Nostalgia & History > SP F Unit Friday East Bay 1962

SP X-6332 west passing through Fruitvale. The going away shot shows the big Montgomery Ward Warehouse the Amazon of its day.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

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Were you up on a boxcar? Good on ya!
SR

photobob, Wow! The way it was before all the crap. Monkey Ward!, Snears, yes where we got everything back in the day. Brick and Morter they call it now. I've found that it is almost impossible to shop anywhere other than online. Whatever the only constant is change, and change we got. 
Thanks for all the great vintage posts.
Gonut

I was a freelance photographer for the SP PR Department and had permission to get on equipent or structures for the sake of a photo. Things were different six decades ago. 

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

Superior scenes!
Bob

The second shot is a PR shot.  It has a great angle on the F's - like they are going out for business, and it has the Montgomery Ward building prominently in the background.  In the 60's the knitting mill my mom worked for shipped out underwear to Montgomery Ward in 40 foot boxcars.  In the 70's I hauled stuff for another outfit - aquamarine Sears pigs.

Fruitvale tower in the first photo. The tracks curving around headed to Alameda. Saw a goat derail about a quarter mile around that curve years ago. As usual, a good amount in these great pics is gone. Wards, the tower, even the rails to Alameda are cut off at the bridge across the estuary...

Thanks, Bob. Another good memory!

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> photobob, Wow! The way it was before all the crap.
> Monkey Ward!, Snears, yes where we got everything
> back in the day. Brick and Morter they call it
> now. I've found that it is almost impossible to
> shop anywhere other than online. Whatever the only
> constant is change, and change we got. 
> Thanks for all the great vintage posts.
> Gonut

Yup!  Monkey Ward.  Great memory of my step-dad taking me there after school from Alameda (our home town) in 1957.  I was 12.  We went to the catalog pick-up where he presented me with a new Winchester .22  rifle which I still have and use to this day.  The photo rekindled a fond memory.  Oh yes, the covered wagon is cool too.  Thanks mucho for the post.

Very enjoyable SP pictures!

Larry

Roll back the clock another 60 years, and Fruitvale looked like this.  It's just about as unrecognizable compared to Fruitvale 1962 as Fruitvale 1962 is to Fruitvale 2022.  No Montgomery Wards, no freight depot, the tower is on the north side, the suburban passenger trains are powered by steam (what's a diesel?), and the signals are mast-mounted semaphores.  Uncredited ca.1905 photo from the Western Railway Museum Archives.

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Great shots. I noticed in the trackmaps: Richmond to Oakland 1965 that the location of the spur to Montgomery Ward, while the tracks themselves disappeared long ago, can still be seen today where it crossed under the BART viaduct. There's a paved over break in the median. 

Here's a video showing the thing. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/22 09:59 by phthithu.

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Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> the tower is
> on the north side

How do we know the tower is on the north side? This would suggest the train is eastward.

When did the tower move to the south side? During construction of the 1911 electrics?

In both of the 1962 photos there are power switch machines shown in service that are powered by compressed air. There was a powerful air compressor next to the tower. In the tower a lever arrangement controlled a number of switch machines. If you were near a switch, you would hear a hissing noise and a fraction of a second later, the points would move and with a clank sound, were set to the reversed position. 

In 1976 I investigated an accident there in which a 12 year old boy stepped within the points of a switch just before it was “thrown” and suffered a severe injury. He was very fortunate not to lose his foot. His screaming and yelling caused the towerman to look out, see the situation and reverse the points.

The interesting 1905 photo shows what appears to be a quite different switch machine in use.

Great photo that I'd never seen before.
In the first boxcar photo, the taller building on the east side of the tracks was just recently torn down.
It had been vacant for years and was really falling apart and leaning to one side!
Regards, Jim Evans

BCHellman Wrote:

> How do we know the tower is on the north side?

Either the tower is on the north side or the passenger depot is on the south side.  The depot looks the same as in the 1962 photo, but the Fruitvale Tower in the 1962 photo was longer along the track side and may have been a whole new construction.

Great shots, Bob!

RC Lundgren

Looks like the semaphore's shadow in
Evan's pic is near perpendicular to the track,
and the sun is well up in the sky, so can't be
looking southeast.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> BCHellman Wrote:
>
> > How do we know the tower is on the north side?
>
> Either the tower is on the north side or the
> passenger depot is on the south side.  The depot
> looks the same as in the 1962 photo, but the
> Fruitvale Tower in the 1962 photo was longer along
> the track side and may have been a whole new
> construction.

62 shot is Fruitvale Tower tpo the end, on the bay side of the tracks

FiveChime Wrote:
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> Great photo that I'd never seen before.
> In the first boxcar photo, the taller building on
> the east side of the tracks was just recently torn
> down.
> It had been vacant for years and was really
> falling apart and leaning to one side!
> Regards, Jim Evans

I remember when that was torn down. The Mission style building is still there, now a Mexican restaurant. 

phthithu Wrote:
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> FiveChime Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Great photo that I'd never seen before.
> > In the first boxcar photo, the taller building
> on
> > the east side of the tracks was just recently
> torn
> > down.
> > It had been vacant for years and was really
> > falling apart and leaning to one side!
> > Regards, Jim Evans
>
> I remember when that was torn down. The Mission
> style building is still there, now a Mexican
> restaurant. 
Small place to eat in