Nostalgia & History > College Park Action

SP westbound commute Train 141 approaches an eastbound freight departing the Newhall Street Yard in San Jose on October 2, 1976. College Park Yard was off to the left and was San Jose's original yard.

In the 1970s the tracks between the yard and the roundhouse (off in the distance and around the corner) was the best place in San Jose to watch trains. (© KPR Media Services, all rights reserved)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/14 13:08 by CrudPunko.

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Wonderful photo. You have some great shots of the good old SP.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

AL Bayer

>In the 1970s the tracks between the yard and the roundhouse (off in the distance and around the corner) was the best place in San Jose to watch trains.

You bet! Just roll your car around behind the Buy and Sell Press office on Stockton Avenue and click away.

That's quite a unique shot that you got from the hang glider.


-E.O.

hogheaded Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >In the 1970s the tracks between the yard and the
> roundhouse (off in the distance and around the
> corner) was the best place in San Jose to watch
> trains.
>
> You bet! Just roll your car around behind the Buy
> and Sell Press office on Stockton Avenue and click
> away.
>
> That's quite a unique shot that you got from the
> hang glider.
>
>
> -E.O.

IIRC I was on the Hedding Street overpass.

Looking down at the College Park shelter down there, I see that it has "walls." I've seen other photos of the shelter with walls, such as the third photo in this old thread:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2020383

The shelter today is just a roof held up by columns, and I've seen pictures of the shelter prior to the 1970's that likewise show it without walls. Did SP enclose the shelter for a few years and then open it up again, or were the walls temporary "winterization" applied and removed annually with the changing seasons?

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looking down at the College Park shelter down
> there, I see that it has "walls." I've seen other
> photos of the shelter with walls, such as the
> third photo in this old thread:
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,
> 2020383
>
> The shelter today is just a roof held up by
> columns, and I've seen pictures of the shelter
> prior to the 1970's that likewise show it without
> walls. Did SP enclose the shelter for a few years
> and then open it up again, or were the walls
> temporary "winterization" applied and removed
> annually with the changing seasons?

Evan, the shelter was originally walled. Over the years vandals kept punching out boards in the wall and at one point there was more of the walls gone than there. CalTrain (I believe) reconditioned the structure to its current look sometime in the 1980s. I actually have photos of the shelter in various states of repair and disrepair. I'll dig those out and post them sometime in the near future.

Once upon a time there was crossing guard shanty next to the College Park "station" and the old flagman, who had probably been on the SP payroll since 1916, would let my friend and I sit next to the coal burning stove. In those days both Asbury (?) and Stockton crossed the tracks. On a cold and foggy morning in December it was quite a place to see the parade of commutes, and the Daylight, go by. Too long ago. A breakman named Bob, and the rest of a crew, let my friend and I run a switch engine in the College Park yard--- just and back and forth a few times on a track hidden from view by long lines of reefers and boxcars on either side. Wow! Those were good times. Thanks for posting.