow along the street trackafe to
> see what was there. Not knowing rail operations
> around Wood Street anything I saw in the 1970s-80s
> (even just abandoned rails) was interesting to me.
> Somewhere I have a couple of shots of an SP Alco
> S-6 crossing a diamond in that area, Looking
> forward to more railroad archaeology from you,

​Believe me, Tony, I think​ there may actually be more rails, abandonded or otherwise, in Oakland than even SF. Next time you're down here, you should take a look. Seriously, tho, lock the doors, and be outta there by 3pm...!

Walter

refarkas Wrote:
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> Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for posting these.
> Bob

​My pleasure. Thanks!

Walter

rev66vette Wrote:
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> Incredibly interesting post. Thank you.

You're welcome! I am glad you enjoyed it.

Walter

Westbound Wrote:
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> Despite all the years that have passed since this
> area was active with rail service, it is still
> quite interesting. As for the potholes, can't say
> I recognize any of the current ones, but plenty of
> new ones have certainly "surfaced". 
>
> Many thanks for taking this expedition and posting
> the results.

​My pleasure. I looked in vain for a connecting rail cable, but, as you can tell, they're aren't many "connected" rails anymore. At least not on 26th, which I tried to keep my exploration to (except for the depot, of course)

​Thanks, Westbound.  (And thank you again for bringing the Lark derailment to light for me...!)

Walter