Steam & Excursion > With Her Bell Ringing, This Steam Locomotive Leaves The Station!

The year is 1937 and the engineer on AT&SF's 4-6-2 #1368 has been given the signal that he can depart Santa Fe's Oakland station.  With the bell in full swing he releases the brakes on the train and starts on his run.

In just a few moments, the station and the palm tree would be all alone again, and the only sounds left would be the fading whistle of #1368 as she made her way out of town.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/19 04:43 by LoggerHogger.

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I would bet that the Palm tree is still their and growing tall not so sure about the station.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/19 06:38 by czuleget.

Not too good at places down there too many cars and people but sees when I was somewhat lost in Santa Clara there was a similar station I found while there. Honest dont know exaclty where I was gps only tells so much. Boyd in Chiloquin

Great picture, with much to soak in as usual.  The baggage car almost looks like a car body on a flat car.  Is that perhaps a wooden truss car converted?   And then it looks like a lightweight Budd car 4 cars back. 

Tominde Wrote:
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> The baggage car almost looks like a car body on a
> flat car.  Is that perhaps a wooden truss car
> converted?

Yes.  You could buy underframe "kits" for that!

-LD

< < < I would bet that the Palm tree is still their and growing tall not so sure about the station. > > >
The palm tree, as well as everything else in this photo, is long gone.  A Panda Express occupies the former depot site.
Anybody hazard to guess what train this is?  Judging from the palm tree shadow, it is a morning shot.
 

I'm not a "car" guy (autos excepted of course) but I recall that is called a "fish belly" underframe. I also vaguely recall Santa Fe was known for the exposed frame side sills on their heavyweights. Can anyone add to this? Corrections welcome. As usual, no flames no trolls please.

Have fun, be safe
Bruce "Doc" Jones  Sierra Madre CA

Below is a USGS map dated 1949 showing the location of the station, at San Pablo Avenue and 40th St. (or where 40th would intersect San Pablo if there weren't so many Key System tracks in the way).  The street in the foreground of the photo is San Pablo.  The street marked 4-lane, exiting the map frame on the left, is the approach to the Oakland Bay Bridge, which was built on top of the Key System Mole.  At that time the Key System trains were running on the lower deck of the bridge, so I presume the Santa Fe station was a good location for connection to San Francisco.

Today, the area is unrecognizable relative to the photo.  As far as I can tell, all traces of the rail lines are gone, and the beautiful Spanish Colonial station was demolished over 50 years ago.  The neighborhood seems to be largely high density housing and parking lots.

Edit: To be more accurate, the approach highway to the Bay Bridge wasn't built on top of the Key System Mole, but on new fill right alongside it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/19 12:51 by Elesco.

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Key trains continued to run to the Pier
for a couple years after the Bay Bridge opened.
(Guess that extra bend in the Bridge was
to clear the Key Pier?)

timz Wrote:
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> Key trains continued to run to the Pier
> for a couple years after the Bay Bridge opened.
> (Guess that extra bend in the Bridge was
> to clear the Key Pier?)

Definitely yes regarding the extra bend in the bridge.  I couldn't find a map showing both the bridge and the Key System pier, but this photo makes it clear.

Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library

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That baggage car construction was normal for Santa Fe.
As to the train, both the summer and fall timetable of 1937 shows it as train 2 the Northern California section of the the "Scout".

Departed 40th and San Pablo 10:59 am, marking every station stop to Barstow, arriving at 11:05 pm.  Train 2 from Los Angeles departed Barstow at  11:30 PM.

TT shows a through coach Oakland to Kansas City, so with the new Budd 3070-3101 series started to be delivered in 1937, that could be one of those cars.  Maybe the 3070, the first Budd for the Santa Fe.

This series of coaches were used for the New Golden Gate Trains  Oakland - Bakersfield, San Diego  LA - San Diego in 1938, along with the Scout and El Capitan .

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/19 12:48 by mundo.