Nostalgia & History > The Coast Daylight at Third & Townsend in 1959

Here's a couple of more of the Coast Daylight at Third & Townsend I posted yesterday. PA 6039 is about to be uncoupled from the train and will head up to Mission Bay. I have to apologize for the lack of shadow detail but Kodachrome 10 was not that great for shadow detail plus the limitations of my trustee Argus C Twenty.

Robert Morris photography
http://www.snPwcrest.net/photobob/index.html

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You're a lucky man, PhotoBob- these are great!
SR

mmm beautiful orange color you got Bob--LOVE it !!!
You have done it again and knowcked it out of the ballpark LOLOL !!!
please post more of these gems, I LOVE that super historic era in railroading.
----Daniel

Nice pair, thanks for the share Bob. That Daylight scheme sure was beautiful!

Kent in CArmel Valley

Please, no apologies! We're just so happy that you were there to record these images. Thank you for sharing them with us!

S_W

Steve hit the nail on the head. Thanks for the share!

1959 was a GREAT year.

All the western streamliners had been equipped with their dome cars;

You could ride a Budd RDC through Coquihalla Canyon in daylight (until a November storm took the line out forever);

The Olympian Hiawatha was still running;

SP put its best foot forward and showed what a great railroad it was when the world's press covered Nikita Kruschev's special train;

This list is not all-inclusive.

We didn't know what we had until it was gone.

Thanks for the look back, PhotoBob!

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:

> 1959 was a GREAT year.

...in retrospect maybe, but at the time, a lot of Bay Area railfans probably thought the world had ended and there was nothing left worth shooting.

SP steam disappeared from regular service in 1957, and the last excursion with 4460 ran in 1958.
The Key System ended rail service in 1958.
SP's transbay ferry service ended and the Oakland Pier closed in 1958.
The Sacramento Northern line into Oakland was abandoned in 1957 and the facilities at 40th & Shafter were promptly bulldozed.

As photobob's photos show, there really WAS still a lot left worth shooting, but then as now, we railfans tend to worship the stuff that's gone and curse the stuff that's still here...until that's gone as well and thus becomes worship-worthy, etc.

Bob,
Great pic as usual. Spent many a time picking up my grandmother coming in from Santa Barb. Thanks.


Nudge

Wow that daylight paint really pops out in these shots! Great photos again! And whats that (unusual?) Paint sceme on the Alco? Don't recall seeing that before. Anybody have a clear nose shot of this sceme?

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA