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earthquake. On June 11th
the Interurban Electric took over the first of the
Southern Pacific's East Bay suburban service. The new line
substituted
"modern" electric cars for the smoky steam trains. With
the coming of the
Bay Bridge, railroad service to the Alameda Mole was ended
January 14,
1939, while auto ferries continued their runs for a few
more weeks.
As a result of the 1902 fire,
31 narrow gauge railroad cars fell into the bay.
Clearly all the wooden parts were destroyed in the fire,
but wooden
railroad cars contain significant quantities of iron parts.
Included were
cars from 3 builders:Jackson & Sharp and Harlan & Hollingsworth, both
of Wilmington Delaware, and The Carter Brothers of Newark,
California.
The equipment built by the Carters is of great interest
because it represents
all generations of cars built by the firm. It is known
that the iron parts of
these cars ended up in the bay either as a result of the
fire collapsing the
piers they were on or possibly because they were pushed
into the bay in
the rush to clear the debris. It was stated by one
reporter that "up until
noon the ruins were still smoking, but there was little
flame to be seen.
Hundreds of spectators visited the spot. Every little
while the supports
beneath some section of the tracks would give way and the
twisted mass of
iron upon it would go crashing into the water." It is not
known how much
of this material was later salvaged. But the new mole,
when built, was
built to the north, possibly leaving this site undisturbed
by construction
work or dredging.
These remains, should they still exist, would allow
railroad historians to
answer a number of questions. While numerous Carter car
bodies have
survived, these bodies have lost their hardware and jewelry
(as the interior
furnishings were known at the time). The parts which are
likely to survive
at this site would be those least likely to be found
elsewhere. To date we
have been unable to document Carter Brothers' passenger
truck designs,
only one pair of trucks having survived in an unmodified
state. Here all
generations would be found. (The trucks each contained almost a ton of
iron, making their detection with modern equipment easy.)
The Carters
were known for their truck designs and were issued at least
one patent for
their work. All the passenger cars would have been
equipped with Miller
patent couplers and platforms. At one time fully 85% of
the passenger cars
in the United States used these couplers, yet no complete
examples are
known to exist today. Extensive research has been done by
two railroad
museums to allow replication of these artifacts, but
questions still remain
unanswered. The remains here would provide significant
information for
railroad preservationists. Parts from the 16 standard
gauge cars would be
valuable as well, as several car bodies from these classes
have recently
been found and restoration of these artifacts is expected.
Additional material would include wrought iron truss rods,
associated
washers, queen posts, and bearings from the car bodies,
door plates, brake
parts,seat ends
and stoves. It is less likely that the more ornate brass
fittings including lamps, baggage racks, or window hardware
would have
survived the heat, but even distorted and fragmentary
remains would be
helpful.
Identification of individual cars or at least classes of
cars would be possible
and reasonable. Both the trucks and the door plates carry the builder's
name and date. Car body measurements could be determined
from truss
rod length. Additional clues would include the presence of
a stove (only
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