FL Wrote:
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> Can anyone help me with the location? Is this
> along Buena Vista Ave?

Yup. That's Buena Vista in the foreground. The switch ahead of the engine went into the large brick Del Monte warehouse. The metal building on the other side of the engine was Weyerhaeuser's warehouse. The track that paralleled Buena Vista was jointly used by ABL and SP, although SP didn't switch the customers along it. Rather, it was used by SP to access the ABL yard just west of Sherman Street plus SP's own customers in West Alameda.

> Also, were ABL's operations normally at night?

By the time of your photo, ABL was running a single daily job on Switch Shift, typically starting M-F around 3 or 4 PM and going until they were done, which could often be after midnight. As ABL's business trickled down, they would run only as needed instead of daily, using a crew shared with the OTR.

SP had a yard job called the "Super Chief" that went on duty at the Homestead Yard in West Oakland at 11 PM, brought cars to the ABL's yard, picked up the outbound SP/WP/ATSF cars, delivered the SP and WP cars to West Oakland, then continued on to the ATSF interchange in Emeryville, then returned to the Homestead with whatever ATSF had left for SP and ABL.