Nostalgia & History > SP 3205 San Joaquin Daylight at Mossdale

Train #52, the Southbound San Joaquin Daylight with SP 3205 has made its Tracy stop and met the Sacramento Daylight there and has crossed the San Joaquin River at Mossdale on the way to Lathrop where it will turn down the Valley and head to Fresno and beyond.

April 1971

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sweet, have always wanted to catch something interesting here. Now you can only catch the locals running here...

Not the Budd Sunset lounge behind the baggage car. SP's way of classing up the train in the last month of operation

drew1946 Wrote:
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> Train #52, the Southbound San Joaquin Daylight

Train 52 is Eastward. Southbound is a UP term.


> with SP 3205 has made its Tracy stop and met the
> Sacramento Daylight there

I always thought the Sacramento Daylight exchange occurred at Lathrop.

Now the entire area to the right of the tracks (and beneath the San Joaquin River levee) is being built into one massive housing development. The tracks, however, still look the same.

Was there double trackage through this area? If so, when was it removed?

Mike in Tracy

They changed to Tracy sometime in late 1970 or early 1971 (I think). I have photos at Lathrop of the meet there in March of '70. I rode it Easter Sunday of 1971 and transfered at Tracy.

Not only is the SP Mossdale bridge interesting but there was also a lift bridge (or was it 2?) parallel and just south for old Hwy. 50. All just so river traffic could pass through. The railroad (on the bridge itself) and the separate but nearby highway bridge control towers are both gone for decades. There was some type of commercial boat traffic at one time but the last lift was probably in the 1950s. There was never anything around comparable to the nearby busy Port of Stockton, which even had its own railroad.

Riverboats used to go up the San Joaquin at least as far as the area west of Merced. Riverboats even went up the Stanislaus at least to Ripon. I'm not sure when all of the riverboat activity ended, maybe in the 1920s.

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> Riverboats used to go up the San Joaquin at least
> as far as the area west of Merced. Riverboats
> even went up the Stanislaus at least to Ripon.
> I'm not sure when all of the riverboat activity
> ended, maybe in the 1920s.


Was probably later than that... the current Mossdale Bridge dates from only the early 40's.

Mike in Tracy

During the late 60's or the very early 70's, the U.S. Coast Guard decided the river was no longer navigable. I do believe it was at that point that both the highway bridges and the two railroad bridges in the area no longer had to open