Talk:16th Street station (Oakland)

"Low" Rating
I notice that the list of stations included as rated of "low importance" by the Wiki rail project appear to be all commuter train stations. The 16th Street Station was primarily a regular train station, in fact, it was the principal depot for Oakland serving the Transcontinental Line (The Overland). SP's commuter lines were run to the depot so that commuters could make easy connections with the mainline trains. Tmangray 15:15, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Elevated Platforms
The platforms are the oldest (and maybe only) such ironwork platforms west of Chicago. They were used by the Berkeley lines of the SP's East Bay Electric Lines until the Bay Bridge opened to rail traffic in 1939. The platforms have been unused since that time. Tmangray 15:05, 16 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure this is completely correct; I understood that the trains that ran across the Bay Bridge also stopped at the 17th & Wood depot, did they not? And weren't these Key Route trains?
 * I also thought that Sacramento Northern trains stopped at the SP depot as well. Anyone know this history? +ILike2BeAnonymous 16:55, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
 * The Sacramento Northern trains ran to the Key System pier by special arrangement btwn. the two companies; once the bridge was open, the SN trains only shared the Key's tracks down 40th Street. The last Sacto Northern station other than at the Key Pier was at Shafter and 40th Streets.  The tracks on 40th were the Key's C-line.


 * When the Bay Bridge was completed, the SP trains from Berkeley went directly to the bridge; a stop at the 16th Street Station would have been a longer route, and they would have to backtrack; the Key System was a different company; they never used the 16th St. Station which was SP. Tmangray 04:44, 21 October 2006 (UTC)


 * You meant to write "the Key System trains went directly to the bridge", right? Gotcha. Gotta find myself a good map showing all this. +ILike2BeAnonymous 05:17, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
 * No, BOTH the Key and SP trains went directly, by their own different routes. Before the bridge was ready for the trains, the Berkeley SP, not Key, trains went via the 16th St. station.  The Key trains went down Yerba Buena Avenue straight out to their own pier.  The last stop was San Pablo Avenue.  After the bridge was built, the Key line was already close enough to the bridge, they didn't have to abandon any station stops.


 * Yes, it would pay to take a look at the several references on the Key System and the Red Trains. Tmangray 14:38, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

An easy way to visualize the geographic logic is to note on a map where the old piers (moles) were. The SP mole was located on an alignment with 7th Street in Oakland, while the Key mole was located in alignment with Yerba Buena Avenue (adjacent to 40th Street). You can see from the numbering of the streets that about 35 blocks separated the two alignments. Moreover, the Key was already aligned with the Bay Bridge approach once it was built. Tmangray 15:35, 21 October 2006 (UTC)


 * The property is owned by BRIDGE Housing, not BUILD: https://www.16thstreetstation.com/about-us

TDhistory (talk) 19:07, 6 March 2020 (UTC)