Nostalgia & History > The California Zephyr Departing.Oakland Mole in June 1956

The caption reads, "The towerman in the SP Oakland Pier Tower has the route lined for the Eastbound California Zephyr as it gets underway on the morning of June 15, 1956."  John C. Illman photographer.

Up front was Western Pacific F7A 804-D built January 1950.

Did they have to cut notches out of this end of the station building to get the domes in and out?  Sure looks like it from this angle.  But the smoke stacks on large steamers were pretty high.

Enjoy,
Marty Bernard



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/19 20:25 by MartyBernard.

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Outstanding!  Those F units must have been idling for a while which provided some nice smoke when departing.

Beautiful photo Marty.In todays terms where was this situated.BART tunnel area ???
Regards,DK

Those aren't notches but lower train sheds extending further out from the main building.

DKay Wrote:
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> Beautiful photo Marty.In todays terms where was
> this situated.BART tunnel area ???
> Regards,DK

The Port has filled in around the Oakland Mole. Here's more info and some maps:

http://users.snowcrest.net/marnells/oakpier.htm

Also recommend John Signor's SP Western Division book for info: https://www.signaturepress.com/signor/WD.html

Perhaps the nicest train I ever rode...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I had the privilege of riding that train on the back half of a Denver-SF-Denver round trip two months after that photo was taken.  Even got to ride the ferry across the Bay to the Ferry Terminal on the first half of the trip.  Yes, that was one beautiful train, first class service all around, even got the Glenwood Canyon meet of EB and WB both ways, and saw the scale model dome when it was the monument in the Canyon.  Good times.