Original
Mainline Right of Way & Alignment
A few years
ago I began to do research on the original 1800's railroad alignment
to San Francisco by way of the San Bruno Mountains, what really
fueled the fire was that I lived not too far from where the line
once ran through a cut known as "Bernal Cut". By reading
about this line in several books, I learned that it was a mountain
railroad until it reached the summit at Oceanview, the line was
uphill in both directions. To read more on the history of this
line, visit one of the other pages I have written called, "Original
Mainline S.F. to San Bruno". By using USGS Topographical maps I have
been able to photograph most of the areas where the alignment
of this route once existed. To further expand on this subject,
I have another page that includes photographs of portions of
this line that still exist to this day, the links to these pages
are on page 4 of this story. Time is ticking away on these relics
of the past as a recent project to extend BART to the San Francisco
International Airport will do away with any traces that this
line ever existed.
By permission of the Editors of SP Review, a Shasta Rail Group Publication, I have reproduced a article that appeared in the X40 June 1998 issue. This article is an account by Thom Anderson, Don Jewell and Arnold Menke of their memories of this line and where it once ran. I thank these individuals for taking the time to have written this account, for without it I wouldn't have been able to reproduce it here today. I also have some text that I have written to go with what I know, along with photos on the last page of this story.
Thom Anderson wrote, I grew up in Daly City from the late 1950's on (I still work in DC). Here is some information that I recall about the branch from that time. There was (until it was demolished recently) a building that housed "Ray Oil Burner Co" located on San Jose Avenue at the south end of Bernal Cut. There was a remnant of a rail spur, complete with bumper -- at the south end of the building. By the angle of the spur, it must have been a westward connecting switch.
(These two photos are the former site of Ray Oil Burner Co., located on San Jose Avenue)
I don't recall exactly when the line between Elkton and Daly City was removed, but the Knowles Avenue crossing was gone by the mid-1960's. As of the late 1950's (c.1959) I don't recall the branch being in service north of where the Daly City BART station is currently located. A friend whose home was formerly located in the area now occupied by BART told me recently there was a lumber yard at the BART station site known as "Big Bear Lumber Company". I don't have any recollection of that personally. I do recall the tracks crossing Knowles Avenue (now John Daly Blvd) at grade, disappearing into the weeds. South of Knowles Avenue, west of the tracks was "Balboa Building Materials Co." It was a concrete batch-plant in a large wood and stucco building with an open area in the center where the mixers were loaded. There was a spur between the building and the west side if the "main" with a switch at the south end where they received carloads of gravel. I don't recall seeing covered hoppers with cement -- maybe that arrived by truck.
(These photos are from the Daly City area.)
A short distance past the batch plant was another lumber yard -- "White Lumber Co". They might have had a spur. I can't recall it specifically, but if there was one it would have been identical to the arrangement of Balboa's spur. The tracks continued south along the back of retail businesses on the east side of Junipero Sierra Blvd. Just north of School Street was another concrete batch plant owned by "Pacific Coast Aggregates". I can recall a big PCA circular herald on that plant storage tower. PCA was located at what is now the northbound lanes of I-28-. About halfway between School Street and Washington Street, there was a north switch for a siding that was on the east side of the main. It extended to just south of San Pedro Road. There was also an industry siding that came off the main, south of the siding switch. It served a fertilizer company that was located in a corrugated metal structure just north of Washington Street. The building was rather peculiar in that it was not square, but curved to follow the curvature of the track. There was no other restriction to cause the building to have be done that way. The same spur served a QFI (Quality Foods Inc.) grocery store warehouse located between Washington Street and San Pedro Road. The industry siding rejoined the main just south of San Pedro Road.
(These photos are of the right of way and depot in Colma.)
I don't recall QFI receiving very many cars, though the fertilizer dealer was a regular customer. For a while in the early 1970's 86-foot boxcars were seen there regularly. I don't know what they were carrying, as I never saw them being unloaded. The QFI building still exists, but the fertilizer place was used by BART during the construction of the Colma extension and then demolished near the completion of that project. The Colma depot was located on the east side of the siding between Washington and San Pedro Road, opposite the QFI dock. It was closed or leased out for non-rail purposes all the time I saw it. I was told that it had been located north of Washington Street (which would have put it at or near Station Avenue). This is the same structure that is now located at El Camino and Colma Blvd, awaiting restoration as a local museum. The bridge that crossed El Camino Real (and the Market Street Railway tracks) was a two span girder bridge built in the 1920's. BART's bridge across El Camino is in the same location as the SP bridge. I was told by Frank Maffei, a local rail historian that during the construction of the Colma BART yard, an old stone culvert with "CPRR" initials carved in it was unearthed at that location. The relic is supposedly saved for future display.
(Here are some more photos of the right of way in Colma.)
There is very little recognizable left of the right of way in Daly City, which can be seen from just north of the North Park View Avenue crossing to a point behind the Dunn-Edwards paint store, about a half mile in all. An "RXR" painted on the School Street bridge about I-280 is still visible. Since this is a concrete deck bridge and the markings are that thick, rubberized paint, I'd wager it might outlast the little strip of right of way. From just south of Dunn-Edwards, the BART tracks follow the right of way. From just south of San Pedro Road, the line is technically in Colma, and much of the right of way through the cemeteries is still visible, though that will change once construction of the BART extension to the airport begins. Diesel power in the 1960's and 1970's was usually ALCo or F-M switchers, and later the SW-1500's. In it's later years, the branch job was based out of South San Francisco depot, but it may have been out of Bayshore yard in the earlier days.
Thom Anderson
(Here are examples of the motive power used on this line.)