I am curious about the San Francisco Bay area shortline Bay Point & Clayton Rallroad which was bought by the U.S. Navy in 1946. I was wondering if the track is still in place and used by the Navy, or if it has been abandoned and torn up.
Abandoned and the tracks were torn up in 1951. Here is the full history of the railroad.
THE BAY POINT & CLAYTON RAILROAD,
AN SN SHORTLINE CONNECTIONBy Garth G. GroffWith assistance from Robert A. Campbell, Sr.Updated and corrected August 9, 2011
On April 2, 1939, an unusual excursion train ground to a halt at the obscure Sacramento Northern station dubbed “Clyde”. The special was chartered by the Northern California Railroad Club, and was one of the earliest West Coast excursions sponsored by a railfan organization. The four-car train consisted of SN motor 1010, Hall Scott trailer 1021, Hall Scott motor 1020, and parlor car Moraga. Waiting at Clyde was Baldwin 0-6-0 #2 of the Bay Point & Clayton Railroad. The steamer coupled onto Moraga and pushed the train eight miles to the Cowell Portland Cement Company mill at the village of Cowell.
Bay Point & Clayton No. 2 shoves the Nor-Cal excursion to Cowell on April 2,1939. BP&C’s lone flat car is coupled between the engine and parlor car Moraga.**Wilbur C. Whittaker photo; Garth G. Groff collection.### COWELL PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY
Ernest Cowell and his family were already owners of the very successful Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company in Santa Cruz, but became interested in developing limestone other deposits near Concord. In 1906 the Cowells incorporated the Cowell Portland Cement Company to work deposits at the foot of Mount Diablo. The operation was ideally sited to serve the booming San Francisco Bay Area market, especially following the great earthquake and fire. Cowell and his son Ernest, along with other family members who held nearly all the major positions in the firm, began building a cement plant near the quarry site in 1906. Opened in 1908, the plant included eight rotary kilns and could make 4,800 barrels of cement per day. Both waterproof an