Western Railroad Discussion > Another Piece of San Francisco Trackage without Trains?

That would be the Carroll Street Lead in the very southern part of the city of San Francisco. The last customer United Cold Storage quit using rail service some time ago. Here is a couple shots from the last short section to see rail service. Interesting enough there is an interlocker where UP/SP crosses the Muni "T" Line. Bill Webb

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This was the line that went towards hunters point? What a disgrace that the City received and shipped over 500 freight cars aday, and its all gone but the dirt. 

UP 2500 series..GP40  MPI rebuild to a GP38.......  They have been gone for at least 15 years now?

 SPINS Zone 13 circa 1966.  All gone now......

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I rode my bike down Carroll Ave last year and the tracks were still there, from what I recall. Like much of the Bay Area, carload traffic has disappeared.

Nice pictures, spider. 



One of the things the TO user formerly known as espeeboy commented about that shipper is that the smaller size (term for this?) reefers have been reaching the end of their service lives and they aren't making more of them whereas the bigger hy-cube reefers can't be taken into the city due to height restrictions (tunnel clearance). Another thing, which I recall reading on Facebook, is that at some point around 2017-18 the UP started having a hard time to reaching the business due to a landowner on the lead fouling the tracks inside their property and also cars being parking in the foul on the cold storage spur. The latter had to do with a business opening up in the area and demand for parking increasing significantly.

Attachments:

1) trackmap view showing the cold storage place on the left. On the right across street was a furniture importer that TO user FJC enjoyed catching moves to through the 90's. Boxcars. 
2) streetview from Google Earth showing the lead at the beginning of Carroll Ave. This was the place that was a problem for the UP but this picture shows that problem may have been abated.
3) view of the switcher crossing 3rd St. back as they drilled on the Coke lead in 2015.   

  



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/24 21:04 by phthithu.

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wpdude Wrote:
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> This was the line that went towards hunters point?
> What a disgrace that the City received and shipped
> over 500 freight cars aday, and its all gone but
> the dirt. 

They got Darling back to using rail also. Tallow and dirt. 100% loads being shipped out of the city who would have thought that. 

Drove through there on a Sunuday morning and was impressed with all the SF architecture and the number of large warehouses. Interesting to hear the background info and see the maps, Eventually found Hunter's Point and the construction area, interesting drive.

There's also lots of older photos in the SF History website:

https://opensfhistory.org/NeighborhoodPhotos/

I remember when I made my first effort at catching the dirt train I drove from Cargo Way (where the dirty dirt yard is) down 3rd St. toward Bayshore and passed by the Coke lead(Carrol Ave.) and saw these tracks and thought to myself too bad those aren't used anymore. Had the same thought around same time when exploring the South San Francisco industrial park and came across the lead crossing Grand Ave. Of course both of these leads were still seeing trains at that point (2014) alas someone retracing my footsteps today and having the same thoughts would basically be making sound assumptions as to traffic on these leads, sadly. 

Here's a video of me perusing a 2000 aerial looking for evidence of rails. There appears to be cars at the furniture shipper across Carroll from the Cold Storage. Also take a look at the Coke plant which looks to have been abandoned by 2000--was adjacent to the main lines. And then trace the lead out to Hunter's Point and the GGRM's yard inside the confines of the decommissioned Navy base. 

The 2000 aerial can be downloaded via this link: https://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_images/hm-2000-usa/hm-2000-usa_1123-137.tif

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Thank you for the additional information. Now,I know the rest of the story. Bill Webb

Here are some photos from my archive dated 9/3/2005, so exactly 19 years ago. Wow!

This series was made when California State Railroad Museum sent their locomotives to pick up SP 2467 for static display from Hunters Point. It was quite an adventure following the train through the streets of San Francisco.

Apologies if the colors are not spot on for these, I didn't have time to align the profiles / color correct. 

Take Care,
Alex Ramos 

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One final frame.

Take Care,
Alex Ramos 

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Great photos. They look fantastic 19 years later. 

Incredible, amazing photos.

Would anyone, any railfan, any SP employee, ever think that a Daylight-painted E9 would ever traverse those weed-choked lines, and cross 3rd Street someday.  People would have thought you're CRAZY.

And yet..........................................it happened.