Alameda Canyon

The historic Niles Canyon Railway runs through Alameda Canyon (AKA Vallejos Cañon, Alameda Cañon, or Niles Canyon ).

These photos of the railroad in Calisphere were possibly taken shortly after the railroad was completed in the canyon, which would be sometime in the late 1869 or early 1870's. How to date them?

• Photos were taken when the buckeyes were blooming so April-June.

• Vallejo's flume is operating. When did he start his mill back up? Henry Root's report mentions that they disconnected the flume for a time and the the railroad carpenters  had to rebuild it.

• The photos are labeled Central Pacific Railroad. According to this, the Western Pacific was absorbed into CPRR in 1870. The Western Pacific had been planned to run from San Jose through the Livermore Valley and on to Sacramento. Names associated with WP were Timothy Dame, Charles McLaughlin, and Peter Donahue. Charles McLaughlin's name appears on lots of maps.

• Photos could have been taken during 1869, but not sold until 1870.

The photos were all published by "Lawrence & Houseworth". They were originally stereographs. The Lawrence and Southworth photos at Calisphere presented as a grid.

The Thompson and West book published in 1878 has etchings of the railroad.

See Victor Wong's Building Alameda Cañon’s first iron road: How Niles Canyon’s first transcontinental railroad was built by three different gangs of Chinese builders in two acts, 1865-1866 & 1869.

HENRY ROOT; Surveyor, Engineer and Inventor; Personal History and Reminiscences with Personal Opinions on Contemporary Events 1845-1921  (page 20-22)

"During the summer of 1869 the track was completed from Sacramento, Stockton, Lathrop and Livermore Pass to San José; also, the new line from junction above Niles to San Leandro and the overland freight was routed that way to San Francisco during the month of September, using the old track of the Alameda local from San Leandro to the wharf and slip at the west end of Pacific Avenue."

"During the summer, the old steamer "Oakland" (long since gone to the scrap heap), had been strengthened and converted into a car ferryboat capable of carrying four freight cars at a time. Captains John and Ed. Hackett were in charge of the "Oakland" on two shifts. At about the same time a freight slip and small freight yard were being constructed on block 9 at the foot of Second Street in San Francisco. This block, bounded by Townsend, King, Second and Japan Streets, was formerly occupied and owned by Captain Tichnour and used in connection with the waterfront property outside of it as shipways for cleaning and repairing small vessels, but had lately been purchased from him by the company, and the car ferry steamer "Thoroughfare" was built on those ways in 1869 and 1870. Pat Tiernan was the man in charge of the building of the I I Thoroughfare" and Captain Ed Foster was supervising engineer in charge of the machinery. The engines for the boat were built at the company's shops at Sacramento under A. J. Stevens from patterns of the old steamer "Washoe." The "Oakland" went into service and the freight business via Alameda commenced in the early part of September, 1869, and continued on that route till the freight slip at Oakland wharf and the new line through First Street, Oakland, were constructed and put in operation in 1870.

From November 8, 1869, to the completion of the First Street line, and the extension of Oakland Wharf to deeper water the passenger trains ran over the Seventh Street local track from Brooklyn to Oakland Wharf, now the Mole. The axis of the first car-ferry slip at San Francisco used by the converted steamer "Oakland," was nearly parallel to Second Street as were also the six tracks and freight shed for handling freight of the Central Pacific Railroad Company at the foot of Second Street, San Francisco. But after a short time it was certain more room was necessary which it was not practical to obtain by any extension of the existing layout.

During the year 1869, the trestle on the Seventh Street line of Oakland between Oak Street Station and Clinton Station was reconstructed on a new grade and the opening swing bridge for the passage of small vessels closed. A trestle on the main line from Brooklyn to solid land at the head of the Estuary on the Kennedy Ranch was finished, forming a connection of the Oakland local and the main line. The trestle on the First Street line across the Lake Merritt branch of the Estuary and the connection of the First Street line with the Seventh Street line at West Oakland by a long curve, was all going on during the year 1869. I moved my boarding place from the Hotel de France to Mrs. Long's on Seward Street, West Oakland, to be more convenient to the pile driving work then going on."