Nostalgia & History > West Oakland Rails, pt 2

I said in pt 1 I was going to finish up with the Key/OTRy stuff, but I’d like to get some of the “steam roads” in here, too. I *think* I have enough Key stuff left to do another post with, so I figure, let’s mix it up a bit.

Since there’s basically two SP/ATSF branches/spurs, I’d like to cover one today, maybe finish the Key/OTRy, and then finish up with the other SP/ATSF.

I strongly recommend that if you want to see this stuff, get down there. The City of Oakland may be as glacial as any other US city, but contractors? Developers? Once THEY cut loose, this stuff will disappear before we all know it.

Just a quick recap: Here’s the original posts, if anyone’s interested:

My original post:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4144902

And a week or so later:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4148537

This one's the "High Switch Stand" at 26th and Wood st - we used the map Evan Werkema kindly uploaded to this post (also re-posted below) to trace rails. Actually, we found damm near every one - at least sections, anyway:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3678792

And, part 1:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4299254

I also reprinted the copy of Evan Werkema’s Western Railway Museum’s map, with all our notes. (The notes are a bit haphazard – better explanations later)

I took the liberty of putting a “1”, “2”, and “3” on the map, to help ID where we’re going today and later. We’ll start with N0.1, which, if I read the map right is a Santa Fe spur up into Pacific Pipe, and American Steel. A quick aside, they are both artist’s lofts now, looks like mostly welders.

1: Our copy of Evan’s/WRM’s map – apologies for the mess of notes (look for the 1,2,3)

2: 20th & Wood st, looking west into UP property, with our lead coming out. (map “1”)

3: I turned around and shot the lead going east.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/17 17:38 by drumwrencher.

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4: If you follow the map, this is the first turnout. Yet another switch that’ll probably never “switch” again.

5: The map shows the lead making a sharp left inside the block this building’s in, but somewhere between the 1940s and now, it was straightened out, and goes right thru the big roll up door. Couldn’t find a name on this building.

A quick correction: On the map, there's a three fingered spur near the corner, that's not there any longer.

6: The spur continues east on 20th – if these rails were shiny, I’d swear they were still used! No such luck, tho…



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/17 19:05 by drumwrencher.

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7: At 20th & Campbell, the next turnout. This was probably the closest to a complete submarine(?) switch control we found throughout the day. Some had better between-rail workings, but very little control workings.

8: Looking west back at the switch. That miserable looking RR crossbuck got us started on picturing some of them. It was interesting how some looked almost new, and some looked like ancient archeology. More on these as we go.

9: Next, 20th and Peralta. No chance in hell of this one ever getting linked up again, even the turnout is completely gone. That’s Jesus, my coworker…

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I love topics like this.....once again thanks for sharing your explorations.

10: The crossbuck at 20th & Peralta. Geeze.

11: "Geeze", from the other side, up close.

12: I thought this curious device might deserve a mention – looks like a truck adaptor added to a boxcar…? 20th & Peralta



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/17 16:30 by drumwrencher.

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13: Lots of creative works of “art” (in my book, graffiti) next to the "truck-boxcar".

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14: Finally, the spur reached Pacific Pipe, on the left, and American Steel, on the right. (Again, they're both artist's lofts now)

15: Turning around, looking back on the spur – you can just make out some rails under pavement

16: I had to add a little of the work done here. The “sculpture” to the far right, with the helicopter-looking blades on top is huge – I’d like to come back sometime and see their crane – gotta have one – up close, I’m betting two tons…

One last non-rail detail before moving on – we spoke with a few people working in the old Pacific Pipe – we found out, for you “Burning Man” fans, they’re constructing the “Man” for the next “Burning Man” right here in Pacific Pipe. Not into it myself, but I thought it’s interesting, nonetheless…

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17: Straight out back, was this ancient crossing at 20th and Poplar – here’s one I need help with: If OTRy rebuilt the rail on Poplar in 1958-ish, when did the Santa Fe rails get cut? What date? I mean, there's no diamond, just cut rails...

18: Straight across Poplar at 20th is this rail alley – no rails, and looks like it’s been decades…

19: At the same alleyway, we found this rotten crossbuck. The square on the ground was the door, broken off a safe! Welcome to West Oakland.

By this time, it was getting to be a long day, so we only half heartedly went looking for the rails on the map east of there. We didn't find any of them. Just more alleyways, with more trucks and "stuff" in them than this one.

EDIT - I was told by Jesus he had "Googled" this intersection, and Google in fact lists it as 20th and Poplar.



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/17 21:24 by drumwrencher.

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20: Train crews must have hated these rails. We found so many rails, joints, whatnot just as bad and worse than this. What a broken up ride it must have turned into.

Well, if you made it this far, thank you. Hope you all enjoyed this second trip down the soon-to-be-gone West Oakland rails. Thanks again, Jesus, my coworker, and to Evan Werkema and WRM. We all know these posts would be pretty bland without your input…!

Enjoy. Next up, more Key/OTRy.

Walter

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rev66vette Wrote:
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> I love topics like this.....once again thanks for
> sharing your explorations.

My pleasure. Glad you're enjoying the trip. Stick around, more to come.

Walter

Great coverage, sad pictures, not just for the rails but also for the businesses they served. When I hired on with my first employer we
had a sales engineer who covered just the Oakland area and was pulling down $100K in the mid-sixties.

Out

These are neat adventures and I enjoy seeing them, mostly imagining back in the day when a full crew and maybe an Alco S2 trundled every day making set-outs and pick ups amoungst all the street/industrial traffic------great times back then. Thanks for showing all this.
Brian Stevens

drumwrencher Wrote:
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> 12: I thought this curious device might deserve a mention – looks like a truck adaptor added to a
> boxcar…? 20th & Peralta

Geez, for some reason I had envisioned PTC was going to be a little more high tech than that. ;-)

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great coverage, sad pictures, not just for the
> rails but also for the businesses they served.
> When I hired on with my first employer we
> had a sales engineer who covered just the Oakland
> area and was pulling down $100K in the
> mid-sixties.
>
> Out

Thanks. By the end of the day, we were worn out. Picked a hot day to be out and about. I must wonder - what would 1960s $100k be today!

Walter

SCKP187 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> These are neat adventures and I enjoy seeing them,
> mostly imagining back in the day when a full crew
> and maybe an Alco S2 trundled every day making
> set-outs and pick ups amoungst all the
> street/industrial traffic------great times back
> then. Thanks for showing all this.
> Brian Stevens

My pleasure. I'm wondering - in the 1930's, on the SP/ATSF, anyway, it almost had to be an 0-6-0, or possibly a consolidation? I tell ya what, tho, I'd love to see an Alco S2 plying these rails nowadays - heck, even a genset would be better than rails pulled up for lofts...! I know that'll never happen, but we can still dream, right?

Thanks.

Walter

ble692 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> drumwrencher Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 12: I thought this curious device might deserve
> a mention – looks like a truck adaptor added to
> a
> > boxcar…? 20th & Peralta
>
> Geez, for some reason I had envisioned PTC was
> going to be a little more high tech than that. ;-)

Ha! I thought the same thing when I saw the initials on the street sign!

Walter

Thanks Walter. It's been about 40 years since I last roamed around this area looking for rails in the streets.

drumwrencher Wrote:

> 4: If you follow the map, this is the first
> turnout. Yet another switch that’ll probably
> never “switch” again.
>
> 5: The map shows the lead making a sharp left
> inside the block this building’s in, but
> somewhere between the 1940s and now, it was
> straightened out, and goes right thru the big roll
> up door. Couldn’t find a name on this building.

That building started life as the final Key System ferry terminal (Key Pier), constructed in 1933 to replace one that burned down. Western Railway Museum Archives photo 68963 below looks west, broadside to the slips where the ferries pulled in, but is the best one I've found for showing the sheds over the tracks for comparison to the existing building on 20th. Key System trains moved to the Bay Bridge in 1939, and following a brief resumption of ferry service for the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island, the pier was decommissioned and dismantled. The sheds were sold and re-assembled some time in the 1940's at 20th and Willow to house a series of steel fabrication companies. The first name I've found associated with it is Jorgensen Steel, and it was later occupied by Gary Steel, which became a subsidiary of Primary Steel. The last outfit to occupy it was Kloeckner Metals, who shuttered the facility in late 2013 or early 2014. Santa Fe served the plant until the 1990's, when the construction of the new 880 freeway severed the connection from the SP main to Wood St. Yard. After that, the Oakland Terminal Railway (an ATSF and by then UP subsidiary) switched the plant as well as the other remaining Santa Fe customers on and east of Wood St. until June 2012, when the OTR was dissolved. A new shortline called the West Oakland Pacific Railroad (owned by Industrial Railways of Pinole, CA) took over switching the two remaining customers - Kloeckner at 20th & Willow, and Pyro Minerals at 26th and Wood, as well as the incipient industrial park that was developing in the old Oakland Army Base. The WOPR used a trackmobile to drive over the West Grand overpass from the base to switch the two customers off Wood St. as-needed. They soon found that on street running, a trackmobile's ability to get off the rails and run around freight cars on the pavement made throwing and maintaining that switch in 20th unnecessary. It was spiked and otherwise immobilized some time in 2013.

Some threads showing switching at the steel plant:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2794894
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3471877,3471903#3471903
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,665088,884239#884239

> 8: Looking west back at the switch. That miserable
> looking RR crossbuck got us started on picturing
> some of them. It was interesting how some looked
> almost new, and some looked like ancient
> archeology.

I was very surprised when I came to the Bay Area in the mid-90's and found there were still some crossbucks like this one with painted wood signboards rather than painted aluminum overlays nailed to the signboards. The painted-wood signs wore out more rapidly, and Santa Fe had been using metal overlays or metal signboards since at least the 60's, but evidently the old ways hung on in a few odd corners. That crossbuck also features a section of old boiler tube as its post, an "alternate design," as the system standard put it, to the usual wooden post.

> 14: Finally, the spur reached Pacific Pipe, on the
> left, and American Steel, on the right. (Again,
> they're both artist's lofts now)

Pacific Pipe shut down around 2002. It had rail service to the end via the OTR, running up the 26th St. lead before turning down Kirkham St. The OTR used to spot the gondolas by the cement plant at 26th & Peralta, and Pacific Pipe would send a locomotive crane out to retrieve them. The American Steel building was last occupied by McGrath Steel, and closed down about 1999. It was last served off the SP lead on 18th St.

> 17: Straight out back, was this ancient crossing
> at 20th and Poplar – here’s one I need help
> with: If OTRy rebuilt the rail on Poplar in
> 1958-ish, when did the Santa Fe rails get cut?
> What date? I mean, there's no diamond, just cut
> rails...

When the OTR single-tracked Poplar in the late 1950's, they installed an automatic interlocking here, guarded by signals that cleared for whomever got there first. I don't know precisely when the interlocking was removed or when the diamond was pulled, but Vic Neves has a photo showing the diamond intact in 1980. I've seen later photos of Santa Fe switching that lead underneath the "old" 880 freeway Cypress Structure that collapsed in the 1989 earthquake, so I suspect the diamond was intact into the late 80's at least.

> I'm wondering - in the 1930's, on the
> SP/ATSF, anyway, it almost had to be an 0-6-0, or
> possibly a consolidation?

The second, very fuzzy photo below shows a Santa Fe 2-8-0 leading a cut of cars off the former IER flyover at 26th St. Junction, the portion that survives today (I hope) and was last used by the OTR in 2012. It doesn't prove Santa Fe used 2-8-0's on the street trackage, but it is a possibility (Santa Fe also had 0-6-0's in the area).

This old thread shows SP 0-6-0's working in this general area, but not on 20th specifically:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4079283

This thread shows a Santa Fe GP7 in zebra stripes heading down Beach St. toward Wood St.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,893722,893722#893722

phthithu Wrote:

> In some 1968 aerial photos I see a couple tiny
> pocket yards running parallel to 40th St. but just
> south of it, sort of where Mandela Parkway starts
> today. What were these yards and what railroad did
> they originate with?

The red rectangle on the left was Key System's Yerba Buena Yard, which was also where their powerhouse was located west of the Emeryville Shops. The red rectangle on the right was Santa Fe's "Oakland" yard, which was actually just across the border into Emeryville. The long building at the bottom of the rectangle was Santa Fe's freight house, and the passenger depot used to stand above and to the right of it abutting San Pablo Ave.

One of KeyRouteKen's favorite old photos was an aerial view from several decades earlier that shows the area more clearly:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4241697

See also: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2747756

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Here are two on the 20th Street lead for Gary Steel.
Credit Ryan Martin on the third photo which is on Wood Street.

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Two photos of the Pyro switch.
One showing the PV Tamalpais beneath the maze. Tammy has a new name now.

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