Nostalgia & History > SP Noon Daylight 1948

At Mission Bay SF [ Any Questions what time?]

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judging by the shadow from the tell-tale i would estimate the photo exact time at about 12:03:47.052984773

Jamie Yeager
Santa Fe, NM

Taken from the Mariposa St. Overhead crossing. I remember this scene well. In this era my father would be on call one Sunday a month which entailed going by the office and making sure everything was OK, which it always seemed to be. He would take his very little boy along and we would go for an adventure afterwards. Sometimes this was buying a bag of popcorn from the peanut wagon on the Marina Green and feeding the swans in the Palace of Fine Arts lagoon, sometimes going to Third St. Station to look at locomotives and on one Sunday to this overcrossing to watch the Noon Daylight leave town. Immediately after passing under the Mariposa St. Bridge there was a short cut and then the tracks plunged into Tunnel One. Still does in fact. Anyway we were on the sidewalk over the tracks in front of the iron fence. I'm sure I was gaga with excitement. Just before getting to us, the fireman sanded the flues and we got the full benefit.
Another adventure with pop!

Great photo.... and two great replies above!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

Yea I stood in that same spot many times as a young kid with my Dad. You would hang on to that iron railing as the trains started gathering speed before entering tunnel one. The smoke and steam would shoot right through the cracks in the wooden sidewalk. Man it was scary

Why on earth would he sand the flues just before going under an overpass? The mess would make the engine dirty.
Maybe he was just nuking you guys?

My guess would be sometime around 1949-1950. Like others in this group I used to hang around at this same location where Mariposa Street goes over the SP tracks, with Santa Fe's industrial track behind me on the other side of Mariposa). Sometimes, two neighborhood brothers and I would sit on the rails of the Seventh Street lead, right across from Potrero Tower and watch 'The Fleet" pass by.

> My guess would be sometime around 1949-1950.

Why?

Actually we might be able to tell the difference
between summer 1948 and summer 1949, since the
train left SF at 1215 PDT in 1948 and
1215 PST in 1949. (And you remember the train
was dropped in ... late 1949?)

timz2 Wrote:
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> > My guess would be sometime around 1949-1950.
>
> Why?
>
> Actually we might be able to tell the difference
> between summer 1948 and summer 1949, since the
> train left SF at 1215 PDT in 1948 and
> 1215 PST in 1949. (And you remember the train
> was dropped in ... late 1949?)


Thanks for the exact year it was discontinued. I thought it was 1950.