Steam & Excursion > #4449 and AT&T Park

I was at the Giants game today and what game it was! Playoff atmosphere with 42,000 fans screaming on every pitch! Looks like the Giants are not dead after all and are on a roll to take the pennant. I know a lot about the area around AT&T. I lived on Potrero Hill for 20 years from 1968 to 1988. I recorded the last of what was an extensive network of street railroads including State Belt, W.P. ATSF, S.P. and finally UP in 1983. I became an American Freedom Train Volunteer and had the great personal privilege of working on the #4449 and getting to know Doyle and Laurie McCormack on a personal basis. It also afforded me great access to the ex S.P. Daylight engine including its movements. I was able, in most cases to get pictures of the engine without the large crowds which accompanied the engine every where it went. Coming back to the Giants and AT&T Park, I was looking how the landscape has change and then looked at my file to see where shots I took in Dec. 1975, nearly 40 years ago, could be placed today. The first image shows a still standing converted warehouse on King Street between 2nd and 3rd St. (any corrections are appreciated) The second image shows the #4449 on State Belt Trackage with the west end of the China Basin Building across the street from AT&T at Third St. in the background. You can also see the super structure of the Lefty O'doul Bridge. which is at the foot of AT&T Lefty O'doul Gate. The Muni Metro now shares the old ROW where the State Belt Yard was and the re-configured a four lane Embarcadero. Text and Photos by Mike Pechner, COPYRIGHT, 2014. Technical info. Kodak Tri-X 400 ASA F-16 at 250 second.

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That bridge in the 2nd photo look more like the 4th street bridge. Fascinating photos, given that all that trackage is gone now. I'd love to see a film of 4449 crossing the Lefty O" Doul bridge to head down the Embarcadero, all the way to Maritime Park, posing in front of the old Maritime Museum there. Amazing.

Thanks for the correction Coach, Fourth St. Bridge a block west of China Basin Building .

If only an Alco were chugging down the tracks when this was filmed: http://youtu.be/vnhVcuwPI0U?t=5m16s in 1955

Still here's lefty o'doul back in day: http://youtu.be/Dq4EfqDZ1nc?t=1m34s