Rick....
Thanks for posting that information about the central source for the valuation maps. They
are indeed interesting documents.
In about 1972, Scenic Railways, Inc, was carrying out a provision of the second lease.
This required us to prepare a master plan for the C&TS RR. We did a fairly responsible
job on this. For example, the present Antonito depot is essentially exactly what we had
worked out, with the loop, display tracks, parking, etc. For this project, we somehow had
gotten the full-sized valuation maps for the route from Antonito to Chama. They were
very helpful, and made our plan much better than it would have otherwise been.
But, I was particularly interested to learn from your post that the valuation maps for
EsPee’s Oakland Pier are available. For years, I gathered information on the structure,
intending to build a museum quality model of it (which I would eventually donate to the
Oakland Museum). I made copies of every photograph I could find, and organized them
from the direction they had been taken. (Nothing compares with the photos taken by
Richard Steinheimer, but there is quite a bit of other interesting stuff out there.)
At first, I had some help from the railroad. There was a public relations office there on
Market Street, and they gave me a dozen or so very nice photos. Also, I had a friend in
the engineering department, and he tried to find drawings of the buildings. He could not.
I suspect they had been given to the company that demolished the structure.
I did find one crude map of the property, and an aerial photo taken while it was still in
service. From these, I was able to generate a relatively decent drawing of the track layout,
and the general outline of the building.
I did start on the model, having built a 20’ x 40’ trainroom in my remodeled house in Los
Gatos. The “mole” was built on a long central table, perhaps three feet wide. I did some
foreshortening of the trackage - out of necessity - but kept the structural dimensions
accurate.
Well, the project was simply too big for me. But, it was a fascinating research project,
and gave me much pleasure. I was just a youngster when my parents and I would go to
“Oakland Pier” to catch a train. The place was just fascinating. Ferry boats would come
into the slip on the San Francisco side, baggage trains pulled by little orange gas-powered
tractors were running around everywhere, train announcements were made over huge
loudspeakers. Arriving trains pulled into the tracks on the northern edge of the building,
while departures were backed into the central tracks.
Wish I had taken a thousand photos.
Bob
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