SP's Cahil St. Depot, west end

A smoggy-day, long-telephoto look up the half-mile, or so, between the depot and the roundhouse on July 20, 1969. If you had turned around and hiked about 200 feet north from the position of the top photo, this is what you woud have seen; freight lead in forground, eastbound main in center, westbound occupied by overpowered plug #151. The east leg of the wye is out of the photo just to the right og the train's marker light. Lenzen Avenue and the roundhouse appear ahead of the locomotive (to the un-versed: a locomotive may have one or more individual engines in SP-speak).

If you'll look closely at the freight lead between the shadow and Lenzen, you'll just barely see the now-fabled "Ice House" switch, serving California Canners and Growers. The Ice-House moniker now serves as railroad radio shorthand for the signal bridge guarding the north limits of CP Julian. I briefly worked there for Cal Can in the early 1970's, and recall later spotting syrup cars on the spur as a switchman.

	SP's San Jose Depot West End Trackage	Depot Index East End SP Index Site Map

The depot's west (geographic north) end in May, 1969, as seen from the middle of the Freight Lead atop The Alameda overpass. The west end remained unchanged until the installation of CTC in the early 1990's. The adjacent track is the eastbound main leading straight into 5 track. At the far left is tracks 1-4 which lead to the westbound main. That's Train 151, the regular assignment for trusty-dusty ex-Cotton Belt FP-7 6462, when she was not out on the Daylight. This is a weekday, and soon the depot will be busy handling the incoming Fleet, eastbound Del Monte and westbound Daylight. For a large (432k) rendition of the photo, click here. Elsewhere you'll find a 1947 Car Capacities map and a SPINS map of the trackage timetable west of The Alameda. id1042

	Just timetable west of The Alameda was a little-used set of tracks that, according to the 1972 SPINS book , were mostly (passenger car?) "storage", with one track serving "Harold Johnson". They may have also served as team tracks in earlier years, since the area was paved, but I only saw equipment spotted there once in the last 40 years - Barnam and Bailey Circus cars in the early 1990's. The tracks were buried for a parking lot when the San Jose Arena was built in the mid - 90's, although the tracks near the farthest inside switch in the photo are still exposed. Most of that buried rail was rolled in the 1880's for the Central Pacific. That's the 3034 with #134 in 1968. id865

	A smoggy-day, long-telephoto look up the half-mile, or so, between the depot and the roundhouse on July 20, 1969. If you had turned around and hiked about 200 feet north from the position of the top photo, this is what you woud have seen; freight lead in forground, eastbound main in center, westbound occupied by overpowered plug #151. The east leg of the wye is out of the photo just to the right og the train's marker light. Lenzen Avenue and the roundhouse appear ahead of the locomotive (to the un-versed: a locomotive may have one or more individual engines in SP-speak). If you'll look closely at the freight lead between the shadow and Lenzen, you'll just barely see the now-fabled "Ice House" switch, serving California Canners and Growers. The Ice-House moniker now serves as railroad radio shorthand for the signal bridge guarding the north limits of CP Julian. I briefly worked there for Cal Can in the early 1970's, and recall later spotting syrup cars on the spur as a switchman.