Nostalgia & History > More Los Gatos and Los Altos Branch Stuff

Looking through a 1941 Coast division Employee Timetable, a couple of things are quite striking, notably:

1. In referencing the "Los Gatos Branch" it is noted that Automatic Block Signal System is in effect between West San Jose and Los Gatos. Anyone know when that was yanked out?

2. Engines barred from operation on the Los Altos Branch are virtually everything the SP ran at the time, but exceptions are made for P3, P5, MK and F1 classes at 15 MPH. Incredibly, Mt Class is also permitted in emergency, along with all members of all P subclasses in passenger service only, at 15 mph. I presume the latter allowance was for rerouted main line trains?

3. Interesting that Los Gatos shows as an open train order office. Did that condition exist in the 1950's?

4. Timetable also shows the remnants of the South Pacific Coast's schedule of passenger trains, with Nos 32, 34, 31 and 33 between Los Gatos and San Jose. I presume these came off shortly after issuance of the timetable, since the through route had been cut a year before?

5. Los Altos Branch passenger train numbers were 138, 123 and on Saturdays, 168. Anyone fill me in as to when the numbers changed to 170, 132 and 129?

6. Water was available at Simla (as someone on this board previously mentioned), Los Gatos and interestingly, Campbell. Anyone know what the tanks at Los Gatos and Campbell looked like? Were they of SP Common Standard design?

I toss these questions out because photos and such are hard to come by for these lines, and it seems Coast division Employee Timetables are even harder to come by. Hoping for info and thanks in advance.....

Sure can't answer them all, but by EMP TT 152, effective March 26, 1944, the daily passenger ex. Sundays & Holidays was now 127/132, 168 was Saturday only. You came up with some good questions.

Tom

4merroad4man Wrote:
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> Looking through a 1941 Coast division Employee
> Timetable, a couple of things are quite striking,
> notably:
>>
> 5. Los Altos Branch passenger train numbers were
> 138, 123 and on Saturdays, 168. Anyone fill me in
> as to when the numbers changed to 170, 132 and
> 129?
>
Seems like the Saturday only train remained #168 for a long time. The was also a Saturday onkly #171 in the early 1950s.

From my collection of ETTs I show

10/1/33 - the train numbers were #31 & 32 "SANTA CRUZ"
#168 Daily ex. Sun. & Hol.
#142 Daily ex Sat., Sun & Hol.
Saturday Only train was also #168

5/7/39 - the train numbers were 123, 138 & 1698
3/26/44- the train numbers were 127, 132 and 168.
4/14/46 - the train numbers were 127, 138 and 168
9/30/51 - the train numbers were 129 & 130, 168 & 171
9/30/56 - the train numbers were 129 & 130 only. No more Saturday only service. #129 & 130 remained unchamged into the end of service in 1964.

Tony J.

The Saturday only service represented a time when the normal work week was 5.5 Days a week, with people leaving work in SF around noon.

Without my notes handy,

> Anyone know what the tanks at Los Gatos and Campbell looked like? Were they of SP Common Standard design?
There are at least two or three pictures showing the Los Gatos tank going into our book. The Campbell tank was near identical to that at Felton, I believe dating back to the narrow-gauge. Los Gatos' tank was a smaller, more modern counterpart, and was gone by 1950.

> I presume the latter allowance was for rerouted main line trains?
The northbound Daylight Daylight ran up the Mayfield in '57 or '58 due to a major lumberyard fire (details forthcoming in the book) just north of the Cahill St. station. Everything was of course dieselized by then, but an interesting occurence nonetheless. The train reportedly backed the distance from San Jose to Vasona Jct. (reportedly holding near Vasona Dam to clear something, I've yet to verify exactly what) before continuing north. Anyone here lucky enough to see this?

Interestingly, the Los Gatos depot and freight shed remained standing until 1965, six years after the rails were removed. Railway Express was still using part of the depot for truck service until '60 or '61.

The last Saturday commute (168) into Los Gatos was April 25, 1953, with P7 #2477 on point and observation #2915 bringing up the rear. We've got close to a half-dozen pictures of it.

I can remember the ABS system in place in the early 1960s from San Jose to Vasona Junction. The searchlight signal bases were there until the light rail construction took them out a couple of years ago.

Stan Praisewater

The searchlights also showed up between Vasona and Los Gatos just prior to dieselization. Still semaphores at Vasona Jct, Vasona Dam, Farley Road, Williams Street (Blossom Hill Rd.), Los Gatos-Saratoga Road (Route 9), and Elm Street into early '56. Here's a news bit mentioning it. I understand Jack Gibson is now a docent at the Nevada State Railroad Museum (if anyone knows how to reach him, please let me know)

---

Per the caption on the news photo ... did they really send a Trainmaster down the Los Altos Branch?

Train Masters were used during about the first year or so of diesel service on the Mayfield. One of our contributors witnessed one of them crapping out near Royce Street in Los Gatos, towed dead with its 6-7 car train of galleries back towards San Jose by a tiger-stripe SW-1. Passenger Geeps and SD-7s/9s became regular power in time. One photo shows one GP-9 unit in the experimental "Halloween" paint scheme at Vasona circa 1960, one year after Los Gatos service had ended. Unfortunately, we have not yet come across photos of the SW-1s or Trainmasters in Los Gatos, nor (as of yet) a diesel freight.

What book? When will it come out? Who is writing it and who is publishing it?

Wow, that's priceless! Thank you for digging this up. Our family must have seen those two (2476/2477) a few hundred times before they were pulled off. Notice the tender with the six-wheel trucks. This change occurred fairly late & I think to the both of them. Somewhere, I have my own neg of a Baldwin Roadswitcher working past our house, but cannot yet locate it. It was taken with an old Brownie Hawkeye (anyone remember those?)

Tom

sagehen Wrote:
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> What book? When will it come out? Who is writing
> it and who is publishing it?

-Images of Rail: The Railroads of Los Gatos
-In progress now, expected release for the holiday season '06
-Written and compiled by myself as part of the Los Gatos History Project (Museums of LG and LG Public Library) and part of Arcadia Publishing's pictorial history series

The content will be largely SP (along with some South Pacific Coast and some Peninsular), Billy Jones biographical, Billy Jones' Wildcat Railroad, the restoration of the narrow-gauge Heisler "Elk" at Billy Jones' ranch, and essentially anything else pertinent to the history of railroading in Los Gatos. Royalties from book sales will go to the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad steam fund and the library's historic image digitization program.

Sounds good. Are you working with Bill Wulf?


Vasona Wrote:
> -Images of Rail: The Railroads of Los Gatos
> -In progress now, expected release for the holiday
> season '06
> -Written and compiled by myself as part of the Los
> Gatos History Project (Museums of LG and LG Public
> Library) and part of Arcadia Publishing's
> pictorial history series
>
>

Bill Wulf is not involved with our project. To make a long story short, we tried to work with him, offered him the chance to participate, and he chose to decline. Too bad as he has a number of rare South Pacific Coast images. That being said, we have had little trouble finding our quota of pictures and then some. If you know where to start looking and who to talk to, you will be amazed at what you will find.

With the exception of a select few, virtually none of the images in our project have ever been published anywhere.

My co-author, library director Peggy Conaway, and myself will be having a most interesting meeting later in the week which will likely bring among the most prized contributions to the project. Also discovered this week by one of the history project volunteers are a roll of color photos showing Billy and Geraldine Jones visiting Walt and Lillian Disney's Holmby Hills, CA estate, with Billy and Walt tinkering with his 7-1/4" gauge live steamer "Lilly Belle". These were located in a box of old photos donated by Barbara Baggerly, widow of the late Times-Observer reporter John Baggerly. Mrs. Baggerly also brought in several photos of the 1939 Los Gatos (and "way station friends") Commuters' Christmas Party, showing her younger self singing aboard a decorated Harriman coach.

PullmanPorter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sounds good. Are you working with Bill Wulf?
>
>
> Vasona Wrote:
> > -Images of Rail: The Railroads of Los Gatos
> > -In progress now, expected release for the
> holiday
> > season '06
> > -Written and compiled by myself as part of the
> Los
> > Gatos History Project (Museums of LG and LG
> Public
> > Library) and part of Arcadia Publishing's
> > pictorial history series
> >
> >

Hopefully, in the book, "Train Master" (i.e., the locomotive) will properly be written as two words.

Count me in for the book. Also, interested to see the Baldwin on the Branch, if you can find the negative Tom. All this information is priceless, and I want to thank everyone for responding . There will be more questions from me in the future, I am sure. Thanks again, everyone.

Earl