开云体育

I played around a bit with the contrast and luminance sharpening on the River Lines photo, and concluded that there were indeed more than two spots here. At the middle left you can see two boxcars, then a bit farther to the left is one more, possibly two parked side-by-side. Whether there are two boxcars, or something else in shadow, it is apparent from the distance out from the building that there were two parallel tracks here, each long enough for at least four 40' cars. Upon close examination, you can actually see the rails to the outer track next to the two boxcars closer to the photo's center.?

At one time, parallel loading/unloading tracks like this were common in large freight terminals, and in smaller locations that had a lot of traffic and not much building front. Steel "bridge plates" were put between the cars on the inner and outer tracks, and hand trucks (or early forklifts) were pushed through the inner boxcar or refrigerator car to load or unload the outer car.

I don't see any overhead wires close to the building, so maybe a WP switcher off the R-Street line handled the final moves to River Lines.

Other interesting details show up here, including what might be "crunch time" at the River Lines taxi stand. There is a man standing by the locomotive tender. I wonder if he is looking to see if there is clearance with that car parked so close to the tracks. On the other end of the row there is a sedan parked on the SN track. The two cars with light bodies and dark roofs are surely taxis,?possibly Yellow Cabs. There is another car with a light colored stripe which is probably also a taxi, and the car beyond it which is in peril from the tender has some sort of writing on the door, again suggesting a taxi.

Note the long sign with "The River Lines for San Francisco, 6:30 P.M., Palatial Steamers Delta King and Delta Queen." So these two were night boats, really floating hotels. Certainly not as fast as an SP or SN train, but they could deliver a refreshed and well fed businessman right into San Francisco the next morning without the bother of detraining at the Oakland Mole for a rather plebeian?ferry crossing on one of the SP's boats. We can surmise that the two river steamers ran from each end every night in opposite directions. Wonder what the River Lines used for a substitute when the boats had to go into the shipyard for their annual Coast Guard inspection, or when they (horror of horrors) broke down?

Yours Aye,

Garth Groff ???