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Railroaders' Nostalgia > Port Costa on the SPDate: 09/21/16 16:32 Port Costa on the SP Author: Westbound Port Costa, milepost 31.1 on Southern Pacific's Western Division, was once a fascinating, complex station alongside the Carquinez Straits (eastern San Francisco Bay). A few years after steam power ended, the place was abandoned and all structures and tracks were gradually removed, leaving nothing behind but a large patch of extremely rough potholes in a very quiet little town. Later, a chain-link fence was built alongside the railroad right-of-way, restricting access to the tracks to railroad employees and vehicles, with the gate kept closed and locked. Fishermen found other ways to walk to the bay but did not cause a problem. The first time I got away with leaving the gate open when I used the access road to get to a spot approaching Nevada Docks, thus did not have to get out of the car to re-open it upon my return. But the second time I did this, I found a car near the tracks and had to search for the motorist who had driven in, not realizing that his car was about to be trapped. Did not make that mistake again.
Great photos and drawings have been published of Port Costa, but none with full detail. I always thought SP owned the land there, but perhaps not. This is an April 13, 1951 copy of the Port Costa Franchise, showing tracks, structures and even the names of the home owners (Dricksen, Young, Donovan and Buckley) at the west end of the property. In order to show all of the rail yard, the two copies overlap. I never found the next drawing west, which would have shown the tracks and structures for the old ferry terminal.   Date: 09/21/16 18:49 Re: Port Costa on the SP Author: atsf121 Way cool. Have been down there once or twice, it's such an isolated place in the Bay Area.
Nathan Posted from iPhone Date: 09/21/16 21:24 Re: Port Costa on the SP Author: Larry020 Now that's incredible! At about the same time that you posted this wonderful information, I was at the club unpacking a donation, the donation included among other things two Port Costa two stall roundhouses in HO Scale.
Larry Date: 09/22/16 11:12 Re: Port Costa on the SP Author: Larry020 Arcadia published a nice photo history of Port Costa. More information is available at the Contra Costa County History Museum in Martinez.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/16 16:39 by Larry020. Date: 09/22/16 20:33 Re: Port Costa on the SP Author: kilroydiver These are Southern Pacific maps, the hand drawn flag with the location name in it is the dead giveaway of their heritage.
Sanborn maps look completly different than these and would have the Sanborn name on the map. Dave Date: 09/23/16 15:26 Re: Port Costa on the SP Author: hogheaded Here's a Sanborn copy that I have of Port Costa, though it is from much earlier - 1889. The ferry slips no doubt changed over the years, but at least you can see their proximity to the roundhouse.
EO   Date: 09/25/16 12:48 Re: Port Costa on the SP Author: Westbound A very fine article about Port Costa, including a hand drawn map and photos of steam activity from 1956, may be found in issue #52 (Summer 1997) of SP Trainline magazine. The multi-page article also covers the huge Martinez Bridge. This is the publication of the SP Historical & Technical Society, a magazine that continues to be first class.
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