Nostalgia & History > WP Remnants in San Jose

The Western Pacific's San Jose Branch, once a line with a strong traffic base operating main line size trains out of William Street Yard in San Jose, is down to just a handful of customers on the remaining trackage south of Milpitas. A recent weekend "archaelogical" tour of the line had me find just three active customers(any additions gladly welcomed):

--An industry with several tank cars spotted in the Las Plumas Industrial Park south of the Mabury Rd. grade crossing in S.J. at about m.p. 15. Access/security issues kept me from getting the company name.
--Smurfit Recycling on Alma in S.J. on an old WP spur that parallels the old "original" SP mainline about 1/4 mile north of Valbrick.
--Floor Service Supply on Auzerais Ave. just west of downtown S.J. on trackage now isolated from the rest of the WP branch. Accesed via a spur off the ex- SP Vasona Branch.

The branch is active as far as Valbrick, in place but inactive from Valbrick to the UP/Caltrain main just south of CP Michael, and removed through the Willow Glen neighborhood with just the Auzerais Ave. spur remaining at the end. Trackage to and the old WP freight house on The Alameda are long gone, replaced by urban redevelopement.

The photo below looks south at the remains of William St. Yard(m.p. 17.5), now just the mainline and three weed grown yard tracks. Whatever facilities that once existed here(enginehouse, roundhouse?) would have occupied the clearing on the left, but not even any foundations remain. Someone in WP management believed in this line once, as the mainline is 115 lb./yd. CWR. Only very infrequent runs to Smurfit run through here now.

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Shortly after leaving William St. Yard headed south the line takes on a rural look cutting through Kelly Park and crossing Coyote Creek on this wood trestle.

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The branch continues to Valbrick(m.p. 19.6) where it crossed on diamonds the original SP mainline through San Jose, replaced by a major line relocation in the 1930's. Some of the SP trackage remains to serve industry but the SP track at Valbrick is inactive.

In the view looking west down the WP, three diamonds remain in place and the red sign marks the end of active track. Old white oval stop boards still stand on either side of crossing.

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Trackage through the quiet, residential neighborhood of Willow Glen has been removed but remains in place, with modern concrete panels, at many grade crossings such as Minnesota Ave. as seen below. R/O/W has been adopted by locals as an unofficial hiking trail.

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Shed47, thanks for posting this information and images. It's very interesting to me. Gerry

Nice shots I remember catching all 4 of the WPs F units in the San Jose yard in 1980 At that time they also kept a GP-7 and a GP-9 as yard switchers Not bad for the extreme Southwestern end of the WP

After researching the WP line for the last year, it's great to see pictures and hear information and history of the line, putting all the pieces together. Thanks. Deep down I wish that Commuter Line had been approved...

Well, as of yesterday, the Valbrick diamond(s) and stop signs are removed, and there is a pole with a red square (stop sign) in the middle of the tracks just EAST of the 7th street crossing. There are also ties sitting on the tracks west of the 7th st. crossing. I think the track removal will probably continue eastward...

There was a car spotted at Smurfit. If Smurfit is still getting serviced, they're now serving it from the SP Luther area as the WP is obviously closed due to the red stop sign in the middle of the tracks...