Nostalgia & History > Oakland, CA, July, 1982

For those who have followed the MDO Chronicles have repeatedly read how much business had dropped in Oakland and across the SP system by the summer of 1982. I had posted a few 24 hours of Oakland traffic in the past, showing a healthy movement of trains through the Oakland Terminal. Now we come to Saturday, July 24, 1982, a random day picked to show how much traffic had fallen.

3204E OACHT Departed the W/O Ramp at 12:02a
3207E 1/CPEFF Departed the W/O Ramp at 1:40a
No Eng # WJRVP Mainline crew change between Midnight and 5a
8827W Webster Turn Arr 5:15a Crew Change at 10th St-Desert Yard
8827E OAWJS Dep 6:40a Cal-P Beets to Spreckles Sugar-Salinas
8505E 1/OASJU Dep 6:50a Homestead Yard
ATK 11 Arr 7:20a 16th St
ATK 12 Dep 7:50a 16th St
ATK 708 Dep 8a 16th St
4340W WJRVQ Arr 8:10a Freight Lead One Empty Beets
3858E Davis Turn Dep 9:05a West Oakland Yard.. Peddler up the Cal-P
9345E OABRT Dep 9:55a W/O Ramp.. Old 378 about 11 hours off schedule and half empty lumber fill along with a few autos and pigs
2684E Hayward Turn Dep 11:00a Homestead Yard
3199E 2/CPEFF Dep 11:10a W/O Ramp... APL Train to the East
4384W SJOAU Arr 11:30a Homestead Yard
8508W UPSFF(23) Arr 12:10p West Oakland Yard.. All City traffic forwarded the next day on a OASFY
ATK 711 Arr 12:30p 16th St
8511W BROAT Arr 12:45p West Oakland Yard
9224W AVBAT Arr 12:50p Freight Line One.. all Sealand/SeaTrain containers up the Coast. Hauled back to the ramp as space permitted.
3197E 1/OARVV Dep 12:55p West Oakland Yard, p/u in Emeryville Yard
Departed at 2:30p
ATK 296 Number 6 Dep 1:05p 16th St
2684W Hayward Local Arr 1:10p W/O Ramp, Tie pile 13
4384E BAESY Dep 2:40p West Oakland Yard via Tracy
7421W RVOAY/RVWJY Arr 2:55p West Oakland Yard
3858W Davis Turn Arr 3:15p West Oakland Yard
8508E 2/OARVV Dep 4:30p West Oakland Yard p/u on Freight Line Two at the Desert Yard
ATK 710 Dep 4:45p 16th St
ATK 316 Number 5 Arr 5:35p 16th St 1:55 late
9224E Webster Turn Dep 6:20p West Oakland Yard cabhop to Cal-P beet loaders
8317W ESBAT Arr 8:25p W/O Ramp and Yard
ATK 13 Arr 8:50p 16th St
ATK 14 Dep 9:20p 16th St
3202W UPSFF(24)/CPWFF/CHOAT Arr 10:05p West Oakland Yard.. All the Overland Traffic in one train, no autoparts as plants have shut down
ATK 709 Arr 10:20p 16th St
8325E OASJY Dep 11:15p Homestead Yard
9224W Webster Turn Arr 11:50p Freight Line Two. Not much work at the beet loaders. End of Campaign. Spreckles took in its last loads of beets two days later

Where in the world do you get all of that old train movement information.

The Owl

July '82 - were we into a recession at that point? I remember traffic thinning out considerably in the early 80's resulting in the trailer park at Taylor yard with many northerners including numerous Oregonian's migrating south to work LA. But there was also an overall downtrend in the traffic in and out of the Bay Area that ended up handfuld of jobs we have now. I remember the rumors about so and so Asst Supt being charged with ending pool freight traffic into Bayshore, they certainly turned out to be accurate. I recently saw the current UP equivalent of the SP Spins book, it showed many many abandoned spurs on the former Western Div. Not sure how the recession and the larger picture coincided. I hope MDO addresses the big picture at some point if I haven't missed it. Those of us at the bottom of the food chain used to accuse SP of "running off" traffic but at this point I would guess it was inevitable?

sphogger

They called it a recession-depression. Linda Nieman spoke about the "trailer city" in the LA yards and others yards with all the northern guys heading south bumping those in Texas, Arizona and SoCal. I used to leave the radio on all the time and a notebook..

Of these symbols what was CP (Central Pacific??) and EF in the CPEFF?

SP wasn't the only railroad that saw traffic plummet. In October of 1982 I made a Saturday trip to the Feather River and saw the Inside Gateway train come off the hi-line in the morning and a through local going east mid-morning and that was it for the entire day (and it wasn't because there was a derailment somewhere).

Earlier in the summer of '82 we stopped at the Lordsburg depot (it was still standing) on the Sunset Route in the late afternoon and asked the operator for a line-up. The next train wasn't due for 11 hours, and again, not because of a derailment.

Ya, 1982 was the low point.

CPEFF and CPWFF were the old OAOAF (BAX) and UPSFT respectively. CP stood for Central Pacific. Have no idea why the Central Pacific symbol, perhaps to keep shippers happy that the SP-UP gateway was still open

CP, I think was for the "Cal-P" as the double track is called from Oakland to Sacramento.



Nudge

sphogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Not sure how the
> recession and the larger picture coincided. I
> hope MDO addresses the big picture at some point
> if I haven't missed it. Those of us at the bottom
> of the food chain used to accuse SP of "running
> off" traffic but at this point I would guess it
> was inevitable?

You have not missed that part. We are just starting in on the changes to the SP in the 1980's Hide and watch.

mdo

sphogger Wrote:
> ...Those of us at the bottom of the food chain used to accuse
> SP of "running off" traffic but at this point I would guess it
> was inevitable?
> sphogger

In 1982 or 1983 I met with the manager of the Lucky Stores distribution center near Vacaville, CA (where product was brought in from Portland, Oregon for Nor. Calif. store distribution) regarding some damage caused by an SP switching move within their facility. There were 3 unloading tracks within the Lucky center. Not one track had a single railcar on it. There must have been 40 or more semi-trailers backed up to the warehouse dock and in the process of being unloaded. As soon as I got back to Oakland I met with the District Sales Mgr. to ask why SP wasn't getting some of that business. I was told that I would not understand the reasons and none were offered. And I still don't understand. Later those tracks were removed. Am still wondering whether SP ran off that customer.

Westbound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sphogger Wrote:
> > ...Those of us at the bottom of the food
> chain used to accuse
> > SP of "running off" traffic but at this point
> I would guess it
> > was inevitable?
> > sphogger
>
> In 1982 or 1983 I met with the manager of the
> Lucky Stores distribution center near Vacaville,
> CA (where product was brought in from Portland,
> Oregon for Nor. Calif. store distribution)
> regarding some damage caused by an SP switching
> move within their facility. There were 3 unloading
> tracks within the Lucky center. Not one track had
> a single railcar on it. There must have been 40 or
> more semi-trailers backed up to the warehouse dock
> and in the process of being unloaded. As soon as I
> got back to Oakland I met with the District Sales
> Mgr. to ask why SP wasn't getting some of that
> business. I was told that I would not understand
> the reasons and none were offered. And I still
> don't understand. Later those tracks were removed.
> Am still wondering whether SP ran off that
> customer.
>

One of the reasons, and I emphasize ONE, was that prior to "abandoning" (running off?) the Lucky Distribution Center, located at the end of a then 12 mile branch, a large number of cars were coming from Kelloggs in Mulford (Bay Area), and this short-haul, low revenue move was costing the company $$$. For a branch line that was going to need a major overhaul just to keep cars on the track, it wasn't worth it.