Nostalgia & History > Traction Action: Oakland, Calif. on the B line

Westbound to San Francisco, articulated unit 177 crosses Adeline Street in west Oakland entering a private right of way. The "B" line ran along what is now known at West Grand Avenue, today a wide and busy boulevard, and this shot shows the thoroughfare back in the slower days of the 1950s. The track will curve to join the "A" line at Poplar Street, an interlocked junction controlled by Tower 2 some distance away. Spurs off this part of the "B" line were switched by Oakland Terminal Railway. A remnant of Key rail exists today between Union and Poplar Streets on the curve. Next stop for this train: 32nd Street. Then past Tower 2, through the yards, and on to the Bay Bridge for a scenic ride into San Francisco. Service ended April 20, 1958.

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Always a fun way to spend quarters, back in the day :-)

John.

UPS trucks still look the same :)

LarryB Wrote:
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> UPS trucks still look the same :)

A little less curved at the corners than they used to be, but yes.

The way it was...

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

On the 1931 aerial

http://ucblibrary3.berkeley.edu:8085/AerialPhotos/airphotoc1600/c1600-27.jpg

Grand Ave or 22nd St or whatever it was seems not
to exist west of Adeline. Must have been built
when they started using the IER overpass as
the street to the Army Base?

Do you have any photos along the F line?

Lots of them here on TO.
Search by my handle and "traction action" on the Nostalgia forum.

Here's one recent F line shot:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3497887,3497887#msg-3497887



goldcoast Wrote:
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> Do you have any photos along the F line?

timz Wrote:

> On the 1931 aerial
>
> http://ucblibrary3.berkeley.edu:8085/AerialPhotos/
> airphotoc1600/c1600-27.jpg

Just east of the warehouse at 22nd and Adeline in that aerial, you can see the small Key System freight house and team tracks at 22nd and Chestnut. By the time WP and Santa Fe bought out the Key's freight operation in 1942, the team track had moved to 26th and Magnolia.

In 1930, the warehouse at 22nd and Adeline belonged to the John Breuner Co. (furniture). Later, Sprouse Reitz took it over and painted their name along its roofline. Judging from the "for lease" sign in Clark's shot, they too had vacated by the mid-50's. The building still stands:

http://goo.gl/maps/Q3AL3