The 2472 and Peninsula Trains 
The Peninsula trains are California's most enduring passenger train service, dating from 1863. Southern Pacific steam locomotive 2472 is representative of the classic steam era on these trains of 1921 to 1957. The Golden Gate Railroad Museum is dedicated to preserving the equipment and technology of this classic steam era in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The San Francisco and San Jose R.R. Was Started 
The Peninsula Trains were started by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad which was incorporated on August 18, 1861. Construction was started in May 1861 with a ground breaking along side El Palo Alto (the Palo Alto Tree) at San Francisquito Creek. For the most part, construction was easy except for the passage through Daly City and the hills of San Francisco. The deep Bernal Cut in San Francisco at the summit of the Valenica Street Hill (now used by San Jose Ave. and the new J-line extension of Muni) was the biggest barrier.

On Saturday Oct. 17, 1863 a special train was operated from San Francisco to the end of track at Mayfield (California Ave., Palo Alto) and a picnic was given near San Francisquito Creek for a crowd of 500. The next day regular service was begun to Mayfield.
The railroad was completed to San Jose on Jan. 16, 1864 to a new station at San Pedro Street near St. James Park. Over 2000 people tried to board the opening excursion train to San Jose that day on coaches, box cars, and cattle cars. Soon two trains operated daily between the two cities.

At first the San Francisco Terminal was located at 18th and Valencia streets. The line was soon extended from 25th and Valencia to 22nd and Harrison Street, down Harrison to Sixteenth where it curved eastward to a new terminal on Brannan St. between Third and Fourth. Two years later the passenger depot was located at Market and Valencia by using the car tracks down Valencia. In 1875 the railroad opened a new terminal between third and fourth street, on the south side of Townsend on reclaimed land. A new freight station was built at the same time at Fifth and Townsend.

The managers of the San Francisco and San Jose, Peter Donahue, Henry Newhall, Judge Timothy Dame, and associates chartered the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1865 to build a railroad from San Francisco to Southern California and then eastward through Arizona, to create a second transcontinental railroad. The Southern Pacific acquired the San Francisco and San Jose on March 30, 1868, and the next month started construction of the San Jose and Pajaro Valley Railroad which was extended south to Gilroy on April 1869.

The Central Pacific takes over 
In the meantime the owners of the Central Pacific Railroad, the Big Four - Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins were busy trying to complete their railroad across Nevada and Utah to connect with the Union Pacific. The Big Four began in 1868 to acquire other railroads in Northern California in order to protect their competitive position in California. They acquired a block of SF & SJ stock owned by the City of San Francisco, and then in September, 1868 bought out the Donahue group to fully control the Southern Pacific and SF & SJ. The SF & SJ was consolidated into a new Southern Pacific in October 1870. The Big Four proceeded to use the Southern Pacific to continue building railroads south into Southern California and then east to Texas in the 1870s.

E. H. Harriman Makes Improvements 
Service on the Peninsula grew slowly from the initial two trains a day in each direction. By 1890 there were four trains daily to San Jose and beyond plus three trains to Menlo Park and back each day. Fares where high compared to the east bay, and suburban development was discouraged. When E. H. Harriman took control of the Southern Pacific in 1900, he began to spend heavily on capital improvements on the whole system to bring it into the twentieth century. For the Peninsula line, this meant the double tracking of the whole line from San Jose to San Francisco, right of way acquisition for four tracks the whole distance except for a short stretch in San Mateo, construction of a branch through Los Altos to Los Gatos, construction of the Dumbarton Bridge line to Newark for freight, and most importantly, the construction of the Bayshore cutoff in San Francisco.

Suburban development of the Peninsula began, now encouraged by lower fares and frequent service. The Bayshore cutoff was started in 1904. As part of the project, a new yard and shops were built at Bayshore by filling in Visitation Bay. Five tunnels were built, and since four tracks were planned, some were given two bores.
Before the new line could be completed the 1906 earthquake hit. Tunnel two collapsed and had to be rebuilt. Reconstruction of the city and completion of the new line took place simultaneously. Finally, the new line was opened for service on December 8, 1907, costing over 9 million preinflation dollars.

Improvements continued. A new San Francisco station was built at 3rd and Townsend Street. This Mission Revival style station was completed in 1914 to handle the crowds for the upcoming Panama Pacific Exposition. A new roundhouse was built at Mission Bay near the entrance to Tunnel 1 to handle engine service for the passenger trains. The new Bayshore shops included both a locomotive shop and a car shop for passenger cars assigned to commute service.

The 2472 was purchased 
In May 1921, engine number 2472 was delivered from Baldwin Locomotive works to the Southern Pacific. As part of an order of 15 P8 Pacific Type (4-6-2) locomotives, it was designed to haul mainline passenger trains. It could sustain high speeds over long hauls for mainline trains, and had good acceleration plus ample tractive effort that was suitable for the Peninsula commute run with its frequent stops.

At first the 2472 was assigned to the overland route. In this service it regularly made the run from Sparks, Nevada to Ogden, Utah, a distance of 536 miles, unassisted, on the Overland Limited and Pacific Limited. As newer and larger locomotives became available, the 2474 moved to the Bay Area and by the forties was a regular in Peninsula commute service.

After the war, dieselization of the SP started and larger passenger locomotives such as 4-8-2s and 4-8-4s became available for the ever growing commute service. 2472 and her sister Pacifics were gradually moved out of rush hour and onto off-peak trains and freights or were retired.

Passenger cars 
Passenger cars for the commute service over the years often have been demoted mainline coaches. Wooden cars with open platforms were in use as late as 1910 on the Peninsula. But in 1923, expanding traffic required new high capacity steel cars to be built specifically for Peninsula commute service. The Southern Pacific ordered 60 suburban coaches with 96 seats in 1923. These were so successful that 10 more were built in 1924 and 5 more in 1927. The cars were built in Southern Pacific's standard Harriman style with round end arch roofs and were known as "Subs". In recent years the Subs were the last Harriman style cars left in service on the Southern Pacific until they, too, were retired in 1985. The Golden Gate Railroad Museum has preserved 8 of these Subs for use behind the 2472.

A New Depot in San Jose 
A new depot was needed for San Jose in the twenties because the original route south from San Jose ran down the middle of Fourth street. Increasing congestion and the growth of San Jose made this route impractical after 1910. The Southern Pacific and the City of San Jose worked hard to find a new route for the railroad south out of town. A new route was found leaving the Santa Cruz line just south of the old South Pacific Coast RR. West San Jose depot, skirting the west side of the city to join the old line south of town by the Monterey Highway.

The new proposed route ran into much opposition by the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) of that earlier era, and they even incorporated the City of Willow Glen to keep the railroad out. Ultimately, the railroad and City of San Jose won. A new station was built on Cahill Street at the site of the old West San Jose depot, and the new line built with many grade separations over cross streets. A grand opening celebration was held on December 30, 1935 for the new mainline and station. The old station at first street was then torn down.

The Forties and Fifties 
In the forties, the war effort put tremendous strain on the commute service. Coaches were brought in from as far away as the New Jersey Central RR to handle the loads of workers at the shipyards and other war industries in San Francisco. The old Ocean View - Daly City line was cut and the track removed through the heart of the Mission District in 1942. The 1950s brought more changes to the Peninsula commute service. By this time the motive power consisted of Pacifics like the 2472 for smaller trains, and Mountains (4-8-2) and GS Daylight (4-8-4) types for the heavier rush hour expresses.

The 2472 in the year 1946

By 1955, traffic peaked at over 16,000 passenger round trips per day. (As a comparison, CalTrain now sees up to 11,750 round trips per day.) To handle this traffic, SP used the 75 suburbans plus 156 older ex-mainline coaches. Platforms were extended to handle ten car trains. Rush hour expresses left San Francisco on three minute headways. New cars and locomotives were on the way.

Southern Pacific tried the first diesel locomotive (5325) on a commute train in September of 1953. They found that SD7 and GP9 locomotives did not have enough acceleration and power to keep up with the demanding Peninsula commute schedules on the heavier rush hour trains. But the GP9 diesels did become common on the mid-day trains. The rush hours continued to be a bastion of steam on the SP with displaced Daylight 4-8-4s replacing the 4-8-2 Mountains.

Finally a diesel with enough power was found, and 16 Fairbanks-Morse "Trainmaster" diesels with 2400 HP each were assigned to the Peninsula service. The end of steam came when Daylight type steam locomotive No. 4430 left San Francisco on train 146 at 5:45pm on Jan. 22, 1957 with the last steam powered commute train. It was the last use of steam power in regular service on the Southern Pacific.

Steam excursions ended a year and a half later. 2472 was retired on Jan 17, 1957 and donated to the San Mateo County Fairgrounds on April 11, 1959 through the efforts of former SP General Passenger Agent T. Louis Chess.

New Commute Cars 
To meet the increasing passenger loads and replace the aging fleet of suburban cars in commute service, the SP ordered 10 new commute cars of the Gallery type in 1955. These new "double deckers" were based on new cars designed for Chicago commute services and could seat 145 persons. The fleet was eventually expanded to 45 gallery cars, and they replaced all of the old main line coaches and some of the suburban cars in regular service as patronage declined.

In 1985 CalTrain replaced the Southern Pacific fleet with the 72 new Gallery cars, including 20 with cabs. The car-cabs allowed push-pull service and eliminated the need to run the locos around the train at the ends of the line. The last of the Subs were sold to museums and short line operators, and the Gallery cars were sold to a railcar rebuilder in Oregon for conversion to tour train cars.

Locomotive Changes 
Locomotives also continued to change on the Peninsula. The Trainmasters were retired in 1974 and replaced by SDP-45 locomotives displaced from mainline passenger trains by Amtrak, and three new GP40P-2s, the last passenger locomotives purchased by the SP. In 1979, SP leased new Amtrak locomotives that Amtrak wasn't ready for. With the take over of the service by Caltrain, 20 new F-40PH locomotives were placed in service starting in 1984. Some of GP-9s that replaced the 2472 in 1956 are still in service today in local freight service on the Peninsula.

Declining Patronage and SP's Exit 
Through the sixties and seventies, patronage of the Peninsula commute trains slowly declined. The completion of the Bayshore Freeway in the mid-fifties made driving to work in San Francisco easier, and then development of the electronics industry in the Silicon Valley moved new jobs to Santa Clara County. Under-patronized trains were removed to reduce costs. On January 27, 1964 the Los Altos branch was abandoned to make way for an expressway. On June 23, 1975 the new Fourth and Townsend depot opened in SF replacing the crumbling depot at Third and Townsend.

But losses continued to mount and the equipment was getting old. For many years the SP resisted suggestions of a public subsidy to the Peninsula commute service. Even though SP was losing money, the railroad felt that Subsidies would allow unwelcome government interference into railroad affairs. Finally in 1975 the losses became too much for the SP to bear alone any longer.

The SP's first proposal was to sell a commute line from San Jose to the Daly City BART station to a public agency. SP then hinted that service might be put up for abandonment if the public agencies did not respond. This started a series of proposals and counter proposals that ended with the formation of CalTrain to take over the commute service from the SP in July, 1980.

CalTrain 
Initially, CalTrain was operated by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Caltrans signed a ten-year contract with SP in to operate the trains. As mentioned above, 20 new locomotives and 72 new cars were purchased in 1984 and '85 to replace SP equipment.

At the beginning of 1992, the Joint Powers Board bought the right of way from SP (for about $210 million) and by July, the JPB had hired Amtrak as the contract train operator. The JPB also owns the Dumbarton line between Redwood Junction and Newark for future passenger use. Since the peninsula right-of-way now belongs to the JPB, SP pays the JPB whenever it operates its freight trains on JPB trackage. The Joint Powers Board is funded by the State Of California and the three counties that use the railroad.

Today, commuting on CalTrain is increasing and CalTrain is thriving. Every year the Golden Gate Railroad Museum and CalTrain jointly sponsor special trains such as the Mushroom and Garlic Trains, where CalTrain equipment is pulled by Steam Engine 2472. For information about riding CalTrain, please see the CalTrain Home Page.

Text by GGRM staff and Thomas Beutel, with additional information by Adrian Brandtt