Southern Pacific in the Bay Area: The San Francisco-Sacramento-Stockton Triangle (Golden Years of Railroading Series)

Rating:
Summary: Transition-Era History of Core SP Operations
Review: The book focuses on "transition-era" (1945 - 1955: the transition from steam to diesel power) operations in one of the most interesting places for railroading: Southern Pacific's own home region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The archives are opened to deliver photographs of many interesting railroad sights now long-gone: the Oakland pier; Third St. station in San Francisco; electric street cars in Berkeley; Port Costa; etc. In this book the pictures do the talking, with minimal additional text to provide background, context and explanation. All photographs are black and white and mostly cover the SP's steam power used extensively at this time; all are of high quality and provide great insight into the realities and details of railroading during the period. The pictures also document an intriguing history of the Bay Area from a different perspective. (The pictures date from 1937 through 1957, with most in the 1945 to 1955 period.) References are provided to other publications to fill in some of the gaps not covered in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Transition-Era History of Core SP Operations
Review: The book focuses on "transition-era" (1945 - 1955: the transition from steam to diesel power) operations in one of the most interesting places for railroading: Southern Pacific's own home region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The archives are opened to deliver photographs of many interesting railroad sights now long-gone: the Oakland pier; Third St. station in San Francisco; electric street cars in Berkeley; Port Costa; etc. In this book the pictures do the talking, with minimal additional text to provide background, context and explanation. All photographs are black and white and mostly cover the SP's steam power used extensively at this time; all are of high quality and provide great insight into the realities and details of railroading during the period. The pictures also document an intriguing history of the Bay Area from a different perspective. (The pictures date from 1937 through 1957, with most in the 1945 to 1955 period.) References are provided to other publications to fill in some of the gaps not covered in this book.