Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicle #180: Rain, Wind and Tides

Railroading on the Western Division was sometimes conducted by consulting the Tide Tables rather than the Timetables.

I was not the person who first concocted this description of Western Division Operations, but as you can see from the pictures, I certainly learned the truth of that description. And we certainly kept a tide table handy. But that is not all of the story.

First, you experience a very heavy rain event and the runoff from this precipitation charges down all of the creeks and the rivers in the neighborhood. If this occurs during the high tide cycles during the high tide months of November, December, January and February, the high runoff meets the high tides. Now suppose that there is a fair amount of wind which will drive the water toward the shore line. This will raise the observed high tide level well above what is called for on the tide chart.

These five photos show you what the end result will be.

The first two photos are taken on the north(in those days, west) end of Drawbridge on the Coast Subdivision. We have arrived at high tide and water is flowing over the top of the rails.
Mad Dog is the one in the tan hip length coat on the left of the first photo. That is my Division Engineer, Jack Hall in the blue Jacket, wearing the hard hat, next to me. In the second photo, the fellow on the left in the grey rain coat is my assistant Superintendent, Jim Bachar.

You can see that the water has actually risen between the first and second photos

In the next two photos, that is the Division Superintendent, MDO, inspecting the bridge as the water recedes. Believe it or not, I am wearing a suit and tie under that tan coat.

The last photo is taken from the hirail car as we carefully hirail south toward Alviso. Notice the rip rap on both sides of the track, just in front of the Hirail car.

When that bridge was rebuilt several years later, the track level was raised by at leased two feet above the levels shown in these five photos.

12/16/06
mdo

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Mike,

Interesting pix. Were there sandbags between the rails in the first two pix? Where did Jack and Jim end up after the SP?

For some background for folks. The SP Coast line was originally the narrow gauge South Pacific Coast. This line suffered this problem long before MDO was on the scene, as that area has either been sinking or flooding for years.

J.

Sand bags, yes. Both Hall and Kirkland are standing on them. They were very ineffective.

I havn't mentioned W B (Bill) Kirkland yet. He is the individual on the right in both photo one and photo two. His father was a superintendent on the New Mexico Division and then Superintendent of Transportation of the SP during the early part of WWII. He died of a heart attack walking from the SP HQ to the Ferry sometime during the war.

WBK had gone to Annapolis, become a Captain on a Destroyer and then transfered to Naval Aviation and serverd on various carriers during WWII.
He ended his career first as a staff officer at the Pentagon helping to computerize the Navy and finally as the commander of the Naval Air Station at Alameda. He was responsible for maintaining all of the Navy's Neptune fleet.

As you might well guess, he was a good friend of mine. He died several years ago... GRHS.

mdo

J.Ferris Wrote:
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> Mike,
>
> Interesting pix. Were there sandbags between the
> rails in the first two pix? Where did Jack and Jim
> end up after the SP?
>

Both had retired before the UP merger in 1996. I know that Jack Hall has died. I have lost track of Mr. Bachar, truly a master railroader.

mdo

>The SP Coast line was originally the narrow gauge South Pacific Coast.

Actually, just the section from Mulford, including the airport lead but not the connection to Elmhurst, to Santa Clara.

Here is a photo of the bridge at the north end of Drawbridge taken on a slightly drier occation - though you couldn't tell my feet that, as they were about six inches into the ooze and reeds when I snapped it. I hope this is the same bridge in your photos, and that it wasn't one further north.

That place is spooky, with the old buildings smelling of rot and threatening to collapse beneath your feet with every step. Of course, that was nearly 16 years ago, and I would expect to find a lot less standing there today. It was quite an adventure just getting to the place.

- Kit

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In case you were wondering, the high tides are especially high in the December-February time period because the earth is at its closest to the sun at that time (perihelion is around January 2). So the solar tide is especially strong (the tides are the combined effort of solar and lunar influences, with the solar tide usually about 40% as strong as the lunar tide).

Winston Hill

CimaScrambler Wrote:
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> Here is a photo of the bridge at the north end of
> Drawbridge taken on a slightly drier occation -
> though you couldn't tell my feet that, as they
> were about six inches into the ooze and reeds when
> I snapped it. I hope this is the same bridge in
> your photos, and that it wasn't one further
> north.
>
> That place is spooky, with the old buildings
> smelling of rot and threatening to collapse
> beneath your feet with every step. Of course,
> that was nearly 16 years ago, and I would expect
> to find a lot less standing there today. It was
> quite an adventure just getting to the place.

What year did the Capitols begin? I didn't know they were running in 89.
>
> - Kit

mdo wrote:

>I havn't mentioned W B (Bill) Kirkland yet. He is
the individual on the right in both photo one and
photo two.


What was W.B. Kirkland's position with the SP?


AMW Engr wrote:

>What year did the Capitols begin? I did not know they were running in 89.


December 1991.

yeah S-man, I believe seeing this is July 1989, we are seeing the NB Amtrak #14 in Kit's photo running on time north out of San Jose towardsw Oakland just before early summer late sunset (8PMish). Two F40PH's back to back with baggae cafr behind them is the sure-in evidence too.

BTW, good photo story MDO on the Drawbridge/South Bay high tide issues from before. I figured the ROW was raised. Too bad the same high tide spot on the same Coast Line further South at the Slough still has these same issues on those extreme moon pull days...



AMW Engr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CimaScrambler Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Here is a photo of the bridge at the north end
> of
> > Drawbridge taken on a slightly drier occation -
> > though you couldn't tell my feet that, as they
> > were about six inches into the ooze and reeds
> when
> > I snapped it. I hope this is the same bridge
> in
> > your photos, and that it wasn't one further
> > north.
> >
> > That place is spooky, with the old buildings
> > smelling of rot and threatening to collapse
> > beneath your feet with every step. Of course,
> > that was nearly 16 years ago, and I would
> expect
> > to find a lot less standing there today. It
> was
> > quite an adventure just getting to the place.
>
> What year did the Capitols begin? I didn't know
> they were running in 89.
> >
> > - Kit

JohnSweetser Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mdo wrote:
>
> >I havn't mentioned W B (Bill) Kirkland yet. He
> is
> the individual on the right in both photo one and
> photo two.
>
>
> What was W.B. Kirkland's position with the SP?
>
>
WBK did not work for the SP. He was along on the trip as a consultant and marine expert. We were discusssing rebuilding and raising those bridge structures. In the case of Drawbridge, the need for a movable span. At that time its only use was to aliow dredges to access the salt pond levies for maintenance.

mdo

espeeboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>>
> BTW, good photo story MDO on the Drawbridge/South
> Bay high tide issues from before. I figured the
> ROW was raised. Too bad the same high tide spot on
> the same Coast Line further South at the Slough
> still has these same issues on those extreme moon
> pull days...
>
>
> And it will continue to do so forever and ever amen. The Elkhorn Slough is a vital habitat for both marine and bird life and touching it is a definite no-no. They did a culvert repair there a few years back and had a platoon of environmental agency representatives monitoring every move every day. C.
>

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

espeeboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> yeah S-man, I believe seeing this is July 1989, we
> are seeing the NB Amtrak #14 in Kit's photo
> running on time north out of San Jose towardsw
> Oakland just before early summer late sunset
> (8PMish). Two F40PH's back to back with baggae
> cafr behind them is the sure-in evidence too.
>

Let me go back and find my notes again. You might be right about that the train being #14 and not a Capitol. My notebooks from the years 1988-1991 when I spent a lot of time in that area are loose leaf and some of the pages have ended up in the wrong order. I'm pretty sure about the date the photo was taken.

- Kit

Definately is Number 14