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Re: Key System demise -- Please read "Getting There", by Stephen Goddard
Author: fkrock
Date: 04-01-2016 - 10:12
stash Wrote:
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>
> Key System was a financial basket case for years.
> Maintenance on the trains and rails stopped well
> before the end of service. They were placing
> streetcars with buses long ahead of NCL.
>
> Toward the end of the trains, the state PUC was
> ready to practically shut the system down due to
> safety concerns. Track was a mess.
>
I have worked on the Key Bridge trains at Western Railway Museum. Actually they were in fairly good condition and showed competent recent maintenance. They were not like cars I have seen in other museums that were totally worn out before they came to the museum.
Track was very bad at the end except for state owned track on the Bay Bridge. Photos exist of Key trains that rocked so badly on rough track that the pantograph came off the wire, snagged when the car rocked back, and then was ripped off the train. The track needed several million dollars repair.
Key System purchased trolley coaches to replace streetcars in the East Bay. They were never used. National City Lines sent them to Los Angeles where they were used.
One interesting photograph of the very last train ever to depart from the East Bay Terminal showed a man in the background sweeping the platform so it would be ready for the trains that never arrived the next morning.
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Key System was a financial basket case for years.
> Maintenance on the trains and rails stopped well
> before the end of service. They were placing
> streetcars with buses long ahead of NCL.
>
> Toward the end of the trains, the state PUC was
> ready to practically shut the system down due to
> safety concerns. Track was a mess.
>
I have worked on the Key Bridge trains at Western Railway Museum. Actually they were in fairly good condition and showed competent recent maintenance. They were not like cars I have seen in other museums that were totally worn out before they came to the museum.
Track was very bad at the end except for state owned track on the Bay Bridge. Photos exist of Key trains that rocked so badly on rough track that the pantograph came off the wire, snagged when the car rocked back, and then was ripped off the train. The track needed several million dollars repair.
Key System purchased trolley coaches to replace streetcars in the East Bay. They were never used. National City Lines sent them to Los Angeles where they were used.
One interesting photograph of the very last train ever to depart from the East Bay Terminal showed a man in the background sweeping the platform so it would be ready for the trains that never arrived the next morning.
