Steam & Excursion > Most All Of These Forms Of Transportation Are Now Long Gone!

Be it the old cars, the Key Line Electric or the steam powered passenger train shown here at Adeline and Ashby Avenues in April, 1954, they all have passed into history.

Let's take a minute to look and remember the times when these were so very common.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/20 04:26 by LoggerHogger.

---

Looks like a few Pre-War classics parked there.

Posted from iPhone

The common denominator for their demise...costs.

Is that a railroad signal over steam engine tender??

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is that a railroad signal over steam engine
> tender??

And there is another item on the same line beside the other one too.
 

Drknow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looks like a few Pre-War classics parked there.
>
And a Korean War era Studebaker Starlight Coupe trying to decide if it's going forward or backward.

This is another view of the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association's excursion of April 4, 1954 that toured bits of SP's former electric empire in the East Bay.  The flyer and more photos can be found in this old thread

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3540086

That old thread includes a color view of this same photo stop:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3540086,3540456#3540456

tomstp Wrote:

> Is that a railroad signal over steam engine tender??

The round object over the steam locomotive is a Key System sign that says "Trains Stop Here."  A similar sign can be seen in this old thread:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4401132

The rectangular object above the Key System train is the sign indicating this is their Ashby Ave. stop.  Prior to 1933, Key System and SP both had double-track electric lines here, but a consolidation that year saw Key abandon their line to Berkeley beyond Alcatraz Ave.  When SP shut down their electric lines in the Bay Area in 1941, they retained and single-tracked the portion of their line from the main line junction at Shellmound in Emeryville up to Dwight Way in Berkeley to serve a freight house and lumber yard.  Key System took over the SP double track on Shattuck Ave. north from Dwight Way to The Alameda, and rebuilt a single line from Alcatraz Ave. to Dwight Way to connect to their existing F Line.  In the photo, the San Francisco-bound Key System train is on that single track line, while the excursion is on the single track SP line. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/20 10:29 by Evan_Werkema.

My Dad had a Studebaker like the one on the left. But by April 1954 he had bought a new 1953 Studebaker President. Studebakers were excellent cars. Highly under rated.
Bill Pyper
Lacey, WA
 

Guess the SP single track must be the former Key westward track?

timz Wrote:

> Guess the SP single track must be the former Key
> westward track?

That seems unlikely considering the Key System tracks at this spot were gone between 1933 and 1941 while SP still had their double track line in place.  The first photo in this old thread shows the newly rebuilt Key single track at Adeline and Essex in 1941 while the SP double track was still in place:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2128347

Photos from 1949 in this old thread show the Key System line converging from double to single at Adeline and Alcatraz.  The parallel SP single track is pretty clearly separate and not one of the former Key tracks.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3552219

So much history captured in one photo!
Bob

KMiddlebrook Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The common denominator for their demise...costs.

Passenger trains are still around in the Bay Area
Urban transit systems are very much still around in the Bay Area
Automobiles are also very much still around.

The forms of transportation are not long gone.  They all became modernized.
 

Back in the early 50s in NYC my bro and me called  Studebakers "coming and going cars."! 8^))

Was it April 4th 1954, or April 8th, 1956 as this photo's caption reads? Two seperate but similar excursions?


Photo from http://www.keyrailpix.org/gallery2/v/keyrailmain/album03/SPSteam_Key_SoBerkeley.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/20 05:54 by Arved.

---

Arved Wrote:

> Was it April 4th 1954, or April 8th, 1956 as this
> photo's caption reads? Two seperate but similar
> excursions?

Two separate but similar excursions.  The most recent thread covering the 1956 trip was back in January and included the flyer and links to more threads with more photos:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4947984

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> KMiddlebrook Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The common denominator for their
> demise...costs.
>
> Passenger trains are still around in the Bay Area
> Urban transit systems are very much still around
> in the Bay Area
> Automobiles are also very much still around.
>
> The forms of transportation are not long gone. 
> They all became modernized.

Very good point.