Nostalgia & History > "Crossing Gate Conglomeration"

I keep harping on the wonderful assortment of vehicular and pedestrian crossing gates at the old 23rd Avenue crossing of the railroad in East Oakland, CA just West of East 12th Street.

The gates were manually controlled by an operator in a small tower nearby. The gates were used for passing trains of the Southern Pacific, Western Pacific and the Interurban Electric Railroad. (IER)

There were a number of streets that came together here next to the old "California Cotton Mills" building...

One railfan who remembers this operation, other than myself, stated: "At night, the entire operation resembled a Martian Landing because of the multitude of little red flashing lights on the gate arms" ... (grin)

ENJOY!!

KRK

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Another view of the crossing !!

Cheers.

KRK

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WOW!!
Look at those cars!!!
57 Plymoth Savoy 2 door on the left and the Corvair in the intersection. A motor heads dream! I think Photobob owned all those cars before his Vega. Great stuff Ken. Thanks

dmaffei Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WOW!!
> Look at those cars!!!
> 57 Plymoth Savoy 2 door on the left and the
> Corvair in the intersection. A motor heads dream!
> I think Photobob owned all those cars before his
> Vega. Great stuff Ken. Thanks


That's a '57 Mercury there at the curb, plus a '58 Ford headed towards the camera, across the street is about a '52 Buick Roadmaster, and a '56 Pontiac Chieftain right behind the Buick. The semi looks like a gasoline burning Dodge tractor. Good stuff!

International pickup right next to the tower.

Ken,

Great pictures! More please!

Yardclerk

xtra1188w Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------> That's a '57 Mercury there at the curb, plus a '58
> Ford headed towards the camera, across the street
> is about a '52 Buick Roadmaster, and a '56 Pontiac
> Chieftain right behind the Buick. The semi looks
> like a gasoline burning Dodge tractor. Good
> stuff!

I don't know Con, that looks more like a Hudson coupe in front of the 56 Pontiac to me. I think the city tractor is an International R-180 as well. Of course this is more of an educated guess as the picture is not that clear. Or my eyes aren't near as good at my age!

Butch,,,,,,,,here we go

Is it possible to see the same shot of the intersection now taken from the same angle? That would be a great 'before and after' shot. I love seeing those kinds of photos.

JE

Steamjocky Wrote:

> Is it possible to see the same shot of the
> intersection now taken from the same angle? That
> would be a great 'before and after' shot. I love
> seeing those kinds of photos.

23rd Ave. today crosses the tracks on a curved bridge, BART's elevated right-of-way has been added, and the WP deleted. Just going from memory, I don't recognize any landmarks in Mr. Harder's ground level shots that survive today. Still, the shot of a southbound from the 23rd Ave. bridge looking back toward downtown in the morning is a pretty nice one.

Steamjocky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Is it possible to see the same shot of the
> intersection now taken from the same angle? That
> would be a great 'before and after' shot. I love
> seeing those kinds of photos.


Believe it or not, almost all of the buildings visible in the second shot still stand.

The three-story building on the extreme left has been "work/live" space for years, and a portion of the "Cotton Mill" is visible on the extreme right. It's most recent function was as a storage facility and has just recently been converted to lofts. Most, if not all, of the houses and buildings in the center are still there.

Maybe S Peeboy can post some "now" pictures.

I'll take your word for it - you're down there a lot more often than I am. I'll have to take that image trackside and compare.

Here's Topper working the Long Street back in 2002, as viewed from the 23rd Ave. bridge looking northwest.

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A morning view looking west with downtown Oakland in the background and a relatively on-time #11 in the foreground.

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Looking south from the 23rd Ave. bridge as a Capitol rolls toward Oakland.

---

Also from the bridge looking southeast, a piece of the old, ground-level 23rd Ave. intersects E.12th as a BART train rolls south.

---

Evan-- What are the tracks to the RIGHT of the lattice pole lineup in the photo, time 1213 ?? Are those spurs or sidings?? Some months ago I got into a flame war with a person that did not like me calling the long track a SIDING ...
The GATES of the old 23rd Ave crossing protected this SIDING. It ran right by the Cotton Mills Building.. What is your definition ?

Also, I see that most of the four track mainline was still intact... down to Fruitvale.. TWO Mains-- TWO Electrics. Now only two tracks are present, right?

KRK

KeyRouteKen Wrote:

> Evan-- What are the tracks to the RIGHT of the
> lattice pole lineup in the photo, time 1213 ??
> Are those spurs or sidings??

The track immediately to the right is the lead that turns west at Fruitvale Ave. and once provided access to the Fruitvale bridge and Alameda. It is still used to access the Con Agra plant along the estuary. I don't know its formal name.

As to the next track over, it's a stub end track for a warehouse. I guess I tend to call stub-end industry tracks "spurs," long industrial tracks with spurs off of them "leads" or "drill tracks," and passing tracks connected to a main line at both ends "sidings," but that's just force of habit on my part.

> Also, I see that most of the four track mainline
> was still intact... down to Fruitvale.. TWO
> Mains-- TWO Electrics. Now only two tracks are
> present, right?

I think all the tracks you see there are still present. The two on the far left merge into the main before 29th Ave., the next crossing down.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> KeyRouteKen Wrote:
>
> > Evan-- What are the tracks to the RIGHT of
> the
> > lattice pole lineup in the photo, time 1213
> ??
> > Are those spurs or sidings??
>
> The track immediately to the right is the lead
> that turns west at Fruitvale Ave. and once
> provided access to the Fruitvale bridge and
> Alameda. It is still used to access the Con Agra
> plant along the estuary. I don't know its formal
> name.

Hanlon's Siding.

> As to the next track over, it's a stub end track
> for a warehouse.

Driesbach (sp?) Cold Storage.

> I guess I tend to call stub-end
> industry tracks "spurs," long industrial tracks
> with spurs off of them "leads" or "drill tracks,"
> and passing tracks connected to a main line at
> both ends "sidings," but that's just force of
> habit on my part.
>
> > Also, I see that most of the four track
> mainline
> > was still intact... down to Fruitvale..
> TWO
> > Mains-- TWO Electrics. Now only two tracks
> are
> > present, right?
>
> I think all the tracks you see there are still
> present. The two on the far left merge into the
> main before 29th Ave., the next crossing down.

All still there. The two "Electric Lines" were rebuilt by Caltrans around 1994 when the East Oakland yard was rebuilt as part of the I-880 project.

The "Westbound Electric" (furthest on the right) is now Track 213. The "Eastbound Electric" is now Track 214. Both used to extend all the way to High Street, but in another brilliant burst of stupidity, UP removed them between 29th Avenue and High Street. 214 now ties into the Number 2 Main (old Westbound Main) at a handthrow switch just north of 29th Avenue, with 213 tieing into 214 just north of that.