Nostalgia & History > A busy morning at SP's Third & Townsend Station

On Track 9 we have the Coast Daylight about to depart for Los Angeles while on the adjoining track happy commuters pass a sign advertising George Gobel appearing at Harolds in Reno. The second photo taken in just about the same location shows whats there now. A Safeway. Pass the chips please.

Robert Morris Photography

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Yes quite a difference of decades.

Adam

Slightly off topic but did the Coast Daylight make any stops on the Peninsula?

photobob Wrote:
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> On Track 9 we have the Coast Daylight about to
> depart for Los Angeles while on the adjoining
> track happy commuters pass a sign advertising
> George Gobel appearing at Harolds in Reno. The
> second photo taken in just about the same location
> shows whats there now. A Safeway. Pass the chips
> please.
>
> Robert Morris Photography

Palo Alto then San Jose

Outlandish prices!  Oh, but a great look back at what was happening in the 1960's.

but it's a shorter walk to the Giants Stadium.

You could have bought a Cragmont Cola and Hostess Pie and get change for your quarter back in the Daylight era.  Or a loaf of real Parisian sourdough for a little more than a quarter!  

Sphogger 

TCnR Wrote:
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> but it's a shorter walk to the Giants Stadium.

DUH. about 3000 miles.

Ah, memories. As a kid in the 50s (I rode with my dad a lot during the summers) my Dad and I would sometimes deadhead back to SJ on the Daylight when he worked an early commute into SF with enough time to get back to the City for the return evening trip.

Back when they were building the Super Safeway there on 4th, I held out hope that they would install a drive-up window for Caltrain. It surely would have been convenient for us rails making quick turnarounds. Alas...

EO

Is Happy Donuts still up there on 3rd?  Next door to the cafe where Dirty Harry had his day made?
Happy Donuts beats the Safeway Potato Chip aisle any day!  

sphogger

Now that's an interesting before and after.

Posted from iPhone

Before Happy Donuts was the Doggie Diner, complete with the famous icon on the roof.

Spotted them in a storage yard along 3rd st somewhere, 80's or 90's.

I thought that the second photo was the interior of the Coast Daylight's dining (automat) car!

I presume this was taken sometime in the '60s, and the reason all that stuff cost less than it costs today reflected what we were paid then...
I can also testify that riding the Daylight then was nothing like riding it in the 40s and early 50s...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

sphogger Wrote:
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> You could have bought a Cragmont Cola and Hostess
> Pie and get change for your quarter back in the
> Daylight era.  Or a loaf of real Parisian
> sourdough for a little more than a quarter!  
>
> I would have sprung for a Brown Derby beer but probably not to wash down a Hostess Pie or Twinkie! But, in the City anything goes, as Dan White taught us.

Posted from iPhone

I hired out at 3rd and townsend with a bunch of guys. We all met upstairs in the trainmasters office. We got
a short lecture and then were given instructions on training and making our date. There was a company watch
inspector downstairs in the front of the depot or maybe across the street. Can't recall. He had plenty of used
inspected watches that were priced reasonably. Don't recall the TM's name but he was an old head.
It wasn't Max Howard-he was across the bay at Martinez. Max Howard was a real nice guy; once while we
were working somewhere around Ozol, he showed up and treated all of us to ice cream bars!

That's quite a light package on the top of that obs. car.
Also, I would assume they weren't going after the rail passenger crowd
with the Las Vegas billboard?

mp51w Wrote:
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> Also, I would assume they weren't going after the
> rail passenger crowd
> with the Las Vegas billboard?

Harolds Club was in Reno, back before cheap airfares to Vegas & tribal gaming in CA emptied out the casinos of western NV.

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff"

Ah .........  "Lonesome George".   Still remember his great one-liner on the Johnny Carson Show when he followed Bob Hope and Dean Martin.   Said that in their presence, he felt like he was in a Tuxedo Shop and he was a pair of brown shoes.