Nostalgia & History > 45 years ago this evening...

To all on TO,

Here is another look back at Bay Area rail history on the 45th anniversary of a very special event in the East Bay.

Wednesday, August 25, 1971 was a fairly typical late-summer day in the San Francisco Bay Area, with sunny skies followed by the usual ocean fog coming in through the Golden Gate and spreading north and south along the East Bay hills. We left home early for our fairly brief drive down to Southern Pacific's Oakland 16th Street Station that evening, taking the Nimitz Freeway (California State Highway 17 then, Interstate 880 today) since I knew I might see some trains that way. SP in Oakland in 1971 was nearing the end of one era and at the start of another; the eras involved were having ALCO switchers dominating Oakland switching assignments, while the new era would see the new SW1500's taking over. What none of us realized at the time was we were also witnessing the end of the days of plentiful industrial activity and resulting rail freight traffic in the East Bay, leading up to the abandonment of most rail traffic generating industry from the entire Bay Area. As such, while this was not the main objective of our trip to Oakland that evening, I will include some of the SP freight activity we saw along with what we were going down to Oakland to observe.

A quick overview of rail activity seen that evening as the fog moved in from the Pacific was first off an SP ALCO S-6 working the East Oakland Yard alongside the freeway as we neared downtown Oakland. Also in this same yard was a northbound (westbound on the SP of that era) freight departing behind SP GP-9's 3472 and 3471, which had been cleared into the main Oakland Yard. We exited the freeway near Jack London Square and headed for Middle Harbor Road leading to the "Launching Pad," as the south end of both the SP and adjacent WP yards were known. The older members of TO who knew the Bay Area in those days will remember that Middle Harbor Road had a rather rickety wooden highway overpass over the tracks at the Launching Pad, but most trucks heading for the port stayed off this narrow and steep structure and used a grade crossing that went right across the throat of the SP yard, near Magnolia Tower as I recall. Well, seeing that a southbound (eastbound) freight was working under the bridge we drove down to the crossing only to get trapped between multiple trucks!

Now the reason for going down there instead of using the overpass was that I wanted to see one of the more "interesting" SP motive power lash-ups I had seen in the East Bay in a while. This particular train was powered by one of those lash-up's that made anyone love the SP! All of the units were SP and all wore the Bloody-Nose color scheme; a U33C was on the point, followed by a pair of SD45's, an F-7A, a GP-9 and another U33C! (Now there is a lash-up for your layout at home!) Sorry, but we were not able to get close enough to get the numbers, but the SP was down to less than ten active freight F-units by August of 1971. Soon the train with the two GP-9's showed-up from the East Oakland Yard, and ALCO S-4 1817 was working nearby where we could see it better.

I would have loved to stick around and just enjoy watching all of this action, which even as late as 1971 was common at the Launching Pad, but we had a hot date with the Amtrak "TurboTrain" at 16th Street Station, and as it neared 8:00 PM, the kind truck drivers moved enough for us to escape and hurry over to the depot. The TurboTrain was on its Summer of 1971 nationwide tour introducing a modern passenger train and Amtrak to the country. Upon arrival at 16th Street there was another ALCO S-4 working in Desert Yard some distance from the station platform heading toward the main yard. There was a good crowd at 16th Street that evening, made-up mostly of railroaders and railfans all wanting to see the first real "High Speed Rail" equipment to ever visit the Bay Area. Amtrak was brand new, and after suffering through all of the discontinuances of so many great passenger trains back on April 30, this was at least something positive.

In my notes from that evening I made mention of three older railfans all looking at the SP diesel locomotive roster which had recently appeared in three consecutive issues of RAILROAD Magazine and trying to figure it out. One comment from that group was that the way the roster was presented it made it look like SP owned nine U50's instead of the three that actually existed. Another kindly older SP electrician who worked on the commute fleet over in San Francisco spent much time talking SP and Amtrak with me, and also about the Holmes Book Store in Oakland, and even got me a small Amtrak button before the evening was out, which became a treasured memento of the event. A young railfan from Redding was there waiting for his northbound Amtrak "Cascade" home who didn't know anything about the Turbo and was excited when he learned he would get to see it arrive. (Remember, the name "Coast Starlight" would not come along for a few months yet...) It was a fun evening mingling with the crowd as we all awaited the TurboTrain's arrival.

Shortly before the Turbo arrived SP ALCO S-4 1845 came through the station at 8:00 PM on the second track from the building (there were four tracks at 16th Street) and stopped east of the depot by the style B lower quadrant semaphores and just stayed there. It may have been waiting for the Turbo to switch it onto the display track east of the station and the relatively new (then) Western Division offices. As it burbled through the station someone commented, "Here's what we've all been waiting for, the fastest train in the world!" The Turbo was late, and it was then I noticed another SP switcher moving east through Desert Yard. This was SP SW1500 2541, which at that time was the first SW1500 I had yet seen working in Oakland's yard complex, and I knew the ALCO's that I loved were doomed!

Just after that EMD interloper came along, a bunch of SP Special Agents came along and moved everyone well back of the safety line on the platform, exclaiming that "This train (the Turbo) is jet powered and puts out a lot of heat!" They did not realize that the turbine exhausts were atop the train's power dome cars and not on the side of the train... They had just moved us all back when the Turbo's twin domes came into view down by the big silver water tank adjacent to the wye  just northwest of the West Oakland diesel servicing area, and finally here came the Turbo into 16th Street Station at just after 8:10 PM!

One of the first people off the train was a somewhat embarrassed Benjamin F. Biaggini, President of the Southern Pacific. I had an opportunity to visit with him briefly, much to the chagrin of the Special Agents surrounding him, and later in the Oakland "Tribune" newspaper he admitted that the line from San Jose to Oakland (the Mulford Line) was not the best track on the SP system. Shortly after I had a nice chat with the late Harre Demoro, well-known rail historian and author, who was picking-up two of his reporters from the Tribune who had ridden up from San Jose. Harre's famous comment about the Turbo as related to him by his staff who had been aboard, and which appeared in paper's article about the event was that, "The train rode like a Peerless Bus..." (I believe the Mulford Line was still jointed rail at that time...)

***For those who don't know what a Peerless Bus is, Peerless was a local bus operation that fed passengers to and from Greyhound, mostly in Oakland, and which served communities in the East Bay such as Hayward and the like. Their buses were old silverside type buses from the 1940's painted in the company's yellow color scheme. Those here on TO who know more about East Bay passenger options from that earlier era can probably add more about this. However, they were neither smooth riding or modern, so the comment was a rather stinging indictment of the rough ride qualities of the Turbo on rough track with its single axle articulated design between cars. Hence, Harre's comment and Mr Biaggini's embarrassment...

The Turbo was in the station until 8:25 PM, which allowed invited guests to disembark before the train moved east to be placed on display adjacent to the station and SP's Western Division offices. The Turbo needed to get out of the way since the northbound Amtrak "Coast Daylight" had pulled up just short of the station to make its Oakland stop before becoming the overnight "Cascade" to Portland and Seattle. Amtrak had recently added passenger car watering hoses on the platform at 16th Street since for the first time that station had to service a passenger train that passed through rather than terminating or originating in Oakland.

That night's train was a typical "Coast Daylight/Cascade" from Amtrak's first summer; for power there was a back-to-back lash-up of leased SP SDP45's with the 3206 on the point and 3201 trailing, and these were followed by 16 cars, most of which were SP streamlined cars. Almost all of the cars were either smooth-side Pullman-Standard with the majority being former "Sunset Limited" Budd-built stainless steel cars. The only non-SP exceptions was a former Great Northern coach in "Big Sky Blue" and a sleeper in the two-tone green of the old Northern Pacific, otherwise it still looked like the old SP "Cascade." 

We headed out before the streamliner departed, but there was a pretty good crowd boarding the train. The following evening we drove down to Oakland again to walk through the Turbo when it was on public display from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. A side note on the Amtrak train, the SP era on the Los Angeles - Oakland - Portland - Seattle run was very short-lived since  by the summer of 1972, the train was made-up mostly of Santa Fe cars.

Looking back 45 years to Amtrak's first "event" in the Bay Area, it seems hard to comprehend how much has changed today in 2016! New passenger stations, a new coach yard, new passenger trains with new equipment and locomotives, none of which could be imagined back in 1971. Sadly, look at the freight activity, locomotives, rail-served industry, and the like that are now gone from the Bay Area, which also could not have been imagined in that summer when SP was the richest private railroad in the world.

No matter how great today's rail passenger service is, I still miss those days of a conventionally-equipped passenger train (with soft beds, comfortable coach seats, and serving real food) running north and south through Oakland (and to the east as well), and I most definitely miss the freight activity that made the SP in the East Bay so fascinating to watch. A handful of locals and doublestack trains just do not compare to what was there in the 1960's, and even as late as August 25,1971...

I hope you have enjoyed my look back at the events of this evening so long ago. If any of you where down in Oakland 45 years ago tonight, I and I'm sure others on TO would enjoy your sharing your memories of that event here... If you have any photos from that big night in Oakland please share them since many of us took no photos that evening... You have my thanks in advance!

Best wishes,

ShastaDaylight

 

Shasta Daylight says :
"that Middle Harbor Road had a rather rickety wooden highway overpass over the tracks at the SP crossing......"

The famous "Adeline Street Overpass"--  went over it hundreds of times.  They finally tore it down and built a new one in its place !

Right below the overpass at the SP tracks, there was an old "Beannery" for crews to eat at.  Doers anyone remember the name ?

KRK

I wasn't there, but enjoyed your look back at that time in Aug. 1971. I was just just getting discharged from the USAF.

Larry

Hey Mr. Daylight, Sir...

The Port of Oakland has BIG plans for the three main arteries leading into their places of business.  This includes Adeline Street/  Middle Harbor Road.

 Check out this:
http://www.alamedactc.org/files/managed/Document/18660/J_7SGSP_BasisOfDesignReport.pdf <phorum break> <phorum break> KRK
     

Daylight says:
"For those who don't know what a Peerless Bus is, Peerless was a local bus operation that fed passengers to and from Greyhound, mostly in Oakland, and which served communities in the East Bay such as Hayward and the like. Their buses were old silverside type buses from the 1940's painted in the company's yellow color scheme."

Peerless used to have the sole contract for the Oakland to Reno, NV service but later quit and concentrated on LOCAL service from Oakland to Hayward--to San Jose--to Santa Cruz..

I have THREE buses in 1/43rd scale that park in the rear of my O-gauge Greyhound Station on my large layout.  The three buses are ones to remind me of my childhood in my native Oakland :  Greyhound,  Continental Trailways, and Peerless Stages...  They look GREAT !!

KRK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/16 17:33 by KeyRouteKen.

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>The famous "Adeline Street Overpass"

Great reminiscence! BTW, I spent so much time at the Homestead when I was young, staring at that overpass while waiting for permission to depart the yard, that the name kinda grew on me. I pushed hard to name our first daughter Adeline, but my wife pushed back harder.

EO

They had a sign sticking out advertising chili and hamburgers. Never knew of any others from SP to eat there, but I ate there once. Never again. It was mostly a truck drivers' hangout. Oliver's Hofbrau and the Portlite were SP favorites, but you had to have a car to get there. Too far to walk.


KeyRouteKen Wrote: ...  Right below the overpass at the SP tracks, there was an old "Beannery" for crews to eat at.  Doers anyone remember the name ?
>
> KRK

Shasta Daylight ---
Thank you very much for the fascinating and very interesting
story.  I was not yet a railfan back then, so I misssed a lot of
fun events, like the Turbo Train's arrival and display.  I, too,
really miss all the neat rail activity that used to go on in the
Oakland area.  What a shame that is now gone.  I, too, hope
that someone who was there when the Turbo Train was on
display and took pictures of it there will post some photos of it.

Great story!

Whoa! Nice job writing all this history out!
My first years of college brought me to the East Bay in 1971 and your recall of the RR scene of the time is flawless!
I too hung around 16th St and over at that overpass. I even have a photo or two of those last SP F's resting at the fuel rack in West Oakland.
I started hopping freight trains out of Middle Harbor on the WP in '71 or '72 (the midnight CIX mostly)
Good stuff!
Great post!
SR

Your excellent writing supplants the need for pictures.
Here is an old Peerless Stages Yellow coach from Wag216's collection.

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My, my, I had no idea my historic overview of the TurboTrain's arrival in Oakland would elicit so much interest! My sincere thanks to all for your kind words and I am very glad you all enjoyed this. Thanks also to those that added additional information about the topics mentioned in this thread, particularly the Peerless Stages! The buses shown in these photos were before the ones I remember in the 1960's that had small windows and silver ribbed sides. Perhaps Ken, or others, might have a photo of one of those they could share?

It is sad to see what has happened to the rail freight business in and around the Bay Area. Oakland Yard today is as dead as downtown Provo, Utah on a Monday night, and freight centers such as the Hunts Cannery in Hayward are totally non-existent. Also, look at once bustling yards such as Tracy that were such great places to watch trains... In any event, my thanks to you all for your nice comments and for adding to this thread. I'm glad what I shared has brought back happy memories for all of you as well...

Best wishes,

ShastaDaylight