SP's Bay Area traffic thrived in mid 1979, just as it had traditionally done in good times during the past. But then recession began to appear in fall. By spring the downturn was becoming serious, and it seemed to reach full bloom just as Congress was passing legislation to deregulate the railroad and trucking industries. The bottom fell out after that, for deregulation ensured that the boxcar business was done.

Here are three SP TOPs-produced documents showing SP's Bay Area freight business during its last hurrah. These two make the hot and cold nature of the railroad business quite evident.

The above one shows how little traffic might flow in winter, in this case on Sunday, February 18, 1979. Note that absolutely no trains arrived or departed Bayshore that day. By then, gentrification at the expense of industry was already setting in. Bayshore Tower had closed for the second time and for good just the month before. You'll note from the doc that Bayshore Tower is no longer addressed. Instead, Trainmaster JFB - Jim 'Big Daddy' Bays - is the recipient. The yard had lately remained open mainly to handle overflow classification work from Oakland, San Jose and Watsonville Junction, but this work had dwindled in recent years.

In summer, Bay Area traffic boomed, perhaps slightly more than in the previous year. The July 11, 1979 Watsonville lineup highlight the yearly boom and bust cycles of the freight business. Look at all of those trains! The business volume so clogged San Jose in particular, that trains could get caught up in resultant traffic jams for hours. Accordingly, crews in Oakland-Watsonville Pool 4 (the 'cesspool') frequently found themselves unable to get over the road within the alotted 12 hours, making it no wonder that a large percentage of these jobs went 'no bid' (without regular crew members).

Lastly, we have a Conductor Rocky Hudson work report for the Bayshore-Hayward Turn for Monday, January 8, 1979. This was a night job little known in the railfan world - the second and last time I worked it. As you can see, even though it was mid winter, there was nevertheless a fair amount of work at the Hunt's cannery in Hayward, WP interchange at Shinn Siding (near Niles Tower, and at Newark. If I recall correctly, we drug the entire train to Hayward for coffee with the depot operator. We set out and picked up there, then progressed to set out at Shinn, Newark because these locations were best switched from their west ends.

Rocky Hudson, a former Pullman Porter,was a prince of a fellow and the job went smoothly. My first trip on the turn during the previous fall, on the other hand, nearly ended in disaster due to a drunk engineer and fireman, but that is a tale for another time.

I believe that the Hayward was yanked a little later in the year. Hunt's cannery, which comprised most of the business at Hayward, closed in 1980, I think. The depot burned down in 1982. - EO