"Anything Goes Saturday" - Randomness
Today's "Anything Goes" post is a bit of a departure; instead of featuring a single subject, I just grabbed two slide scans that I like, both unrelated to each other.
For you train lovers out there, here's a humongous diesel locomotive on a street somewhere in Oakland, California (1957). Another photo from the same lot showed a partial view of what appears to be the entrance to a train station, but my research (minimal and unsatisfactory as usual) yielded no useful info. It might be the old station at the end of 16th Street. Anyway, I love the old automobiles and the massive train heading right up the middle of the road.
Here's another slide that I like, in spite of the fact that it is unlabeled, so the location of this hotel is a mystery. I can tell you that it is from 1960, however. The manganese-blue pool of a TraveLodge (home of the Sleepy Bear) provides some fun and sun for on-the-road families. I can almost smell the chlorine! "Marco!" - "Polo!"... world's most annoying game. The lumber yard seen across the street might make this "somewhere in the Pacific Northwest". Or not! All we can be sure of is that these kids will be back in the family car the next morning and on their way to points unknown.
Here's another slide that I like, in spite of the fact that it is unlabeled, so the location of this hotel is a mystery. I can tell you that it is from 1960, however. The manganese-blue pool of a TraveLodge (home of the Sleepy Bear) provides some fun and sun for on-the-road families. I can almost smell the chlorine! "Marco!" - "Polo!"... world's most annoying game. The lumber yard seen across the street might make this "somewhere in the Pacific Northwest". Or not! All we can be sure of is that these kids will be back in the family car the next morning and on their way to points unknown.
21 comments:
Was that safe to have a train running right down the middle of the street? Or was this taken at California Adventure and they were selling toys, ice cream and baked goods out of the side of the train?
The train running down the street is no different than the streetcars running today in Portland though on a smaller scale. Reminds me of riding the train between Lancaster and Merced California in those days. As for the motel, I can picture myself in the pool having done so anytime we went on vacation. Definitely brings back memories.
I love Anything Goes Saturday!
The diesel rolling down the middle of the street is AWESOME - can you imagine looking in your rear view mirror and seeing that?!?!?!?
And the motel swimming pool...looks cold enough for shrinkage.
Bill in Denver
Ahhh, a Western Pacific Railroad diesel locomotive, a 1954 Plymouth Yellow Cab, a 1952 Chevrolet and I'm thinking a red, 1957 Chrysler obscuring another car. (Not enough info to accurately identify models).
And as for the TraveLodge, I'm guessing not the PNW, as the power lines seem decidedly not the style typically seen there.
WOW!!! Major. An incredible and fantastic picture of the the Western Pacific Railroad California Zephyr Vista-Dome train being pulled by GM EMD Electro-Motive F-7 Diesels.
Oakland was the last stop for the California Zephyr from Chicago.
The California Zephyr train was operated by 3 major railroads; the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (Burlington Route), the Denver, Rio Grande and Western and the Western Pacific railroads.
Kind of like a relay team. Awesome pic. Much appreciated.
TM!, having a train running right up the middle of the street keeps drivers on their toes, so to speak! Better pay attention, or you'll be really really sorry.
Anon, that train looks a lot more massive than most streetcars, though a fellow would be just as dead if he happened to be smooshed by either one.
Bill, there is a part of the freeway in Pasadena where there are railroad tracks between the eastbound and westbound traffic. The first time I drove out that way, I saw a huge train that seemed to be on the Freeway, it was pretty crazy.
Nanook, I wish I had your car knowledge! Are you saying that they have lumber in other parts of the country? ;-)
Viewliner, you know your trains! I'm glad you got a kick out of this one. I have more train pix to come (generally older stuff)!
Full size trains used to run on Santa Ana Street in Anahiem. I remember how strange it was driving next to the moving train and waiving to the engineer.
The yellow plates may indicate California in both pics.
Just seeing that train coming down the street in the picture scared the pine cones out of me. It's just...odd.
As for the swimming pool, the Travel Lodge sign says "heated pool," which means it's probably nowhere near a typical warm climate. So, I'm guessing its not Southern California (certainly not Palm Springs) or Florida.
Now I also know that the Travel Lodge and my mother shopped at lawn chair store, because I had those same styles back in the 'burbs of Chicago (and she still has them).
Wonder what the lady is writing on the pad? Could that be Jacqueline Susann writing Valley of the Dolls?
CoxPilot, you might be right... I think these may have been from a family trip through California up to Washington.
David, I think many hotel pools are heated, even in SoCal. An unheated pool is a cooooold thing indeed! The lady is writing "Valley of the Giants".
I love that movie! Isn't that the one where Beau Bridges eats Ron Howard's experimental goo, grows huge, and then has to wear a theater curtain when he goes out to terrorize the town?
Oakland-Western Pacific
Looks like 3rd Street. The Passenger Depot was at Washington. One had to walk to the middle of 3rd Street to board. The tracks aren't there anymore.
I love the photo of the train running down the middle of the street!
The train appears to be heading West-Northwest down third street.
There is a Joe Clar & Sons Co. at 495 third street, Oakland, CA. It deals in used and scrap machinery, and some of the googled info alludes to dealing in scrap metals also; that could be the heir to the Sam Clar yard seen in the photo. It is on the correct (south) side of the street. If you look at Google Earth, street view, you can see parallel cracks in the asphalt that would seem to coincide with the width and position of the tracks in the photo. Also if you look at the arrangement of the overhead power lines, the same arrangement can be seen in the photo. The street now appears to be fairly new, so it would be plausible that they removed the tracks at the time of street reconstruction. Just a couple of blocks north of here the railroad still runs right down the middle of Union Street, just to our left and behind, in the photo. There is a rail yard just one block to the south.
I would be willing to bet a doughnut on it, maybe even a dozen krispy kremes!
The first letter of the second word in the name of the motel does not look like an L to me. Could this be the old Travel Time motel on El Cajon in San Diego? 1. It is on the correct side of the street. 2. The California license plates (as noted by CoxPilot.) 3. The relationship of the pool to the covered driveway in the photo is the same as the relationship of the pool to the driveway in the modern Travel Time motel. 4. There is a large wharehouse accross the street which looks as big as the lumber yard buildings and could have been built as a modernization of the lumber yard (can't be checked in Google street view because it has been torn down and is now a fenced off vacant lot.) 5. The street looks wide enough to be El Cajon. And 6. I don't think it is in Washington because it is not raining!
Those tracks in Oakland are still there; one of Amtrak's few remaining passenger lines in northern California now runs on them, along with occasional freight trains. The area is now very upscale and spiffy, with lots of restaurants, nightclubs, and theaters... but Oakland has a well deserved reputation as being a perennially crime-plagued city.
I had to double check...This is the same train that was housed at Disney's California Adventure up-until this past year...!!! You can read the story here...http://www.yesterland.com/calzephyr.html
Without taking exception to any of the foregoing learned rail buffs, I can confirm that not only are there railroad rails in the streets of Oakland, but trains still run on them.
About three years back, when visiting my daughter there, we waited for some time on the cross street while the freight went by. Our destination was Jack London Square, just past downtown toward the water.
Street looked much like this, although I am not saying this photo is the same location where I waited, just that rail traffic still happens in places looking much like this.
And, yes, sadly, much of Oakland remains sketchy. Crime, gunfire and violence are a way of life here, although like any city, there are posh parts where it is easy for the Ruling Class to forget it.
JG
Until 1958, the California Zephyr made two passenger stops in Oakland. The image shows the stop on Third St at the Washington St station. The train would continue on to the Southern Pacific's Oakland Mole where passengers would ride the steam powered ferry boat to San Francisco's Ferry Building.
When the Mole closed and the ferry was retired, passengers for San Francisco would board motor coaches in the Western Pacific's yard facilities on Middle Harbor Rd for the ride across the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge.
After the WP was acquired by the Union Pacific, the tracks down Third Street were removed and all trains routed down the Southern Pacific line along Embarcadero in Oakland.
The Western Pacific station building remains in place today as offices at Third and Washington. Amtrak trains call at a new station near the location of the former Southern Pacific station on Embarcadero.
The SP's 16th St station was removed from service following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, replaced by a new station at Emeryville. Redevelopment plans for the 16th St station and adjoining area remain unrealized to this day.
Only the railroad tower from the SP's Oakland Mole remains to mark the location of that structure. Several of the ferries that served it are preserved as non-operational.
The WP diesel locomotive 804-A lead the last westbound California Zephyr into Oakland on March 22nd, 1970.
And yes, indeed this was the locomotive reproduced for the Disney's California Adventure Zephyr. That used the cab of a former Canadian National locomotive. It was donated by Disney to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola, CA, for eventual use as part of a Zephyr history exhibit.
such a cool post..I dont know how I missed it.
i would so love to see a locomotive going down the street. We also have the above-ground trolleys in Pgh but as Anonymous says above, no where near the sight of this lovely.
I remember going to a motel back in the day...who doesnt love eating out and checking out the gift shop?
great pictures :-)
"Better pay attention, or you'll be really really sorry."
LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!
For those of you still interested in seeing trains run down the middle of the street, check out the BNSF line that runs north out of Denver through Longmont, Loveland and Ft. Collins. It's a very interesting experience waiting at a stop light and watching both cars and trains pass in front of you.
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