Nostalgia & History > Dumbarton Bridge

Does anyone know if the SP ever ran regular passenger trains
across the Dumbarton bridge in the San Francisco Bay?
Thank you

Ed Gibson wondered about that -- don't think he found one in a timetable, but I'll check.

Later years, passenger specials or Officer Specials

If you allow for a mixed train, then yes. Western No. 146, December 22, 1912 shows Second Class No. 503 "Redwood Mixed" departing Niles 3.10PM, Dumbarton 3.55PM (flag station), arrive Redwood 4.30PM. Return Second Class No. 512, "Redwood Mixed" departing Redwood at 5.15PM and passing Dumbarton station 5.45PM, arrive Niles 6.15PM. Both No. 503 and No. 512 ran daily.

 

President Harding funeral special eastbound August 3, 1923

I seem to have displaced many of my relevant notes, but here goes anyway.

SP did run both passeneger and mixed trains on Dumbarton. They did not appear when the bridge opened to freight traffic due to ongoing settling  problems with trestle piles.

On Decemeber 26, 1911, both passenger and mixed trains began running from Niles to Redwood and return. These were established to run as extra trains by Western Division Circular during the life of employee timetable #141. I copied this circular - see below - at CSRM, but for some reason it and #141 are not part of their timetable collection at Internet Archives.

Now things get a bit murky. I recall seeing both passenger and mixed trains listed in #142 (February, 1912), but neither appeared in #143 of April, 1912. A major understanding about SP employee and public timetables is that they, as we have noted, did not necessarily show what trains were actually running, because trains were added, removed and had routes/times modified whenever deemed necessary, rather than waiting for new employee timetables. This was especially common for lightly traveled local trains. 

This said, the trains may have reverted to extra trains at times, as Niles was an awkward location for originating and terminating trains in terms of crew and equipment sourcing. Schedules seemed to change a lot. I don't know exactly how things progressed because employee timetables of the period are very scarce, but Western Division #147 of April, 1913 shows the two mixed trains. That timetable from CSRM is also shown here because it is not on Internet Archives either.

I believe that my missing notes show the mixed trains operating until at least 1916. I wish that I could tell you more.

- EO
Wx4.org




 

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Further info: I located a copy of Western Division employee timetable #142 for January (not February), 1912 which confirmes the presence of both mixed and passenger trains on Dunbarton on paper, if not necessarily in fact.

EO
Wx4.org

Interesting stuff! This is the first I'm learning of trains being on the timetable but not actually running. Thanks for raising that possibility. Helpful to know when diving into the Dome O Foam and other timetable collections. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/26 13:30 by phthithu.

Lots of? Most? RRs came out with new empl TTs
effective during May 1971, not on the 1st.
Lots of SP and SFe examples on WX$.org.
 

Newspaper article from December 1911 on passenger service running between Niles and Redwood City. Two trains each way daily.

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19111227.2.48&srpos=4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-dumbarton+passenger+service------- 

phthithu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is the first I'm learning
> of trains being on the timetable but not actually
> running. Thanks for raising that possibility.
> Helpful to know when diving into the Dome O Foam
> and other timetable collections. 

Another example: For more than three years after it was floated in by ship in January, 1913, SP McKeen Motor car #7 ran several times a day between Marshfield (later: Coos Bay) and North Bend Oregon. The railroad was an isolated stretch of SP's then-building Willamette Pacific, but was operated by SP's Coos Bay, Roseburg & Eastern. It appeared in none of those road's employee timetables, or apparently in any of the public timetables published by them. Schedules could only be found in the newspapers. Maybe some long lost timetable bulletins authorized the trains, or possibly an equally lost 'mini' WP on the Coos Bay Peninsula was issued. None of the extant employee timetables shows #7's operating territory.

More: In late 1928 the CA PUC allowed SP to 'temporarily' suspend service on the last two Ocean View Line, San Francisco passenger trains during construction of Bernal Cut. In early 1930 PUC allowed outright abandonment of the trains. Coast employee timetable #129, which listed the trains, was in effect before, during and after that period. Each day the trains were annulled by train order (or maybe timetable bulletins in those times).

EO
Wx4.org