Steam & Excursion > Back When Steam Trains Came Up The Street To The Station!

Even today, the sight of street-running trains is quite a sight.  These huge pieced of machinery rolling down rails laid into streets normally inhabited by only cars and pedestrians still causes us to stop and take notice.

Now think of a major passenger station in a big city with steam trains arriving daily.  Now you have quite a sight, just like the image we have here.

Back in October 1937, when this fine image was photographed by Ralph Demoro, the approach of a steam powered passenger train at the Western Pacific Station in Oakland, California was a daily occurrence. The locomotive on the head of the approaching train on this fine sunny day is WP #179, one of the recently arrived 4-8-2's from the Florida East Coast Railroad.  With all of the interest that she is attracting from those waiting in front of the station, we can safely assume the train approaching is an excursion train hired by railfans for the day. 

Let' sit back and drink in the scene and hear the sounds as #179 rolls up to the station and comes to a stop with a sharp blast of the whistle indicating she has set her brakes and is ready to board all those who are lucky enough to hold a ticket.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/19 03:23 by LoggerHogger.

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Thanks for posting this Depression era image.  The scene has so many details.  Austere highway action on an Oakland, CA, street.

Darn, I thought I had some photos of the New York Central running through the streets of Syracuse, NY, but I guess they are only in books I own, not mine.

cozephyr Wrote:
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> Thanks for posting this Depression era image.
>  The scene has so many details.  Austere highway
> action on an Oakland, CA, street.

AMEN!!!!
ALLEN

LoggerHogger Wrote:

>  With all of the
> interest that she is attracting from those waiting
> in front of the station, we can safely assume the
> train approaching is an excursion train hired by
> railfans for the day. 

WP 179 and October 1937 lines up with the second-ever excursion sponsored by the California-Nevada Railroad Historical Society, a trip from Oakland to Sacramento that ran on Sunday, October 3, 1937.  The flyer courtesy the Western Railway Museum Archives is in this old thread:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3569268,3571646#3571646

The white flags on the engine, the time of day, and the details of automobile parked to the left also match a Dudley Thickens photo the museum has of this train stopping at Oakland.