I’m headed off to San Francisco and Yosemite in a week and a half, and I’m wondering if there are any “must see” locations that I should visit. We’re riding the cable cars, the F line, and also visiting Jack London Square, but besides that is there anything I should know about? I’m not looking for railroad museums, more like places in the city that I can reasonably expect my traveling partners (father and brother) to enjoy too. We only have a car for a day and a half, and will be spending that doing non-train spots. But we have a couple days in the city itself. Any suggestions?
The San Francisco Cable Car Museum, 1201 Mason St., is located inside the Washington-Mason Powerhouse. Inside you’ll see the huge winding wheels and motors that actually power the cable car network. Lots of historical displays as well.
Along Market St. downtown the City runs antique streetcars in regular service. You’ll see a nice variety of machines from Australia, Brazil(?), Lisbon(?), P.C.C. equipment(?), and maybe a pre-WW2 San Francisco Municipal Railway “Iron Monster” or two.
At 2 New Montgomery St. (corner of Market) is the Palace Hotel. The late railroad author Lucius Beebe (1902-1966) called the Hotel’s Garden Court restaurant, “The most beautiful dining room in the world.” Truly, it’s worth having a look!
The CalTrain station at 700 4th St. might be worth a look. This facility anchors the north end of the Gilroy - San Jose - San Francisco “heavy rail” commuter service.
Tadich Grill, 240 California St., located in the heart of the financial district, is an old time restaurant that, for San Francisco, is a real value (high quality/reasonable price). Mostly fish dishes, but they also serve steaks, chicken, lamb, etc. Get there before 5:30pm because the place fills up fast. It’s always been one of my favorites.
Perry’s Saloon, 1944 Union St. (a few blocks west of Van Ness), may still be serving the best hamburger sandwich I’ve ever found anywhere in California. The menu has a wide variety of tasty dishes and the service has always been top notch.
Jac
I think you have about covered it. Aside from transit/light rail (which you have already mentioned) there is little rail action in the city proper. It wasn’t all that long ago that Trains had an article on UP’s last freight turn still running in the city-once a day and not through a very good section of town. About the only other action will be the Caltrain station, and not a whole lot there outside of the rush hour (which rules out weekends).
San Francisco has other light rail besides the F Line cars and the best place to watch the variety is Market Street nearer the Ferry building, I haven’t been able to manage it but you might get some good shots with the old SP headquarters building in the background (at 1 Market Street-now is there any other address that could so demonstrate what SP once meant to the Golden State?). At the other end of Market, by Church Street, there might be some good vistas back toward the downtown skyline (assuming no fog), looking down the hill.
As far as structures go, there is precious little. An old Belt Line roundhouse is now an office (they are good at saving and adapting existing structures), the Caltrain station is as close to nothing as one can get and the old Transbay Terminal is intact and in use as a bus station but it is the largest single (unofficial) homeless shelter in the city-and photography is frowned upon by the security staff.
I know nothing about the Oakland area so maybe someone with more information about that could be of more help/hope. Still, it’s a fantastic city to visit! By the bye, you said you had a car for a day and a half. Use it for any out of the city excursions (Oakland, for example). While San Francisco really is no m
Take the relatively short ride up to Napa and ride the Napa Wine Train…my wife and I rode it back about ten years and enjoyed the dinner and ride experience quite a bit.
If you are going to get the Transbay Terminal pictures better hurry. It is scheduled for demolition in the next (?) months. Weekend before last demolition started on one of the bus ramps and other ramps will be going in the future weekends. There is a schedule and a construction web-cam.
You already have Jack London Square which is good because the main lines out of the north side of the station are street lines. You could see massive freight trains or regular Amtrak lines running up and down the street.
Just south of where the bay bridge enters Oakland is the unloading dock for intermodals. Views of the yard can be seen from 7th street or Middle harbor road. Getting there from SF: take the Bay Bridge to Oakland and after you have crossed the bridge keep a sharp eye on which lane you are in. There are several alternatives. You want 880 South/East. Stay right on 880 and take the exit for Union st. Go one block and turn left onto 7th st. Follow 7th street back under the highway and then under the railroad tracks and the yard will be on your left.
You mentioned the F Line. Market Street has many levels. F Line surface Muni Light rail one level below and Bart two levels below.
As already mentioned the only trains that run in SF are the commuter rail lines coming in from the south.
Have fun.
If you have the car for a weekend there’s a live steamer operation located off Skyline Blvd. in the Oakland-Berkeley Hills. I believe they’re called the Golden Gate ALive Steamers. Anyhow they run lots of great equipment in a variety of gauges and the views of the San Francisco Bay Area are spectacular. I’m sure they have a web site for you to check out. There is also weekend railroad activity at Castro Point and in Niles Canyon. These are a little ways out of town but worthwhile if you can swing it! For another kind of steam experience, visit the restored Liberty Ship Jeremiah O’ Brien near Aquatic Park. Allocate a few more days if you can. You won’t regret it.
Thanks everyone. I’ll make sure to see the cable car museum, if we weren’t planning on going already.
Pinole and Martinez are east of San Francisco, and they are two good locations for railfanning. Pinole has the Pinole Shore Park which features a hiking biking-trail on a cliff that overlooks the Union Pacific’s tracks skirting San Pablo Bay. You can get to Pinole by public transportation by taking BART to Richmond and taking a WestCat bus towards Pinole.
Marrtinez features the Waterfront Park and Marina which is across the tracks from the Martinez Amtrak station. Here you can see trains from or to Sacremento on Union Pacific’s lift bridge which crosses the Carquinez Straits to the east of the park. The railroad bridge sits between the I 680 twin bridges, but it is lower than the I 680 bridges so that’s why you can see the trains. You can get to Martinez by Amtrak, and by a combination of BART’s line to Concord and connecting busses of CCAT or (Edit) “The County Connection.”, (Edit) There is a bus, Route 16, which runs from the BART Concord station to the Martinez Amtrak station. The buses run every 40 minutes and the trip takes a little over 45 minutes.
You can also make great use of your car rental time and travel down to Felton, CA (40 min south of San Jose, 1.5 hr south of San Francisco) for Roaring Camp Railroads. http://www.roaringcamp.com/ You can ride behind a narrow-gauge 1897 Heisler (the world’s oldest) or a Shay for a couple-hour ride up Bear Mountain. There is an “Engineer For A Day Program” (I’ve done it and it was awesome) You can also ride behind a CF-7 on standard gauge (ex-SP) from Felton down to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk on heavyweight SP Harriman cars. Round trip is about 3 hr, leaving at 10 am with time to spend at the Boardwalk. Let me know if you have any questions. I live within walking distance. ML
The California State Railroad Museum in Old Town Sacramento is definitly worth a 1/2 day visit and is easily on the way between SF and Yosemite
