SP / CP / Peninsular Ry.
San Jose Railroads / Caltrain





EO's pet engine:
Hey Caltrain, save the 901!

page revised: 4-30-24


Southern Pacific Index


Above: Sour grapes, not wine grapes, over SP's long-promised,but yet unfulfilled new depot: San Jose parade float, early 1930's. - Courtesy Ken Middlebrook, History San Jose

Left (Click on the image for the full article): San Jose Yard (third permutation) opened in 1927, an occasion commemorated in the December SP Bulletin. Several names in the group photo are familiar to Wx4 Staff. The Ishams were an institution in San Jose, and Staff worked with one of E.B.'s (Earl) descendants, along with one of A. G. Swanson's. Wx4's Employee Rosters page hosts 20 years' worth of L. H. (Lyle) Clevland's time books, while C. (Charlie) "Pop" Mathews had Mission Bay [Roundhouse] Garden renamed after him. Photos and biographic info on Isham, Cleveland and Mathews can be found in the Ernie Kiesel Collection.


The Ernie Kiesel Collection of Southern Pacific Photographs at Histoty San Jose
This collection of 300+ photos once decorated the engine crew rooms at 7th St., Mission Bay and Harrison St. From about 1900 to 1980. Many of the enginemen depicted in the photos were San Jose residents.

New Almaden, California SP/SPC Yard Click on map for 3000 pixel wide image

Even collectively, the Southern Pacific New Almaden Branch and the South Pacific Coast narrow gauge Almaden Branch did not amount to much despite very occasional mini booms following their simultaneous construction in 1886. A few months after the SPC branch went standard gauge in September, 1907, business was so scant that daily mixed train service was reduced to weekly and combined with the already once a week mixed train on the SP side. This map shows the gradual reductions of infrastructure that occurred between 1907 and abandonment in 1934. Narrow gauge passenger trains forsook the SPC depot at Harry road (see upper left) no later than 1887, so the presumption is that most or all of the depicted tracks between the junction and SP end of track at Mckeen Road were dual gauge. drawing: Wx4 Staff

Wx4's historic original logo