Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Key System ala '57!

In a rare departure from protocol we have a guest photographer sitting in for today’s WAG Wednesday. As is common in most any significant slide collection, the Gibson Collection houses many dozens of “trader” slides from a veritable honor roll-call of railfan photographers. Art Randall, a long time friend of the Gibsons is one of those photographers. Mr Randall had military service time similar to that of our TO member Art Gibson, aka ‘WAG Jr’. They were both on the west coast in the late 1950s when they were discharged from service to their country. And both took advantage of that fact to do some railfanning right off the bus, you might say.

Art Gibson would return home to Kansas, but Art Randall remained to take up residence in the San Francisco Bay area. The two Key System images below were taken by Mr Randall somewhere in that same area. With very little info on the slides I had to fall back on whatever WAG Jr (Art Gibson-wag216) could remember from these 61 year old images. Art couldn’t pin down the precise location, other than somewhere in the Bay Area. He did say he thought these images were on the Key System “B line”. Can anyone fill in the gaps in our location info?

1. Classic late 1950s suburban USA scene on the Key System. For starters, note the ‘76’ & ‘Shell’ gas station signs…

2. Key System 186 rolls through an unknown intersection in front of yet another ‘76’ gas station.
(2 original slides by Art Randall circa 1957, from the Art Gibson collection)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/22 02:11 by santafe199.

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Sharp and colorful historic photos that add enough of the scenery to make them even better.
Bob

I agree with Bob: beautiful and historical.

 Great color in both photos .  I see a '56 Chevy parked in the distance in #2 . 

In the last photo, a sign for 'Awful Fresh MacFarlane's' can be seen ahead of the Bridge car. 

A Google search shows this as MacFarlane's Candy Company, with Oakland offices at 2355 Broadway, in the Cuyler Lee Building.

More searching revealed there was also a MacFarlane's in Berkeley on the corner of University and Shattuck Avenues.

Rich



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/18 09:04 by PasadenaSub.

#1 kinda looks like the intersection of Claremont and College Aves in Berkeley.  That's the Claremont Hotel on the hill in the background.  Maybe?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/18 09:33 by LarryB.

The first photo is a westbound E line train enroute San Francisco on Claremont Avenue.

Second photo is a San Francisco bound B train on West Grand Ave. at Telegraph in Oakland. 

Stephanie Ann

Don't overlook that $0.29 gas either.

In the second pic, the Pink car on the right, looks like a 54 Ford. upkpfan

santafe199 Wrote:

> 1. Classic late 1950s suburban USA scene on the
> Key System. For starters, note the ‘76’ &
> ‘Shell’ gas station signs…

LarryB Wrote:

> #1 kinda looks like the intersection of Claremont
> and College Aves in Berkeley.  That's the
> Claremont Hotel on the hill in the background. 
> Maybe?

You can't see the Claremont in this view, but I agree we are looking northeast up Claremont Ave. at College Ave. with a San Francisco-bound E-line train approaching.  The buildings on the right and the far left survive, and a much-updated Shell station survived on the right until a few years ago.

2018: https://goo.gl/maps/RoB5NKhqzWx
2011: https://goo.gl/maps/o8CTC5KreTQ2

> 2. Key System 186 rolls through an unknown
> intersection in front of yet another ‘76’ gas
> station.

Not sure if you can read them, but there are some black-on-white street signs just to the left of the trolley wire support pole on the far left.  I agree that we are at Telegraph Ave. looking east along Grand Ave. in Oakland, though there are absolutely no landmarks left from the 1957 view at that intersection today:

https://goo.gl/maps/oW7wb5fCRDU2

Bridge unit 186 is still with us, preserved at the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Jct., CA:

http://www.wrm.org/visit/car-roster/passenger-cars/interurban/item/63-key-system-186

Hey gang, thanks a BUNCH! That was a great collaboration nailing down the locations. Now I can toss them into the right place(s) in the Gibson collection Master File...

Lance

Added: I was able to look at your street views, Evan. Endlessly fascinating to know what once was, how "American suburbia" looked 6 decades ago. Another argument for shooting EVERYTHING...   LFG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/18 08:23 by santafe199.

Thanks for the enjoyable Key System street shots.

Larry