Nostalgia & History > Makes Me Wish I Was Older

After viewing all of Tony Johnson's SP material from my side of the Bay, I can't help but wish I was a bit older at times to have seen all this activity which occurred around the San Francisco Bay Area. By the time I really got interested in trains, it was when the decline of Bayshore yard was in full swing. As a kid though I can vividly remember seeing the activity around Bayshore as my grand folks lived up the hill in Viscitation Valley and you could look down from their kitchen window and see the lights in the yard.

Thanks Tony for taking the time to share all this material with us.

Frank you can take comfort in knowing, that some day, somebody younger than you will be saying, "I sure wish I was older and been able to shoot those Caltrain F40's in operation!" For me I wish I was older and been able to shoot long distance passenger trains before Amtrak and be able to shoot SP Daylights and Black Widows!

Both of you are about the same age as me... old enough to remember some very interesting times in railroading history...

-Oakland 16th St. depot - when you could still catch the trains there...

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When SP still ran "The Commutes"...

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When the San Ramon Branch still existed...

Oh - I'm not done yet...

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Cabooses, wigwags, and first generation geeps in Newark (not to mention the old Carter Bros building in the background)...

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And of course my favorite subject, WP F-units (turning out their last miles).

Starting to feel a little older now?

-Dan

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Nice Dan!

I don't ever recall seeing Geeps on the San Ramon Branch, north end that is. When I first came to Walnut Creek in the summer of 1970, there was an Alco switcher parked next to the fence at Capwells. After that all I ever saw were SW 1500's.

Pullman Wrote:
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> Nice Dan!
>
> I don't ever recall seeing Geeps on the San Ramon
> Branch, north end that is.

That photo of the "San Ramon Branch" has a caption of "Pleasanton - 1982". I believe by 1982 all that was left of the San Ramon Branch was stub end segment from Avon to Concord and then a stub end segment Radum to Dublin to a Kodak plant. The track in between these points (Concord and Dublin) was all gone by then.

As far as this job, this should have been the "East Pleasanton Turn" that worked out of Bayshore and also made a trip up the "branch" to Kodak when needed. BTW, I used to work that job.

1982 was about right for that photo. True, most of the branch had been pulled up by then, but there was still the segment from Radum to the Kodak plant. My point being, of course, that it's gone now too. That photo was taken at Santa Rita Rd. back when it was two lanes wide and Hacienda Business Park was just being graded.

-Dan

Railbaron Wrote:
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> That photo of the "San Ramon Branch" has a caption
> of "Pleasanton - 1982". I believe by 1982 all that
> was left of the San Ramon Branch was stub end
> segment from Avon to Concord and then a stub end
> segment Radum to Dublin to a Kodak plant. The
> track in between these points (Concord and Dublin)
> was all gone by then.

Wow, thanks for the photo of Santa Rita Road, Dan. I at first thought it might have been Dougherty road. I used to visit family on the weekends near the remains of the branch going into the Kodak plant (on Stagecoach road near the Amador Valley Blvd crossing.) Never saw a train go by. :-(