Nostalgia & History > Coast Starlight near Jack London Square late 70's

Heres the LA bound "Coast Starlight" when the consist was a little more varied then the current model.

Robert Morris Photography
http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/index1.html

---

What is that the WP crossing?

Wow, instantly knew from the TO mainpage thumbnail that this was my old stomping grounds. Squint and fast forward 20 years and you can see me hanging out of one of those second story brick windows from the first building to the left with camera in hand taking a photo!

FYI, this is Chestnut Junction, father to today's CP Magnolia (below and behind you) and CP King Street - in the distance between Jack London Square and the Chestnut JCT diamonds in the foreground.

ats90mph Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is that the WP crossing?


Yes, controlled by Magnolia (a.k.a. Maggie) Tower, located behind Photobob (he's standing on Middle Harbor Road overpass).

The switcher is drilling off the Homestead Yard lead in what became Hanlan siding, if memory serves me. Perhaps others can refresh the memory.

PS -- What ever happened to Topper? He should know.

BCHellman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> PS -- What ever happened to Topper? He should
> know.



Yes, I'm sure I'm not the only one that misses his valuable input here. Going into February, Topper Bunnyman decided to let his TO subscription run out in November. The funny thing, he was actually officially booted from the site for "Moderator Disciplinary" reasons with just days (or was it hours) left before his 2006-2007 subscription ran out.

I guess not everyone appreciated Topper's presence, contributions and best yet, humor and wit here on TO...

BCHellman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ats90mph Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What is that the WP crossing?
>
>
> Yes, controlled by Magnolia (a.k.a. Maggie) Tower,

Man the acoustics in that tower made him sound like he was broadcasting from a toilet bowl...Anyone have a recording of those radio conversations?

dmaffei Wrote:

> Man the acoustics in that tower made him sound
> like he was broadcasting from a toilet
> bowl...Anyone have a recording of those radio
> conversations?

No, but I can still hear Nejarrian (sp?) in that high pitched "Homestead Yardmaster."

Yes, I have recordings. From 1972 and again in 1982. The 1982 is two hours long, so there are some long periods of nothing. It was made in July, 82 on a Saturday or Sunday between 12p and 2p. Yes, Naj was working the Homestead. Because it was a scanner, you got the PBX conversations from the Bay Area and Sacramento, WP dispatcher and WP Yardmaster. Good recording. Had one with MDO on it talking to the Chief concerning trains on the Western Division, but that one unfortunately broke (cassette). 1972 was more like sound bits, so a lot of on and off clicking.

"SP Homestead, to the SP 2652. Cut off and come to the board"

Wasn't there a Hanlan Warehouse in East Oakland along the Electric Mains? In the mid 70s, they used to take Sealand and Seatrain COFC trains and store them out there for a few days along the Nimitz Freeway before running them south as a OALAY

That dome is probably one of the only, if not the only, original SP cars in the train. I rode in those a few times in the 1970s. The windows were somewhat opaque or dirtied by years of smoke, but they were fun places to hang out if enjoying the outside scenery was not a priority.

Dave

Thanks for the info, didn't know what happened. Certainly had plenty of solid information.

> -----
>
> > PS -- What ever happened to Topper? He should
> > know.
>
>
>
> Yes, I'm sure I'm not the only one that misses his
> valuable input here.

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The windows were somewhat opaque or dirtied by years of smoke, but
> they were fun places to hang out...

Like the Cheech and Chong movie?

Photobob has good stories about that dome car. Along with some super-8 movies to back the stories.(so he says) Bob, did you send those to Smiley or was the rating above "R" for those???

espeeboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I guess not everyone appreciated Topper's presence, contributions and
> best yet, humor and wit here on TO...

I for one did. A real loss here on TOs...

Censorship! That is what life is all about. Sorry, get use to it!

JR

Here is a lot more info on this picture, courtesy of "topper":

Mr. Morris took the picture while standing on the Adeline Street overpass, facing south towards Jack London Square.
 
The passenger train is Amtrak train 12, the "Coast Starlight," complete with an ex-SP dome-lounge.  (Until the late Eighties, the southbound train was numbered 12 and the northbound train was numbered 13 on the portion of the route between LA and Oakland.  Between Oakland and Seattle it was 14 northbound and 11 southbound, although for operating purposes, BN referred to it as 1014 and 1011 on their portion of the route between Portland and Seattle.)  Number 12 had left the 16th Street station about 10 minutes earlier and now is passing through the Magnolia interlocking plant.  It's next scheduled stop will be in San Jose - the current station in Jack London Square wasn't built yet.  In just a matter of seconds, it will be crossing Market Street.
 
The interlocking here was controlled by Magnolia Tower, which was located on the "land side" of the main lines north of the Adeline Street overpass.  It would be behind the photographer's left shoulder.
 
The single track crossing horizontally is the Western Pacific main line.  Eastward trains (i.e., going towards Stockton) would cross right to left.  Out of sight to the left a couple of hundred yards is Chestnut Junction, where double track began for the street-running down 3rd Street and beyond to Clinton, which was located about 1/4 mile south of 5th Avenue, next to SP's East Oakland yard.  Single track CTC (it was called TCS on the WP) began at Clinton, and trains would continue on what is now known as UP's Oakland Sub all the way to Niles, Stockton and beyond.
 
The tank cars are being switched by an SP yard job working the Homestead end of the West Oakland yard.  Until the mid Eighties (MDO might have the exact date), SP had yard jobs on duty at the Homestead around the clock, along with a small wooden yardmaster's tower, switchman's shanty and carman's shanty.  There was also a herder's shanty located almost directly under the Adeline Street overpass.  The only building still standing today is a small steel structure that houses the air compressor for the yard air lines.
 
The yard job is on the 50 Lead.  The switch branching off to the right is the 70 Lead, and will also take one towards the piggyback ramp (containers were relatively rare back then).  The yard job is probably Job 520, which was on duty daily at 7:59 AM.  It's kinda hard to tell, but the locomotive is probably an EMD SW8 or SW900E.
 
To the left of the main tracks is a stubbed-off spur track that was known as the "Ice House" Lead.  At one time it crossed the WP main.
 
On the far right next to the buildings is the joint trackage of the WP and the Howard Terminal Railway (which, basically, switched the Schnitzer Steel scrap yard).  The SP also interchanged with Howard Terminal; the connection is barely visible branching off to the right about where the Amtrak SDP40Fs are.  All of the buildings visible to the right of the tracks are gone, replaced by the Charles P. Howard Container Terminal, and although there are tracks all the way out to the container ship dock on the Oakland Estuary, it hasn't received rail service for 20 years or so.
 
Amazingly, most of the buildings on the left are still standing today.  TO.com's own Espeeboy used to work in that brick building with the fire escape leading down to the loading dock.  The squarish brick building with the angled awning was known as the "Ice House."  Two mechanical reefers can be seen spotted there.  It was torn down years ago and an outdoor storage area for a hardware distributor now occupies the site.  The gray looking building with the beamed roof is also gone.  The four-story black building beyond it is now lofts, but the small gray building beyond it is gone.  And of course, the general track layout has been modified as part of the CTC installation at CP Magnolia.  All the signals visible were removed or replaced, but the tan colored fence at the extreme left still lives in 2008! 

smitty195 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here is a lot more info on this picture, courtesy
> of "topper":
>
> Mr. Morris took the picture while standing on
> the Adeline Street overpass, facing south towards
> Jack London Square.

(BunnyMan's reply message truncated)



Alright, awesome inside commentary and detailed info on this location/time period. Thanks Ghost of Topper!

SP did a lot of container business in the 70s on COFC flats. Also loaded on boggies and chassis

Okay.. so where is (was) Hanlon siding then exactly? I thought it was over by East Oakland Yard.

Thanks,
Harry

tracktime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Okay.. so where is (was) Hanlon siding then
> exactly? I thought it was over by East Oakland
> Yard.
>
> Thanks,
> Harry


(reply from the Ghost of Topper)

Hanlon's Siding was on the bay side of the main tracks extending from just north of 5th Avenue to just south of 29th Avenue. The Work Lead that paralleled the main tracks southward from Magnolia connected with it on the north end, and the Alameda Main at Fruitvale connected with it on the south end. There were also hand-operated crossovers that accessed it from the eastbound main track at Mile Post 7.5 and 8.9. The portion between M.P. 7.5 and 8.9 has been removed. Of the remaining portion, only the track between M.P. 8.9 and 9.1 is currently in use.

As I said in the 70s they would leave COFC trains on the track next to the freeway for pickup at East Oakland.

Thanks for the info, as for Topper, the cons outweighed the pros.