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Re: Tracks Around EBMUD's West Oakland Plant
Author: Dr Zarkoff
Date: 01-14-2021 - 23:00
A few things:
> After the Sacramento Northern abandoned their mainline down Shafter Avenue, they continued to access the Oakland Army Base via Oakland Terminal Railway (Key System) tracks.
After the SN abandoned its line between Walnut Creek and 40th and Shafter, it no longer operated in Oakland and Emeryville at all. That SN freight motor, of which there are many pix switching freight cars in the Emeryville area, was leased to the OT by the SN (WP) for switching what had been the SF-OTRy's freight spurs in the area of northeast of Poplar and W Grand Ave. SF-OT was an earlier name used by the Key System, and it sold the switching to a combination of the SP/WP/AT&SF in 1934, creating the OT. The SN(WP) leased 600v North End freight motors to the OT.
> The SN (Western Pacific) trains would travel down Poplar street to a track that curved west toward the old Key System yard and under the freeway interchange.
This was the OT, not the SN nor the WP, running on what used to be the Key's A and B lines on Poplar Street. The OT picked up cars from its interchange with the WP at the foot of Union Street, and the section of about three blocks of trackage between this yard and 12th Street is what replaced the entire SN line to Walnut Creek. That "old Key System yard" was the OT's yard.
> It's possible that the SN (WP) trains then crossed the SP tracks to access the Oakland Army Base.
and
>I didn't know the SN crossed the SP to the Army Base/Outer Harbor area.
Every once and a while, I would see the OT's locomotive going over the ex-IER flyover, but I'm not sure what it was doing -- perhaps to interchange in the yard off to the left of your mystery building. At one time the OT did serve what was to be a Parr Terminal in this area (off to the left of the photograph), but WWII change a lot of things. It more or less putting the kaibosh on this Parr terminal, although bits and pieces of it survived into the 1980s, even down in the Albers Mill area. The gently curing track on the north side of the yard at the west end of the flyover is the former IER WB main track to he Bay Bridge. At any rate, no freight went through the Key's underpass on account of clearance issues (mainly low trolley wire).
The tracks you've highlighted in red are SP, the lower one being a connection to the Army base -- there was a similar one at the west end of the SP's Desert Yard. The tracks which fan out directly under the r and m in Army is one end of the Army base's yard. to the right of this is the east end of the Desert Yard. There was a rather tall chain link fence between the two yards, running their entire length.
> After the Sacramento Northern abandoned their mainline down Shafter Avenue, they continued to access the Oakland Army Base via Oakland Terminal Railway (Key System) tracks.
After the SN abandoned its line between Walnut Creek and 40th and Shafter, it no longer operated in Oakland and Emeryville at all. That SN freight motor, of which there are many pix switching freight cars in the Emeryville area, was leased to the OT by the SN (WP) for switching what had been the SF-OTRy's freight spurs in the area of northeast of Poplar and W Grand Ave. SF-OT was an earlier name used by the Key System, and it sold the switching to a combination of the SP/WP/AT&SF in 1934, creating the OT. The SN(WP) leased 600v North End freight motors to the OT.
> The SN (Western Pacific) trains would travel down Poplar street to a track that curved west toward the old Key System yard and under the freeway interchange.
This was the OT, not the SN nor the WP, running on what used to be the Key's A and B lines on Poplar Street. The OT picked up cars from its interchange with the WP at the foot of Union Street, and the section of about three blocks of trackage between this yard and 12th Street is what replaced the entire SN line to Walnut Creek. That "old Key System yard" was the OT's yard.
> It's possible that the SN (WP) trains then crossed the SP tracks to access the Oakland Army Base.
and
>I didn't know the SN crossed the SP to the Army Base/Outer Harbor area.
Every once and a while, I would see the OT's locomotive going over the ex-IER flyover, but I'm not sure what it was doing -- perhaps to interchange in the yard off to the left of your mystery building. At one time the OT did serve what was to be a Parr Terminal in this area (off to the left of the photograph), but WWII change a lot of things. It more or less putting the kaibosh on this Parr terminal, although bits and pieces of it survived into the 1980s, even down in the Albers Mill area. The gently curing track on the north side of the yard at the west end of the flyover is the former IER WB main track to he Bay Bridge. At any rate, no freight went through the Key's underpass on account of clearance issues (mainly low trolley wire).
The tracks you've highlighted in red are SP, the lower one being a connection to the Army base -- there was a similar one at the west end of the SP's Desert Yard. The tracks which fan out directly under the r and m in Army is one end of the Army base's yard. to the right of this is the east end of the Desert Yard. There was a rather tall chain link fence between the two yards, running their entire length.
