Nostalgia & History > Alameda Belt Line

OTR 101 pulling cars along Clement Street in Alameda, Calif. ABL's cars came across the Fruitvale lift bridge. At one time, Santa Fe car floats and tugboats docked at Alameda, an island city.

Is that a Studebaker?

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Stash, Once again great shot. Although it looks like a Studebaker I don't think it really is. During my time at the ABL we did work the SF barges as well as the Los Plumas and also had one hell of a head-on wreck with the SP on the S-curve coming into the yard by the yard office. But,I'll leave that war story for later. Did I mention while I was there in 1965 I was one of the very few non-rule G guys from the SP. That in itself is a great story....

Al Fonseca
ABL Switchman 1965-66

I'd say it is a Studie--1948 +/- a year. In 1950 they went to the "airplane" look, trying to be different from the squarer cars of the day. That lasted about 2 years. After the post WWII auto boom, when you could sell anything with four wheels and an engine (and when the remaining interurbans and streetcar lines started to fold rapidly). Studebaker fell on hard times in the mid-50's and was history by 1966. For a while (if memory serves me right) Studebaker and Alco were in the same corporate family.

Love those "Submarine" switches. I didn't envy the switchman in SF when they had lift the heavy plates and reach down into a hole full of water to get the handle. All the switchers had brooms with the chisel point on the other end to clean out the points.

Nudge

One submarine switch that used to be thrown daily was on the SP's short branchline that went up 18th Street in Oakland (same line that curved around past 16th Street Tower)and crossed under the double deck Nimitz Freeway (collapsed in the 1989 earthquake but trains could still pass under the collapsed portion although they did not for obvious reasons) to serve the steel plant (can't recall the name). The steel cover to that switch had to be repaired by an welding crew every couple of weeks or so as it would get broken due to heavy truck traffic passing over it. As an aside, that little branch had a wig-wag at the Peralta St. crossing (one of the last wig-wags?). We had only one train vs. vehicle accident on that little line in the past 29 years and that was a sideswipe with a Cadillac in 1986.

Submarine switches, now there's something you don't see much today. We had a ton of them on the ABL, on the Wobbly along 3rd street, in SJ and over at the 25th Street roller-coaster division. Of course the SP had many where ever they did their street running. The Tidewater also had one memberable one in front of the college going to the North Yard (SP Transfer). Anyway, I degress, I still work with a couple of old former ABL/OTR switchmen from the 60's here in Roseville and every chance we get we bore everone within ear shot with our war stories, etc.... Speaking of Submarine switches, Just as a bonus, many times when opening the cover one discovers rats before they scurry away... Ah yeah, those were the days....

Al

I've seen many of those switches. OTR still uses one on 20th at Gary Steel. But until this thread I never heard the term "submarine switch". I'm always learning something on Trainorders.

Looks kind of like a Kaiser to me.

You got it!!! Couldn't put a name to it till you said it...

Al

Wow! Did my reserve duty in the building on the left in the '60's. Photo is looking east towards Park St. IIRC the Alameda High School football field is along the right side of the street. Thanks for the memories.

Larry B @ mp308, UP Canyon Sub

I remember that wigwag very well, but would sure love to get a photo of it. It lasted well into the 80's if I remember correctly.

Westbound Wrote:
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> One submarine switch that used to be thrown daily
> was on the SP's short branchline that went up 18th
> Street in Oakland (same line that curved around
> past 16th Street Tower)and crossed under the
> double deck Nimitz Freeway (collapsed in the 1989
> earthquake but trains could still pass under the
> collapsed portion although they did not for
> obvious reasons) to serve the steel plant (can't
> recall the name). The steel cover to that switch
> had to be repaired by an welding crew every couple
> of weeks or so as it would get broken due to heavy
> truck traffic passing over it. As an aside, that
> little branch had a wig-wag at the Peralta St.
> crossing (one of the last wig-wags?). We had only
> one train vs. vehicle accident on that little line
> in the past 29 years and that was a sideswipe with
> a Cadillac in 1986.

>Larry B @ mp308, UP Canyon Sub<

You're not Larry LaBarge the Portola conductor are you? If you are I'm Al Fonseca

Al,
Nope, I'm not that Larry

if any one has more clements street pictures or belt line yard pictures please post them i was on the alameda job for almost eight years midnights from 67, 72 to78 S P homestead to alameda back to 40 st interchange we had all kinds of fun including blocking the belt engine after noons 79 to 88 or so from east oakland espicaly if the barroom at grandstreet was open and the pool table open. on a number of trip we would have 70 or more cars we would have to stop cut off and go get the line up around the grand st cruve go back and get a running start around and across grand if we didn,t that ment we had to double trip , make cuts pull and deliver and go back for the rest. now the fun midnights was when we stopped people would pull pins on the cars which when we had full crews ment soneone had to walk the train put it together and ride the rear. we even had a local resident on a motor cycle speed around fron st to st playing games i grew up in alameda so i always got the job. alameda sure wasn,t thinking when they ran everything out and closed down the canneries and bussiness so new developer could build yuppie houses with no property or real yards they have what three hundred or so. what taxpayer didn,t know was that a per diem was paid on every car, which helped the city budget so well that the city manager i know would ask when we were delevering more becuse he had to fix or build something. some years their was a couple million dollars about. add it up yuppy house tax or per diem and no industry jobs or tax base yep those were the days. and becuse of the covennets in the land deeds wonder what going to happen to the belt yard land

so did I.

That is a late forties Studebaker. I was all of 14 or 15 at that time. My, how time flies. My first car was a 1941 Studebaker "President" 2 dr sedan. Isin't it funny how we can remenber back all those years to recall our "first car".

Jim
Hatboro, PA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/19 22:26 by Chooch.