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Lamentably, it is somehow fitting that Staff's first and last photos of SP RS-32's are the worst of the lot. Hence, we only present thumbnails here to fulfill some sort of a point of order.
far-left: Lashed together, SP #7306 and F-7 (1st) #353 sit at San Jose Roundhouse, likely after a run up the Coast in January, 1964. Barly visible below #7306's number, the loco's stenciled "LA" maintenance location tells us that the RS-32's had as yet not officially been scattered in Cental California.
left: In early 1975, afew months before #4008 found a second wind in Houston, #4008 sits in an accustomed spot next to San Jose Roundhouse.
left: SP #7300 sits next to Los Angeles roundhouse in June, 1962, not long after she was built.
middle: Amid a fine assortment of non-EMD power, #7300 is seen here in 1964 between Newhall (San Jose Yard) and College Park Tower (in distance) headed towards Watsonville, and presumably points south. Coast manifests soon would be dominated by U25B's and GP35's.right: It appears that, right from the get-go, the 7300's drew the same sort of assignments as GP-9's and RS-11's. On November 7, 1963 #7300 was parked in Monterey as power for the branch local.
top right: It appears that, right from the get-go, the 7300's drew the same sort of assignments as GP-9's and RS-11's. On November 7, 1963 #7300 was parked in Monterey as power for the branch local.
above: Whether #7300 and its companion GP9 are at the head of a Coast manifest or a local/road switcher we cannot say, but routine calls by them on Los Angeles, as we see here, are near an end.
The job essentially had not changed from its RS-32 years: On duty 10:00 am at Bayshore, it headed for San Carlos, making setouts and pickups along the way. The crossover between main tracks located at the west end of the San Carlos center siding normally was the turn-back point. The crews could have used the center siding to run around the equipment, but this was a time consuming process that could eat into spot tim, so instead, crews employed a "drop" (flying switch), a somewhat risky business that SP later banned. Once completed, the crew proceeded to switch the holes at San Carlos and Belmont. By the late 1970's, very little business remained at San Mateo or Burlingame off the westbound main.
At Millbrae, the local shoved the Boondocks (see SPINS diagram, above) and either performed work, or went on spot for the remainder of the afternoon, often taking beans and a beer at the local bowling alley. The Boondocks were so named for the row of Eucalyptus trees that bordered the tracks, giving the otherwise light industry environment a bit of a country feel. Following that, the crew might do additional switching, or simply assemble the train for the return to Bayshore. Then the crew went back on spot to wait out the afternoon Commute Fleet, trains #122-142, for which the Millbrae's engine provided protection against breakdowns. Breakdowns were not as common then as they later became in the last decade of the century, but they did happen every so often. Once the Fleet was by, it was run 8 to Bayshore.
It's hard to find evidence of the locals haunts these days. The raising of the main tracks at San Carlos buried the old center siding/crossover. Caltrain did construct a new lead down a very sharp incline from the westbound main to connect with the industrial tracks geographically east of the main line, but Union Pacific proclaimed its grade too steep to be safe. So that was that. At Millbrae, a BART/Caltrain platforms occupy the area from The Boondocks to Millbrae Materials. And, of course the depot was moved a few hundred feet south, and Millbrae Avenue has seen its grade crossing replaced by an overhead. Bayshore? HA!
The Redwood Local dates well back into the steam days, sometimes as a solo job; sometimes as both day and night jobs. During RS-32 days, these were "outside locals" that went to work at Redwood, where we see them laying over in these two photos.
In the late 1970's, after the 4000's departure, the "Night" Redwood originated at Bayshore Yard, on duty at 6:00 pm, for what often in Staff's experience could be a sunset to sunrise endeavor. By then, traffic had attrited enough that the Day Redwood was discontinued. Typically, the job mainly switched Redwood and its harbor, as well as California Avenue., but in a pinch it sometimes performed a "hot move" on some spur up the Peninsula as far as Millbrae. "The Dumbarton" Bridge line was switched by the Newark Local, since this was former Western Divisiom territory. One time Staff's engine and cars nearly had a wee hours head-on collision with the San Carlos Turn on the Redwood Harbor spur at the Bayshore Freeway underpass...but we digress.
left: January 14, 1967; Gordon E. Lloyd right: January, 1972
For reasons never explained to Staff, the Sunnyvale Local's engine seemingly always pointed towards Market Street, as did the Redwood and Millbrae jobs.
left: Staff caught the local with #4000 north of Sunnyvale just Timetable east of the Ferry Morse Seed spur in early 1970. Equally notable to the rare RS-32 is the hack trailing it, system unique caboose #11, SP's first steel caboose, constructed in 1937. The low number was borrowed from C-30-1 wooden caboose #11, which was stripped down to the frame to support a new steel carbody as the prototype for SP's subsequent C-40-1 class. See Tony Thompson's Southern Pacific Freight Cars Vol. 2, pp 170-172. Caboose #11 can also be seen in the Gordon Lloyd Redwood Local shot above. Mel Lawrence photo
middle: The same move as described above, except at Mt. View with #4001 and a different caboose. Most of the Sunnyvale's work took place in the Sunnyvale - Lawrence area, but it did range as far as California Avenue, accounting which accounts for the pictured cab hop returns. Lawrence had a small yard, much needed to feed the numerous industrial tracks that once penetrated deep into the later Silicon Jungle.
right: Sunnyvale also had a tiny yard, where we again see #4001 "on spot" on January 21, 1968. A section house sat at the yard's east end, where Staff temporarily worked while on furlough from train service under the watchful eye of Foreman Frank Espinoza in late 1983. One of our tasks was to remove the yard tracks, a rather surreal experience, since we had switched its clogged tracks and various leads to the Jungle less than four years prior. R. E. Buke photo
The Sunnyvale, Redwood and Millbrae jobs were combined into the Broadway Local in the summer of 1980, because transportation deregulation combined with a severe recession caused Peninsula boxcar business to evaporate practically overnight.
