REMEMBERING SAN FRANCISCO RAILROADING: SF BELT LINE AND NWP
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 เม.ย. 2024
- One whole chapter of never before seen color film of the SF Belt Railway at Pier One and the North Western Pacific Railroad running with Steam and Black Widow units! Look back in time at Island Mountain and Old "Alton" station when they were important locations. The NWP Line North all the way to Eureka, with freight and passenger trains, real lineside stations, bridges, tunnels, lumber towns, and a way of life that has vanished forever! The never-before-seen crystal clear Kodak Movie Film has waited up to 70 years for your viewing!
Look back to a great era with steam and early diesel trains filmed by the most prominent railfans of the time. We extensively cover Northern California and the San Francisco Peninsula to San Jose and Los Gatos in the early 1950s. Many classes of SP steam, diesels and FM Train Masters pulling commutes are shown when it mattered. We visit Niles Canyon Tower and then off to Altamont Pass and the greater East Bay area with stunning views of the area that have changed forever! See large steam Cab Forwards and other early diesels leading freight trains at Giant, Oakland, Berkeley and beautiful places to Crockett! Marvel at the parade of early freight cars from around the US and SP cabooses and Passenger Cars, that are a real highlight!
This is is a must for any SP or NWP fan, or fans of real railroading who remember or want to see how it really was! Look for this complete DVD on our website at www.cspmovies. We feature many other fine DVDs as well. The picture and sound quality are incredible in this 2 HR 1 Minute movie!
Description of D-155 "Historic SP around the greater Bay" - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
More SF Bay Area railroading Key System, Muni, SP, WP and more at www.cspmovies.com
I lived in mill Valley.We still had rail service to Mill Valley Lumber well into the 1960s. My dad took me on a special, last passenger train, to Tiburon from San Rafael. We used to go on the hill over the Tiburon roundhouse to see the engines. Still had steam units stored there.
Grew up from 1955-64 on the Marina Blvd and saw the Belt RR going to & from the
Presidio Army Base as well on the Embarcadero
You were lucky Bill, those were wonderful times in the SF Bay Area during those years! Glad this brought back youthful memories!
I remember that!
The 1958 noir The Lineup filmed its opening scene around the street tracks in front of the steamship terminals.
Yes Jay, you are correct! Hey did we meet you, or your Dad in Junction City, WI a year or so ago? Your last name sounds really familiar! I think your Dad said he was Morgenthal the third!
The film also showcases the newly completed interstate 480 freeway, which was removed after the 89 Quake.
I lived in SF until 5 years ago.
I saw SP switching cars on Harrison Street... late at night ... into the 1990s. WAY down Harrison near 20th there was some industry and a small cement factory.
Not only are the tracks gone, but so is all the industry 😞
TheNWP/SP #10 went down to the Galveston Railroad Museum after retirement. Then in the early 2000s it was taken up to an SP Railroad Center outside Sacramentio. It will be interesting to see if this one locomotive museum can make a go of it! TM NWP Fan
I just moved back to Indianapolis after 10 years in San Francisco. I knew some of this railroading existed along the Embarcadero but have never seen pictures or film. This is really cool!
NWP looks like such a scenic line, how was this line not preserved as a tourist line?
The fight right now is to keep willits to cloverdale from being abandoned. Cloverdale south will have SMART train service. Willits north is a segment that mother nature wants back. Following this fork over the fork 101 would later use was a mistake.
The NWP was a magical piece of railroad that will be forever missed! We also have a lengthy segment on this railroad in our movie "SP When"!
The NWP was such an expensive railroad line to maintain. Mother Nature seemed to want this line to fail with constant rockslides, never-ending rain, tunnel collapses, fires, railbank failures, etc. The 100mi+ Eel River Canyon section was so unstable that since it hasn't been maintained in 30+ years, almost the entire rail embankment has collapsed into the Eel river. It's sad as it did have its own healthy tourist train in the 80's but the declining freight volume killed it off.
I was born in San Francisco in 1954 and can still remember being at a train station with my parents where there were steam locomotives. I don't remember much from back then but I'll never forget the sight and sounds of those steam behemothes. I also remember taking train rides from the Bay Area to Canada to go visit my grandparents. The sound of the trains wheels rolling on the tracks, mile after mile, will also stay in my memory. I sure do miss those days.
This presentation is very interesting with good narration - not too little or too much. I was drawn to the image quality, nice and sharp from film! Are this films remastered for better image quality? Thanks
Thank you for noticing the image quality it is important to us in our presentations! Yes all of our films are digitized and color corrected to make the images super sharp. When it comes to 16mm Color Kodak Film like above, the colors and quality make it special to begin even before it is enhanced.
Thank you so much for posting this very enjoyable and informative video!. Wonderful footage! Thank you! Greg in N. California
I currently live just up the road from Petaluma, so seeing it at 7:37 was really cool! Both of those buildings are still there; the train station's now used by SMART, and the warehouse across the street's now shared by multiple small businesses. There used to be a restaurant there as well, but it closed a couple years back.
Wow, what a great video, thanks!
15:28 I love this scene, showing what Island Mountain used to look like. All of these buildings and the bridge were swept away at once during the great 1964 flood. The buildings were made out of retired interurban coaches. Thanks for posting.
Wow so many memories! Native San Franciscan here - raised in Tiburon, Marin County. Old enough to see the Belt Line in action along the piers as my father was a captain for States Steamship aka States Line. Experienced the steam trains passing by Bel Aire Elementary School in Tiburon until the diesels. The NWP tracks to the ferry port along with the turntable that had a roundhouse. Trestle Glen passing by Belveron East & West with the then new Reedlands development just starting in the background. The Greenbrae trestle, the Hutchinson Rock Quarry in Larkspur later used in Dirty Hairy 1971, San Rafael, Mill Valley & Sausalito. It’s all gone now except the physical markers. How many can you identify? Great job putting this together - all in color & beautifully narrated. Thank you. Cheers!
Amazing video. I live in Marin and it is so cool. To see where the new used to roam. My only comment is that it is spelled Greenbrae not Greenbrea.
I missed any mention of the tunnel between Corte Madera and Mill Valley. My dad and I walked it both ways in about 1961. No trains were running by then so there was no risk of being flattened by a locomotive.
SFBR. Still operates in Bayview district of sf, and crosses 3rd street.
Is it just me but the same footage is used in multiple videos ....
We did use some of the NWP footage in another preview awhile back maybe that is what you are referring too! Thanks for your support of our channel!
3:22 - That's mid '60s
3:33 - No shipper could now afford bulk shipping; it had to be containerized. If not, the longshoreman would steal you blind.
5:00 - Nothing like the carcasses of electrocuted pedestrians from those 3rd-rails!
9:33 - Before the watermelons drove the lumber industry (and the forest management) out of the state, causing the wildfire and insurance mess we currently have.
12:01 - Is that a "camel-back", or a loco driving backwards pushing the tender? Ooops, the second.
17:10 - The FRED (flashing rear end device, or with another word substituted for "flashing").
17:51 - I know where that crossing was!
18:41 - One of our customers works a No. Sea oil rig - similar travel conditions. Probably better living conditions, but that's true of all of us now.
22:21 - Not far from the Dirty Harry "are you feeling lucky, punk?" scene.
23:50 -Still a caboose and two union loungers in there. Grow up, folks; earn a living.