Above, the westbound Coast Daylight pulls into the depot in June, 1968. That it was sunmmertime is evidenced by the full diner and dome cars. Still, the 12-car train was powered soley by SDP-45 3206 - and on time! (Click on the photo for large (455.1 KB) photo.) For a look at the head end with the # 3206 passing Orchard Supply Hardware on the south side of the overpass, see the Daylight Gallery. id660

Pre 1971 East End Elsewhere you'll find a 1947 Car Capacities map.

In1971 the SP elected to extensively re-configure its east end trackage when the Park Avenue underpass was widened to four lanes. The photo at left shows the original layout. Click on it to get a more-detailed look at what I'll be talking about.

The Daylight is pulling into Depot 5 from the westbound main. The eastbound main, the left adjacent track, merged with the westbound at The Power Switch (shown on the SPINS map below as a circled 'P/S'), about 1/2 mile south of San Carlos overpass, from which this photo was taken. It was called "The" Power Switch, because it was the only switch controlled by San Jose Telegraph's poor-man's CTC machine. Everything else at the depot was hand throws. The east end switches were lined by the Park Avenue Herder, who is visible "rolling" the train in the shadow next to the dome car. His shanty is to the left of the base of the tall power line tower at upper right. The concrete wall in front of the shanty is the Park Avenue underpass.

Angling-in from the left is the Vasona Branch. The 1971 re-alignment did away with the crossovers that allowed branch trains to run through Depot One. The 1992 re-arrangement restored the ability to make this move.The freight lead, the left-most track next to the water tower, was used by most freight trains (except Milpitas Line trains) to bypass the depot and is today Depot 12, the Caltrain "Roundhouse's" main servicing track. Reduced clearances of the depot's umbrella sheds confined freight trains to the freight lead, field tracks 6 to 11, and Depot 1. Occasionally a switch engine would sneak through the depot proper with a short cut of low cars, but a couple of mistaken attempts by eastbound piggyback trains in the 1980's resulted in rather abrupt and unsightly re-contourings of the sheds' west ends.

When I first hired-out as a switchman, the question arose about which depot track(s) should be considered the main track in application of the rules. The timetable showed no main track. After much arcane discussion, the local officers decided that Depot 5 "probably" was the main track. An awful lot of railroading still seems to operate under the "probably" scenario.

Just west of the Vasona Branch's signal is a runaround track used primarily for switching the Spud House (left of runaround) and the Del Monte cannery warehouse (left of water tower). The Spud House is still there, but as an office building. The warehouse next to it sits atop the present location of a underpass down ramp. The folks at the Spud House had good hearts - tramps reguarly showed-up there to have their shopping bags filled with french fries. The place smelled like McDonalds.

Just above the herder's shanty you'll see the eastbound Del Monte. This is a typical weekend consist. That this was a weekend is also evidenced by the full storage tracks. On weeknights, the tracks in the Del Monte cannery were used for overnight car storage, but this typically wasn't done on the weekends.

Note also the track immediately in front of the herder shanty, which was used to store mail/express cars in earlier years, private cars and as a place to set the switch engine during "spot time".