Trolley Tuesday 5/4/21 - The Southern Pacific's East Bay Electric Lines

Once again, welcome to another new month of Trolleyposts by your conductor and your motorman! This month, we're still in the Bay Area but we're now crossing the Bay Bridge to get to the East Bay cities of Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley. Long before this massive bridge was here, the East Bay was full of streetcar lines that were, eventually, replaced by the now-familiar Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the Bay Bridge. On today's Trolley Tuesday, we start our journey off in Oakland as we look at the Southern Pacific Railroad's other interurban holding, the Oakland, Alameda & Berkeley Lines. Of course, in hindsight, we now know this as the East Bay Electrics (EBE) and who knows? We might even see some familiar faces along the way!

A Benign Mole

The Oakland Long Wharf, as captured in 1878.
(Leslie Magazine, Library of Congress)

Long before electric wires were strung up on Oakland shores, the area was already a hotbed of railroad activity thanks to the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). In mid-1851, the first steam ferries out of the settlement of Contra Costa began operating routes towards San Francisco and this began a lucrative business in ferrying goods and passengers across the bay. Railroads soon became a factor thanks to early ferry booster Rodman Gibbons, who was instrumental in launching the Contra Costa ferry services, after he envisioned building a massive pier complex that connected to Oakland by railroad, bypassing the need to worry about launching ferries during low tide. By September 2, 1862, the San Francisco & Oakland Railroad (SF&O) began operations with two brand-spanking-new steam locomotives and a line down Seventh Street to Broadway. This period of steam-and-ferry-operations continued until November 8, 1869, when the Central Pacific Railroad (CP, Southern Pacific's predecessor company) purchased a controlling interest in the SF&O and added them to their roster.

The first Oakland station at Seventh and Broadway, looking west.
The grove of oak trees in the background gave Oakland its name.
(Southern Pacific, Robert S. Ford)

The original Oakland Long Wharf at its height, with
lumber being an especially important commodity at the time.
(Roy D Graves, Robert S. Ford)

Central Pacific also bought other lines in the area, like the San Francisco & Alameda Railroad (SF&A) that ran through to Encenal and Alameda, and upgraded the Oakland Mole to suit the arrival of "overland" trains using the recently-opened Transcontinental Railroad in late 1869. By 1870, both the SF&A and the SF&O were merged along with the initial Western Pacific Railroad (which built the Transcontinental Railroad between Sacramento and the East Bay, not the 1903-onward operator of the California Zephyr) into the Central Pacific, leading to the "CP" letters being brandished on both local steam railroad and, later, interurban equipment. With CP now fully in control of the whole operating area, the Oakland Long Wharf (otherwise known as the "Oakland Mole") was expanded into its more familiar 4,400-foot-long length into the San Francisco bay, with its deep ferry terminals providing easy floating for both tramp steamers and ferry boats. 

The "Theodore D. Judah", named after the lengendary engineer who planned
the route over Donner Pass and built by Danforth Cooke in 1864,
was the premiere power for the West Berkeley Branch.
(Robert S. Ford)

Central Pacific commuter tank No. 1501 powered many of
the Oakland Mole's ferry and commuter services until the 1890s.
(Ken Shattock, Marty Bernard)

In 1875, Central Pacific Railroad president Leland Stanford (who was already involved in other Bay Area transit activities) organized the Berkeley Branch Railroad to build north of Oakland and connect to the small community via Emory (the original name of Emeryville) before following Shattuck Avenue into the town proper. This line opened on August 16, 1876, and was later extended following Shattuck Avenue to what is now Shattuck and Vine Streets. Service was rendered by using steam locomotives like the CP's "T.D. Judah", a 4-2-2 "Single" type that worked the trains out of West Berkeley, before switching to 2-6-2 "Prairie" tank engines that worked out of the Oakland Mole. There was even a significant narrow gauge presence in the South Pacific Coast Railroad, whose Alameda Pier opened in 1884 and accessed the main town via Webster Street. This period of steam railroad expansion (and other major occurrences not covered by this blog) continued until April 1, 1885, when the larger SP leased all CP operations after being organized in the state of Kentucky. The Southern Pacific now had full control over all East Bay local railroading, and this laid the groundwork for the future electrification of the East Bay.

A postcard image of the later Oakland Mole at its height, with three generations
of passenger car style represented on the Southern Pacific Railroad after 1888.
(Unknown Author)

The Oakland-Alameda-Berkeley Lines

The four massive Westinghouse dual-rotor convertors
in the West Oakland substation.
(Vernon J. Sappers, Robert S. Ford)

Southern Pacific Railroad officially announced its intent to electrify its steam-railroaded portions of its ex-Central Pacific system in 1905, offering a more direct route over the rival Key System's recently-accomplished electrification. The original plan, costing about $4 million, involved rebuilding 29.3 miles of track and building 21.1 new miles of track with brand-new 75-120-lb rail laid on local California redwood ties. Even their power grid for their 1200V DC electric lines weren't built on the cheap, as SP built a new powerhouse at Fruitvale that could power the entire system thanks to 12 Babcock-Wilcox oil-fired boilers powering three Westinghouse turbine generators that created 13,200Vs of power. To step the voltage down for suburban operations, three substations were constructed at the south end of the powerhouse, in West Oakland, and in North Berkeley. In order for the feeder wires to reach the West Oakland powerhouse, two massive towers were constructed on either side of the Oakland Estuary to carry the wires across. 

On the Alameda line, OA&B Car No. 312 hauls the tower boxcar as it strings up the new overhead.
(Louis L. Stein Jr., Robert S. Ford)

The new West Alameda Shops just after being built in
April 1911. It's so new, the overhead wires aren't even
powered-up yet.
(Bancroft Library, Robert S. Ford)

With a brand new power source came a need for a major heavy maintenance facility that could see to the needs of the entire suburban and streetcar fleet. While reconstructing the Encinal Avenue Line between High Street and the Alameda Pier, marshland along West Alameda was reclaimed and the original steam railroad facilities like roundhouses and shops were demolished, with a six-track yard and eleven-track shop building to go in its place. The new West Alameda Shops began construction in 1910 and it opened in early 1911, just in time to meet the new rolling stock from American Car & Foundry for final furnishing. The enormous building could hold 38 cars in total, and in order to power the cars through the building, a worker had to manually keep the power switch on to provide power to the wire and no work was allowed atop the cars. Further reconstruction continued into 1911, with some of the new passenger equipment being used to aid in reconstructing the Alameda lines as well as running test trains with steam locomotives.

Brand-new American Car & Foundry heavy interurban cars are shuffled into place
on the Oakland Pier tracks prior to opening day, some time before June 1, 1911.
(Southern Pacific, Robert S. Ford)

A fully-complemented train crew poses with the first revenue train
into Hillsdale on December 11, 1911. 
(Robert S. Ford)

The first test train ran on April 7, 1911, on a three-car run between West Oakland and the powerhouse, and was a resounding success for the crews, the railroad officials, and the General Electric representatives aboard. The second test train went out on May 20, 1911, after the Alameda Lines were fully electrified, and on this run Engineer Dan Quille's cap had a "MOTORMAN" badge attached instead of "ENGINEER", which the stubborn employees quickly rebelled against despite being a new SP company policy to refer to all electric operators as "motormen". The train made a successful run onto the Alameda Pier and, after a handful of delays, the Oakland Alameda & Berkeley Lines (OA&B) finally opened for public service on June 1, 1911. Steam railroad service alternated with the electrics until Sunday, June 4, when the last services were rendered along Encinal Avenue at 11:40AM, ending 39 years of steam trains in the East Bay. Passengers who had purchased steam railroad tickets were compensated by having their fares accepted aboard the new electrics for the time being, with a 2.5-cent intracity fare being charged aboard the trains soon after. 

The OA&B's Berkeley station, which its shared with
the heavy-rail Southern Pacific steam trains. In the background
are a Key System interurban train and a local streetcar.
(Thomas Gray, Robert S. Ford)

Expansion began quickly under the new OA&B, starting with the new Downtown Oakland Station at 14th and Webster that was originally a narrow gauge station on June 19, 1911. With downtown Oakland now opened up to the electric railways, the suburban line expanded further eastward into Berkeley, where a new loop was constructed and opened by December 22, 1911 thanks to a non-stop Shattuck Avenue service. There was even talk about finally reaching up into Richmond, which was originally planned in 1908 as part of an amendment to the OA&B's Berkeley franchise, and even the little town supported the idea so long as SP put up new streetlights wherever it ran in the city, kept a 5-cent local fare, and started service by March 1, 1913. Despite the promise of providing Richmond with suburban electric service, SP quickly backed out after comparing their ferry passenger numbers with the Santa Fe ferry's passenger numbers, realizing that Richmond "never would become a city of consequence". The project was declared "dead" on February 16, 1916, when SP's franchise with the city of Richmond lapsed and the northernmost tracks just terminated at Berkeley.

Competition From the Borax King

Francis Marion Smith, the
undisputed king of East Bay
rapid transit, with a moustache
dusted with borax.
(LocalWiki)

However large the Southern Pacific was, it still had some healthy competition for passengers in the Bay Area. Contesting their dominance was "borax king" Francis Marion Smith's Key System, a 1903-established conglomeration of lines all around the East Bay that not only encompassed the OA&B's service area, but also lines in Emeryville, Piedmont, Richmond, San Leandro, Albany, and El Cerrito. At this time, the system's official name was the San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railway, and its main goal was to compete with the OA&B across most of the East Bay. Such was the dominance of the Key System that it scared the SP out of any service to Piedmont and Claremont, leading them to use their other interurban company (the Peninsular Railway of San Jose) to get through to the Oakland City Council for the OA&B's 22nd Street Line, which put them in direct competition in an area the Key System long had no serious competition in. SP eventually got their franchise in early 1912, but had it routed instead along Franklin Street between Franklin and Webster due to a happy presence of a private right-of-way with the line ending past 22nd Street at Piedmont Avenue.

Streetcars and Suburban Trains meet at 14th and Franklin Station, long an empty and quite 
dilapidated area that ended up being a headache to both SP and the Oakland  City Council.
(Ken Shattock, Marty Bernard)

"Dinky" No. 806 poses with its crew at 14th and Franklin
Station, with the new Oakland City Hall to the left.
(Robert S. Ford)

With the new line, further competition against the Key System pressed on with the creation of crosstown streetcar lines in July 1912. Due to teething troubles with the new "dinky" streetcars, primarily caused by their light weight, the new service wasn't inaugurated until August 1, 1913. Due to its original franchise intentions, the new streetcars were lettered for "Peninsular Railway" but this quickly gave way to "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" gracing its upper beltlines after the railway dropped all pretenses of what it was trying to do. While competition remained healthy between the Key System and the OA&B, right up until the opening of the Bay Bridge in 1936, SP continued to tinker with the OA&B in the mid-1910s to update its stations and provide easier transfer services between its suburban lines and its cross-country trains. However, before we do move on, make no mistake: The OA&B was not an interurban line. Most of its right-of-ways followed existing city streets, rather than the private right-of-ways more commonly found on interurbans like the Pacific Electric's Long Beach Line. Thus, the giant cars of the OA&B were basically glorified streetcars.

A single car on the "6" Line down Lincoln Avenue demonstrates
just how open the right-of-way was to other cars and pedestrians.
(Bay Area Rails)

Notable "Glorified" Streetcars

Southern Pacific "EMCB" No. 600 leads a three car train for a pose on an unknown Alameda line.
The cars were capable of 40 miles an hour thanks to its four GE 125-HP motors,
but service speed was actually only 20MPH.
(Electric Railway Journal)

Interurban Electric Railway No. 342 poses at the West Alameda Shops,
showing off its handsome owl-eye porthole windows.
(Robert S. Ford)

The OA&B (or, after 1920, the SP Western Division Electric Lines) only ever ran two types of cars in their 30-year history. The first type was the "Class 58-EMC" or "58-foot Electric Motor Car", which encompassed four subtypes, along with an "ETC" ("Electric Trailer Car"), "ECTC" ("Electric Control Trailer Car"), "EMCB" ("Electric Motor Car Baggage"), and finally the freight/newspaper-only "EMB" ("Electric Motor Baggage"). 

Though I've already talked about these cars (and their Northwestern Pacific counterparts) in another report, there are some extra interesting facts about these handsome owl-eyed cars. For one, some of these cars were originally outfitted with toilets (due to a California State Railroad Commission ordinance requiring trips exceeding an hour to have facilities aboard) but this never came to pass due to the cancellation of the Richmond Branch. Another thing concerned the EMBs, which were made for the planned-but-never-completed Richmond Branch as well. Furthermore, the familiar "owl-eye" porthole windows so emblematic of these cars came about rather late, by 1920 when the last cars by St. Louis Car Company (dubbed the 58-EMC-3) were delivered to the OA&B. And finally, despite the cars being a whopping 72 feet long, only the interior passenger space counted for the car's "official length", hence the "58". 

The "2" Seventh Street train gets raced by SP Mogul No. 1723 on a normal scene in East Oakland.
(WC. Whittaker, Robert S. Ford)

Pacific Electric No. 177 (originally CP 817) is seen
at the PE San Bernardino Carhouse during one of the
1930s' many "Orange Festivals".
(Jeffrey J. Moreau, Southern California Railway MuseuM)

I've also talked about the OA&B's "Dinkies" in another report focusing on its Pacific Electric service.  In OA&B service, these cars were lettered for "Central Pacific" and were one of a few streetcars in the country to use an interurban voltage (1200V), but could also work on 600V DC. After the OA&B abandoned streetcar service in 1926, these cars were purchased by the Key System for their East Bay Street Railways company, where they worked until being scrapped in 1933 while five others were sent to PE in 1913 and worked until 1934. The OA&B also rostered exactly one Baldwin-Westinghouse Steeplecab, a 1912 example classified as "ES36-1/2" ("Electric Steeplecab 36-1/2" wheel diameter), that was part of a 15-car order by SP for its lines in Oregon and Los Angeles. No. 200 was later purchased by the PE in 1915, where it became PE No. 1618. This locomotive was later scrapped at National Metals on Terminal Island, CA, in January 1956.

Building? What Building?

The SP's "Western Division Electric Lines" in 1927, showing off its lines in Oakland (center),
Alameda (Lower Center), and Berkeley (left).
(Unknown Author)

OA&B No. 368 runs a solo-service down Shattuck Avenue
in Berkeley, 1934.
(John Smatlak, Bay Area Railfan)

Regretfully, like many interurban and suburban railroads around this time, the OA&B was in dire straits going into the 1920s. Much of the controversy came from SP's attempts to weasel their way out of deals they had made with the Cities of Oakland and Alameda, who were very testy with the Southern Pacific by that point. The largest point of contention was the 14th and Franklin station which SP promised to make a grand transit hub and office building like the Pacific Electric Building in Los Angeles. However, when the construction dust cleared in the 1910s, all that was there was merely a way station as SP actually plopped its offices in downtown San Francisco to avoid inflated land costs (especially since an interurban railway is a great way to artificially inflate land costs). When threatened by the City of Oakland to collect some $15,000 in taxes from a property about to be classified as "non-operating" due to not being fully developed to its intended use, SP quickly drew up plans for a new six-story office building in its place.

The Harrison Street Swing Bridge in Oakland, which
carried the local streetcar lines.
(BridgeHunter.com)

While working on this new office building, the SP also planned to abandon its Webster Street transbay line and the Crosstown streetcar to relieve any unnecessary operating costs and direct more money to this new construction project. Obviously, the removal of the streetcar was another controversial choice, with the City Manager of Alameda complaining it would be "a blow to the island city" and countering that despite the huge losses, the cars were still well-patronized most of the day. Even the State Railroad Commission (CASRC) had to step in and deny the closure and force SP to start on their new office terminal complex at 14th and Franklin. Further adding to this hullaballoo was the War Department stepping in and advising SP to tear down the old Harrison Street swing bridge as it was a "danger to navigation". As the Webster Street transbay and the Crosstown streetcar both depended on this bridge, it was easier for the SP to write off the loss of the streetcars rather than pay half the cost for a new bridge and rebuild the line. After the bridge came down, the Oakland City Council again turned to the SP and asked, "Where is your building?" With the usual smug ignorance reserved for a hated billionaire, SP responded "What building? All we have is land for sale." No building was ever erected on 14th and Franklin, and the area continued to deteriorate.

An SP OA&B ticket from 1929.
(Unknown Author)

1926 was the biggest year of SP abandoning everything along Franklin Street, with the streetcars ceasing service that March and the property being sold to a man named Charles Schlessinger for $2.25 million dollars, the highest real-estate transaction in Oakland history. Due to SP abandoning their Franklin Street tracks, the OA&B rails were rerouted onto Webster Street by November 7, 1926 and the Key System was allowed franchise along the abandoned Franklin Street tracks. The joke, however, was on them as no Key System cars could ever operate under 1200V wire. In order to offset the costs of abandoning and relocating their tracks, SP appealed to the CASRC to raise their one-way fares to the eye-watering amount of... 21 cents across its first-zone, with 25 cents in their second zone and 28 cents in their third zone. After much hemming and hawing, the CASRC granted this fare on the condition it keeps its original 7-cent fare for students. 

The Revenge of Emperor Norton

Southern Pacific's "Lake Tahoe" ferry passes
under the incomplete San Francisco Bay Bridge
in the mid-1930s.
(Unknown Author)

As the Roaring Twenties raged on, both the OA&B and the Key System were in on-and-off talks about seeking to merge going back to 1916. It would be beneficial to them, they reasoned, as it would eliminate redundant competitive lines despite the differences in operating voltages. After plenty of different proposals presented by the Oakland City Council, all talk of mergers ceased as none were willing to put up the capital for any gauntlet tracks, complete-rewiring of either railways, or dual-voltage locomotives. However, by 1930, both companies now had a reason to worry. Thanks to civil engineer Henry Purcell, the ferry lines of the Southern Pacific and the Key System were about to be circumvented by a brand new bridge from Oakland to San Francisco. Long prophesized and decreed by the legendary Joshua Abraham Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was poised to make redundant the lucrative automobile and railroad ferries operated out of Oakland, something that shook the OA&B and Key System's profit margins to the core.

A Shattuck Avenue line train crosses the Eunice Street
overpass, just past Berryman Yard.
(W.C. Whittaker, Robert S. Ford)

As the big steel bridge stretched across the bay, and the ferries worried about their eventual redundancy, the OA&B was in the middle of burning its entire system to the ground. Long frustrated with dealing with the City Councils it served, the OA&B began abandoning its lines as early as 1931 to balance its costs and profits. Berkeley was the first to go as a new expansion of the UC Berkeley campus gave them a good excuse to abandon service north of Bancroft Way and relocate its university station to Bancroft and Ellsworth Street by May 1931. In 1932, a severe service reduction was put into place that implemented a 40-minute headway on all lines on Sundays, Holidays, and after 7PM on weekdays. Like anything SP did, this was met with even more controversy and the intervention of the CASRC. However, after a hearing on April 5, 1932, the CASRC ruled SP could implement an hourly headway in defiance of the public want. No rehearing was scheduled afterwards.

The new Seventh Street bus service run by ex-LA Railway
No. 72, at Broadway and 20th.
(Robert A. Burrowes, Robert S. Ford)

1933 proved to be a major death knell for both the Key System and the OA&B's empires, as their plan to eliminate redundant lines finally went through. While Key System kept its Berkeley lines intact and gained the lucrative Sacramento Street line, SP kept its Shattuck Avenue lines to Telegraph Avenue and provided the only transbay services to Berkeley and Northbrae. This left the OA&B with only five lines: Seventh Street, Shattuck Avenue, Ninth Street, Lincoln Avenue, and the venerable Encinal Avenue line. To fill in the service gaps, SP inflicted a bus service on Seventh Street to connect Oak Street Station and Downtown Oakland using exactly one ex-Los Angeles Railway bus that only provided service up to 6PM. It was like SP was trying to do everything to abandon its East Bay railways as quickly as possible.

The Inevitable End of the Railway (IER)

An IER test train is seen on the return trip from the Transbay
on November 30, 1938.
(Robert S. Ford)

Alameda was the first city to cut ties with the system after they found out SP's use of the Bay Bridge would leave them absolutely isolated. In 1938, they rescinded the Encinal Avenue franchise and gave SP a revocable license to maintain service until the Bay Bridge was built. Unfortunately, Alameda was not the only one to feel the heat of SP burning everything to the ground, as service to South Berkeley closed on November 3, 1937 with the removal of the Lorin Station, coupled with the March 29, 1938, closure of the downtown Berkeley Station. By November 1938, with the opening of the Bay Bridge to rail imminent and much of the SP's suburban lines closed outside of Oakland, the SP gave up control of the OA&B to a wholly-owned subsidiary: the Interurban Electric Railway (IER).

Among the new additions to the IER trains was an integrated color
signal system seen to the right of the porthole.
(Robert S. Ford)

The IER was originally formed on November 14, 1934 to handle the remaining five OA&B lines across the new Bay Bridge to San Francisco's Transbay Terminal, utilizing the bottom deck of the two-level bridge. The railroad also dealt with the State Toll Bridge Authority, who assumed ownership of 52 pieces rolling stock in exchange for paying IER to make the necessary modifications (such as signal cluster lights) to enable safe bridge operation. Test trains began operating to the Transbay Terminal on December 19, 1938, with the Key System adding in a 600V-DC third rail to be able to run its smaller-voltage trains in while the IER and the Sacramento Northern could still use its 1200V overhead wires. Unfortunately, after the opening of the Transbay to the public on January 16, 1939, the IER quickly ran into some problems with most of them stemming from derailments and service intervals.

IER Train No. 2 inbound to the new Transbay Terminal
in 1940, crossing the elevated line off the Bay Bridge.
(Modern Transit)

The most common problem was derailments, as when going at slow speeds the big red cars often pushed their flanges against the switch frogs and lifted themselves off the track. While this was later remedied with switch-frog guides, it would still keep happening from time to time, often during rush hour. The other big problem was the service time from Alameda to San Francisco, as what once took 25 minutes going direct now took 53 minutes going "around the horn" due to trains being routed off the Bay Bridge and then onto the West Alameda line via Fruitvale Bridge. Because of the inferior service being rendered, plus the constant derailments, the refusal of support from parent Southern Pacific, and the ire of its served cities, the IER filed an Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) appeal to abandon the entire service on February 26, 1940, over one year after the Transbay Terminal opened. The ICC formally granted abandonment on November 9, 1940.

An IER train is packed to the gills during rush hour at the Transbay Terminal.
(The Bay Link Blog)

To Redder Pastures

Key System No. 109 runs past the IER's "3" Shattuck Avenue
train on an unknown date.
(Addison H. Laflin, Jr, Robert S. Ford)

1941 was the last year of IER service, and the last of Southern Pacific's suburban service in general in the Bay Area. The Northwestern Pacific, their other interurban holding, was closing that same year thanks to the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge killing all electric car service in Marin County, and the Peninsular Railway already closed in 1934. On January 18, 1941, the last services out of Alameda were rendered, then came the closure of the Seventh Street Line on March 21 which also closed the West Alameda Shops. Now came the panic as the only rail services in and out of Berkeley were operated by IER, and Key System hadn't prepared to substitute the service yet. With an April 1 deadline approaching, the IER was granted a four-month extension to continue operating through Berkeley until July 25, 1941. By then, the last train from the Transbay Terminal outbound to Thousand Oaks and the last one inbound from Thousand Oaks rendered their services. Two days after the closure, a farewell party for employees was held in Bellini's Restaurant on Telegraph Avenue, where everyone received souvenir commuter tickets that read "Interrupted Electric Railway Co." 

Ex-IER Blimps find new homes in sunny Los Angeles
under the Pacific Electric banner, seen here at the 
6th and Main Terminal.
(Tom Gildersleve, Jack Finn)

As for the rolling stock now tied up at Berryman Yard, those were disposed of in various ways. 52 of the ex-IER cars, as we all know, were sold to the United States Maritime Commission for use as shipyard transport in Los Angeles. These cars were later modified, then purchased by the Pacific Electric, where their immense size compared to the standard PE interurbans earned them the nickname of "Blimps". Other ex-IER cars were purchased by Union Pacific and the Santa Fe Railroad for troop train use in the LA area, but these were later purchased by PE for spare parts. The Blimps later passed into history as being the last cars left operating on the PE when it closed on April 9, 1961. Other cars were disposed for wartime use at the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, Texas, the Ogden Army Depot in Ogden, Utah (where they rode on the Bamberger Railroad), and the Aberdeen Proving Grounds of the US Army Ordinance Corps in Harford County, Maryland. All but four of the ex-Southern Pacific cars and six Pacific Electric cars, including one of the streetcars, went to scrap

Surviving Segments

The OA&B West Alameda Shops today, now serving boats instead of Blimps.
(Google Maps)

BART's Fruitvale Station in 2019, formerly

served by the OA&B.

(Pi.1415926535)

Today, most of the Oakland Alameda & Berkeley Lines' original coverage is operated by the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, specifically its Red Line between Berkeley and the Embarcadero (which covers the original Berkeley-Transbay area) and the Blue and Green lines from Fruitvale to the Embarcadero (covering close to the original Alameda service). Besides the surviving cars mentioned above and in the other reports, the largest surviving testament to the East Bay Electric is its West Alameda Shops, which is now a local winery with the rest of the shop building and yard taken up by a parking lot for the Bay Ship & Yacht Company. Despite its short history compared to other railways, no other heritage comes close to building up the East Bay than Southern Pacific's own big red cars. (No, not that one.)

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included "Red Trains in the East Bay" by Robert S. Ford and Jim Walker of Interurbans Publishing, as well as the archives of the Western Railway Museum of Rio Vista, CA, and the Southern California Railway Museum of Perris, CA. Also special thanks to my "Guest Conductor" this month, Miles Callan of Interurban Era. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Thursday, we look at the Borax King's transit empire in the form of the Key System! For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!