Steam & Excursion > While This Was Simply A Daily Train It Was Still Worth A Photo!

Morning and afternoon commute trains leaving San Francisco were something that ran with such regularity and in such numbers that it would have been easy for them to have eventually become overlooked all together by railfans.  However, that was not the case and they still found their way onto rolls of film over the years that they ran.

In 1949 Southern Pacific #2491 was captured running under the Mariposa Street Bridge and against the beautiful sunny vista of The City was she proceeded south out of town.  In the distance the Bay Bridge was clearly visible on this bright sunny day along with the skyline of the time for "The City By The Bay".

While the commuters may not have been paying attention to their mode of transportation on their twice-daily commute, we are lucky that at least one railfan bothered to stop and save this once common place scene for all us us to share some 70 years later.



Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/18 03:35 by LoggerHogger.

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Looks a bit different now lol!

Posted from Android

There is a lot going on there.  I see a lot of boxcars in the background--what yard was that?
Also looks like a line of passenger cars in the far background?
What is the tower on the ohter side of the bridge?  What did it control/protect?
It looks like there are two bridges -- is the one closer to the photographer a rail bridge?   What line was on that?
 

You missed the switch engine working in the distance.

Martin

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LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> You missed the switch engine working in the
> distance.


And the roundhouse, which is to the right of the switcher where steam is rising from a resting locomotive.

The location of all the box cars and steam switcher in the background is Mission Bay yard.

The tower is Potrero.

 

Wish I could take a lawn chair and my camera and sit at a suburban stop and listen to the trains come in and blast out.  I used to ride my bike down to the Maplewood, MO depot every evening and watch the MP Pacific do that. 

Tomorrow I have a doctors appointment on the fourth floor of a building right about where the switch engine is.  Mission Bay roundhouse is just off to the right, and that is where I made my date as a Coast Division fireman at 10:59 p.m. July 14, 1959.  Off in the distance are the banana docks where I worked extra switch engines called to switch the long strings of ice reefers when a banana boat came in.  And of course round the clock activity switching the Mission Bay yard.  My timebook shows a lot of 15 hour and 59 minute days in that area.  As others have pointed out, today not much is recognizable.  The waiting room for my doctor overlooks the old roundhouse site, and it is hard to visualize what was once there, not even a recognizable footprint. Heck, since I had to edit some typos, I'll throw in two pix from the roundhouse.  The tracks on the bridge over the SP are ATSF undustrial tracks if I remember correctly.

JBWX



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/18 15:25 by jbwest.

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Great photos and story John.

Martin

Another great photo Martin. Thanks so much for posting these gems!!

Merry Christmas!
Mark V.
Fort Wayne, IN

Posted from iPhone

Nice photo.

However, there have been many photos of SP commute trains on the San Francisco - San Jose line.  Perhaps a reason there were so many is because a photographer could go to a track side location and not have to wait for a long time before a train came along.  If the photographer could spend all day along this line, he or she would be rewarded with many trains.

Loggerhead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Morning and afternoon commute trains leaving San
> Francisco were something that ran with such
> regularity and in such numbers that it would have
> been easy for them to have eventually become
> overlooked all together by rail fans.  However,
> that was not the case and they still found their
> way onto rolls of film over the years that they
> ran.
>
> In 1949 Southern Pacific #2491 was captured
> running under the Marisa Street Bridge and
> against the beautiful sunny vista of The City was
> she proceeded south out of town.  In the distance
> the Bay Bridge was clearly visible on this bright
> sunny day along with the skyline of the time for
> "The City By The Bay".
>
> While the commuters may not have been paying
> attention to their mode of transportation on their
> twice-daily commute, we are lucky that at least
> one rail fan bothered to stop and save this once
> common place scene for all us us to share some 70
> years later.
>
>
>
> Martin

Back in the middle '50s I lived in San Jose and worked for a while at SFO. Co-worker dropped me off at a station and I rode the train home in the afternoon and wlked a few blocks to home. Great experience nice service. Sure beat driving the old Bayshore death trap!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

In the background there is only one bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, with Treasure Island splitting the bridge in the middle.  There were passenger tracks on the lower level.  When this photo was taken, the Key System bridge units were still providing service on 5 lines from Transbay Terminal in SF at First & Mission Streets.  While there was never any freight service on the tracks, two other railroads ran passenger service briefly, when the bridge was built.  The Sacramento Northern Railroad (electric) ran trains from SF to Sacramento and beyond, up to Redding and Chico. The Southern Pacific RR was represented by its subsidiary, the IER.  The IER sormewhat competed with the Key System on a couple of routes.
It's times like these, when typing a similar response, that I miss Key Route Ken, who would have provided a more detailed response than I am capable of.


 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/18 17:53 by norm1153.

Thank you Martin. A big Thumbs Up from me. As a kid in the fifties I used to hang out on the Mariposa Street overpass, right over the mainline. I also would hang out a little further east towards Third Street. From there was a great spot to view Mission Bay Roundhouse and Yard. I took some of my earliest photos from that overpass in 1959. At the very end of steam a buddy and I occsionally would hang out near the Seventh Street lead, which would begin on the other side of the automobile on Mariposa Street at far left. Best spot to watch "The Fleet" go by. I also managed to get some Potrero Tower log books after it closed.
Today the site is almos unrecognizable. The elevated I-280 is above the tracks. The entire Mission Bay area is now filled with medical facilities and much more. I've said enough.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/18 19:08 by TonyJ.

Thanks for the SP 4460 shots :-)

John.

Super 4460 shots !!!