(rshsdepot) =?Windows-1252?Q?Alum_Rock_Park_=28San_Jos=E9=29?=

["Paul Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

I knew about the streetcar (where remnants of the elevated portion in the park still remained when I was there about 20 years ago, at least), but vague on a steam railroad, here is a nice one I never saw before (probably from a stereo slide), the station with a boarding train....if this really was a steam line, I guess the front car is a dummy engine:
http://content.scu.edu/cgi-bin/viewer.exe?CISOROOT=/svhocdm&CISOPTR=17

I have slides somewhere of this RR bridge:
http://www.molenda.us/photos/alum-rock-2003-09-14/DSC_1167-r.html

Here are two nice old postcard pictures of yellow streetvars in the park going into tunnel and over bridge....:
http://www.nnvesj.org/Ed10/AlumRockPark6.htm

Alum Rock Park is at the foothills at east San José,

There seems some insane plan by current congressman to put 6 lane 28 mile highway through this park and Mount Hamilton to Interstate 5 (This can't be real can it? This is the most amazing car ride now, very windy and even dirt on the side into the San Joaquin Valley, why ruin it, maybe the last spoiled land in this part of California?)

Alum Rock Railway Co., narrow gauge opens 1896.
 Santa Clara Street at McLaughlin Avenue western terminus.....it did use a steam dummy...terminal at Alum Rock Avenue and Penitencia Creek Road in the park (the pictured station)..


...it was electrified 1901...the largest gasoline-fueled electric powerhouse in the west was built for it...the new depot was further into the canyon in the park...still narrow gauge

...some 3% grades in the park...

Almost the entire line was washed away, most of the bridges gone, the tunnel inundated..

The SP's Peninsular Railway took over the line, completely rebuilt it (much of the remains are from this period) so the big red cars could come to the park..there was a meteor stop in the park (a huge meteor is there, thought to weigh 2000 tons, it was manganese, sold during Wold War One, but only 39 tons of the metal were extracted for the government so the operation of selling it was a bust and the tourist attraction was lost. Kempite was a new mineral dscovered in this big rock..it probably wasn't even a meteor).. The Peninsular Ry. opened the line again standard gauge electric heavy cars in 1913...

The railroad stopped in 1931, the stationtorn down in 1934 (not sure if this was pictured depot)

see more of this history here:
http://www.nnvesj.org/Archives/ARPHistory.htm#ARP6

There was also the San Jose and Santa Clara Railroad, a streetcar company. It merged in 1921 with the First Street System, becoming San Jose Railroads. At that time, the Linda Vista to Alum Rock portion of the trolley lines was abandoned....San Jose RRs was also ownned by the SP.. This had been the eastward extension of the Santa Clara and East San Jose line, the oldest and longest carline in Santa Clara County, Santa Clara at Franklin & Jefferson Streets via Franklin, Grant and the Alameda, Santa Clara Street, Alum Rock Avenue to Linda Vista 8.8 miles

Here is an excellent synopsis from a 1959 article on the streetcar lines in San Jose as of 1921:
http://www.erha.org/timepoints/v17n11.htm (Driving down Willow Street one used to be able to see evidence of the old streetvar line)

Man, I left that area too early, I had to really search for information like this way back in the day..

The Alum Rock Railway Co. opened 1896, merged into San Jose & Santa Clara County Railway 1905, which merged into San Jose Railroads in 1912..
...SJ RRs sold to SAn Jose City Lines/National City Lines in 1939, the orignal 1894 People's Horse Railroad Company absorbed by a bus company..

All the streetcar lines of Santa Clara County listed here:
http://hometown.aol.com/chirailtwo/sjchis.html
even more detail here:
http://hometown.aol.com/chirailtwo/sjcdate.html










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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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