Nostalgia & History > Traction Action: the bridge in Berkeley

Berkeley, California's only railroad bridge was a short structure over Eunice Street, with a low clearance for street traffic at that. Southern Pacific built their electric railroad somewhere around 1910 and gave up the business in 1941. Key System extended their Berkeley trains over the former SP rails and the little Eunice Street bridge saw train traffic until 1958 when the Key trains were discontinued. The bridge was removed when Henry Street was rebuilt and widened on to the former railroad right of way. Eunice Street itself was then stub ended where the bridge once was, now a dead end street.

Just blocks away from where the bridge was is the Northbrae tunnel, another SP structure built a century ago, that is a today a busy Berkeley traffic artery.

Photo 1 shows former SN equipment on the Key System, likely a fan trip. No date. Key acquired some of these cars from the SN.

Photo 2 shows a typical Key movement on the "F" line, snapped by a young MDO in the 1950s, who lived not too far away from the bridge.

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The pan is down on the car in the first picture, but I'm reasonably sure that the trolley pole is up.

I'm also unconvinced that this was a fan trip. I can only see one person for sure in the car, and a second probable. Many of the seats are obviously empty. Unless everyone is looking out of the far side of the car for some reason, this looks more like regular under-utilized commute action.

In Pic 2, it appears that the clearance is posted as being 9ft 6in (!) Yikes.
...Lorenzo

567Chant Wrote:
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> In Pic 2, it appears that the clearance is posted
> as being 9ft 6in (!) Yikes.
> ...Lorenzo

Yikes indeed! When I was looking earlier at the first image I thought it has said 11' something, but on looking at it a second time, it does indeed say 9' 6" in that image too. So they either didn't re-pave the road under the tracks between the pictures, or they were real careful how they did it!

lwilton Wrote:
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> The pan is down on the car in the first picture,
> but I'm reasonably sure that the trolley pole is
> up.
>
> I'm also unconvinced that this was a fan trip. I
> can only see one person for sure in the car, and a
> second probable. Many of the seats are obviously
> empty. Unless everyone is looking out of the far
> side of the car for some reason, this looks more
> like regular under-utilized commute action.

Incorrect, Sir.. The former SN cars (5 of them) when operated in regular service by KEY, were always operated as a string of five cars, known by the commuters as the "City of Berkeley". I have NEVER seen photos of any of these cars operated as a single-unit until now.
KRK

Maybe a training car. I have several photos of 499 in Berkeley running extra. Key got those five cars in 1942, retired them five years later, then scrapped four of them in 1951. Today's 1005 at Western Railway Museum is the one saved. Ancient, like everything the SN owned. Key got the cars from the Toll Bridge Authority which owned them as SN never paid for the cab signal equipment installed for bridge service and quit the passenger biz in 1941.