Steam & Excursion > Berkeley, CA: These Aren't Steam Engines Are They?

These aren't steam engines are they? This is a 1950 aerial view of a lot across the SP main from the Berkeley freight station. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/24 12:04 by phthithu.

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Looks like 2 steam locos + tenders & 2 ( short ) passenger cars?
Thats my guess ..

W.

 

phthithu Wrote:

> These aren't steam engines are they?

Probably Virginia & Truckee 2-4-0 #21 J.W. Bowker, 2-6-0 #13 Empire, and a couple of V&T passenger cars, by then owned by the Pacific Coast Chapter R&LHS.  They were stored in Berkeley behind a tall fence in the 1940's to hide them from wartime scrap drives according to photo descriptions in the Western Railway Museum Archives' database.  The descriptions indicate the locomotives and cars were moved out in 1949, so that aerial photo may be a little older than 1950.  I could also be wrong on the identification, but I don't know of any other steam locomotives "hidden" in Berkeley during that time frame.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> phthithu Wrote:
>
> > These aren't steam engines are they?
>
> Probably Virginia & Truckee 2-4-0 #21 J.W. Bowker,
> 2-6-0 #13 Empire, and a couple of V&T passenger
> cars, by then owned by the Pacific Coast Chapter
> R&LHS.  They were stored in Berkeley behind a
> tall fence in the 1940's to hide them from wartime
> scrap drives according to photo descriptions in
> the Western Railway Museum Archives' database. 
> The descriptions indicate the locomotives and cars
> were moved out in 1949, so that aerial photo may
> be a little older than 1950.  I could also be
> wrong on the identification, but I don't know of
> any other steam locomotives "hidden" in Berkeley
> during that time frame.

Thanks, Evan. Sure seems to be a bingo. 

That's some great detective work there.  I have never heard about this.

Would that be the equipment that was used for the 1939-40 fair on Treasure Island ?  

I had trouble figuring out the image. The obvious answer that it was a fence escaped me,

It's quite a story!

The WRM photo index is a pretty good reference tool. Was useful on the Flying Scotsman for example.