Nostalgia & History > More from the Streets of San Francisco in the 1970's

First image is the SP lead to the 16th and Harrison Yard. The lead came off the mainline at 16th St. at the Mission Bay Wye underneath the I-280. t ran up 7th street before it curved westward (forgot the street name) and then ran along Division St. underneath 101. The second image is Western Pacific near Army Street and the 3rd picture is SP working the grain terminal at 80. This trackage remains in place with the west end now part of the of the Pier 80 dirty dirt yard. Mike Pechner text and picture. COPYRIGHT, 2014

---

---

---

This is 7th and King St. which was the terminal for the SP Commute fleet and where the lead from 16th St. ran northward towards Division St. Here are two other views from the late 1970's showing Huff and Puff, SD-9's #4450 and 4451.

---

---

---

That first pic is Vermont St, "Jackson Square", looking towards the Bay Bridge, not Harrison St, and the two tracks are the WP (behind the photographer is the WP's Potrero Hill tunnel). Besides it's a Santa Fe engine, and those didn't run on the SP. The crew looks like it's trying to break the lock off the switchstand so they can spot the car. I recall a place up there which got tank cars.

What was wrong with the switchstand? It looks like the two guys are taking a hammer to it! It looks like there are tire tracks in the dirt.....maybe a vehicle hit it.

lynnpowell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What was wrong with the switchstand? It looks
> like the two guys are taking a hammer to it! It
> looks like there are tire tracks in the
> dirt.....maybe a vehicle hit it.


Hammers are the standard adjustment tool... and they come in many sizes.

Pic #3 on this www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3509779 is a "now" view of the first pic on this thread.

Edited to add:

>Hammers are the standard adjustment tool... and they come in many sizes.

The one in the pic is too small and lightweight to adjust anything except the padlock. BTDT, although with brake shoes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 22:34 by EtoinShrdlu.

great pics weather. you should consider adding links to your earlier posts in this series like rob l. with his retrospective posts on bay area railroads.

That first one is fantastic. Etoin is right it's Vermont and Alameda although I only knew it from his tip. If you google streetview that intersection you'll see the sign above the freeway and both sets of tracks visible. I posted a few photos of this very intersection in my thread yesterday altho I don't I duplicated this view.

EtoinShrdlu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pic #3 on this
> www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3509779
> is a "now" view of the first pic on this thread.
>

yeah I agree but the tracks they are using are the tracks in pic 2 which go up alameda

Vermont St goes from near left to far right. Alameda comes from the near right and dead ends at Vermont. No doubt there was a track which came off these and headed up Alameda, but the tracks they are on are the ones which originally went straight to the tunnel. After it burned a connection was made so the WP could use 16th St and the Santa Fe's overpass at the west end of [SP's] Tunnel 1 to run between the their team track and the ferry slip at the foot of Army St.

The WP's SF team tracks and freight shed are/were on the far side of the freeway overpasses and off to the left. The SP's old main to Harrison St crossed these tracks at about 90 degrees approximately under the far overpass in pic #1. The near overpass is the beginning of the I-80 approach to the Bay Bridge.

EtoinShrdlu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Vermont St goes from near left to far right.
> Alameda comes from the near right and dead ends at
> Vermont. No doubt there was a track which came off
> these and headed up Alameda, but the tracks they
> are on are the ones which originally went straight
> to the tunnel.

Vermot runs parallel to freeway. Alameda is the street running in front of the Design/Show building and running perpendicualr to the freeway. It runs for several blocks in both directions. Check out the google mpas. You'll see the two sets of tracks--the ones in the WP ROW and the ones curving around Alameda. And you'll see the tracks the switcher is on are can only be the ones coming off Alameda. The Design/Showplace building is still there...SF Design Center it's called.

EtoinShrdlu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That first pic is Vermont St, "Jackson Square",
> looking towards the Bay Bridge,

It's looking northwest toward Golden Gate bridge I think rather than toward bay bridge

weather Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is 7th and King St. which was the terminal
> for the SP Commute fleet and where the lead from
> 16th St. ran northward towards Division St. Here
> are two other views from the late 1970's showing
> Huff and Puff, SD-9's #4450 and 4451.

I don't know if you realize, or if it matters at all, but you have photos here of SP's two "official's" locomotives. I attached a few lines from a report my dad wrote many years ago about the 4450-4451... since you called them "Huff and Puff", I suspect this isn't news to you... but here goes...

"They took two SD9’s rated at 1800 hp, put the latest improvements in, overhauled the steam making boiler for heating the passenger cars, and numbered them 4450-4451. They were not too sucessful, and no more were rebuilt."

"The two 4450’s were held to freights on the peninsula, nearly always to Permanente and back every afternoon. They were used in passenger service on rare occasions when too much passenger power was out of service.

They were also used to pull officials trains when required. Benjamin Biagini, Board Chairman, or Dennis K. McNear, President, used them once in a while."

Just thought you'd like to know, if you didn't already.

Walter
Sanfranciscotrains.org

Used in the Bay Area freight pool to RV many times in the 70s

All agreed the first pic is at Vermont and Alameda

https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.768488,-122.404615&spn=0.002184,0.003449&t=k&z=18

and the camera is pointed NW or NNW?

Thanks for the areal link. The camera is looking NW (Vermont runs almost due N-S). The WP's line is the diagonal slash, sometimes open space, other times buildings, leading to the lower right, where it used to enter the tunnel in the vicinity of 19th St (zoom out a little). The SP ("Old Main") came down Townsend from the upper right and crossed the WP in between the two freeway ramps. The green sign on the right hand ramp is the same one as in the pix. The Bay Bridge is about a mile NE of this location, and the Golden Gate is too far away to worry about.

The Santa Fe engine is sitting in Vermont, and the tank car is almost at very the same location as the left-hand white automobile in front of the white building with the curved facade.

For slidlerslider: if you zoom out a little and look over where Mariposa St crosses the freeway, that city block with the diagonal slash (just to the left of the freeway) is a remnant of the Santa Fe's connection to this switching district.

OK the location is correct, but why the CF-7 on SP trackage. Did Santa Fe also use the SP to service customers from the car float on the east side of 3rd street?

yeah looking closer at the freeway bents it's definitely on the WP main tracks not a track turning onto Alameda.

> why the CF-7 on SP trackage

It's not SP track, is it?

There's a pretty good 1960s map in the
files section at the BayArea_RailHistory
yahoogroup, under "Port of San Francisco".
(Doesn't say who owns that track, but
must be WP?)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 14:38 by timz.

Great set of images. I really like the photo of the WP SW1500.

Since no one mentioned it yet, I will note that the fifth photo shows the rear of the SP Bicentennial GP40P-2 3197.

> Did Santa Fe also use the SP to service customers from the car float on the east side of 3rd street?

No.