Park Avenue Streetcar Line: 1873-1937
The town of Emeryville was afforded street railway service by means of a horse car line of the San Pablo Avenue Railway. The company was organized and financed by J. S. Emery at a cost of $24,000.
A franchise was granted by the City of Oakland to lay rails on San Pablo Avenue to Park Avenue on September 10, 1872. Construction of the line began on October 19th of that year, and by December 13th the line was completed from San Pablo Avenue and Broadway in downtown Oakland. to Park Avenue in Emeryville.
Service commenced over the new line on January 8. 1873. The cars ran from Oakland to Emeryville along San Pablo Avenue, and down Park Avenue to Hollis Street. Thirty-minute service was provided in the beginning, but with the heavy increase in traffic over the new road to the Oakland Trotting Park, fifteen-minute service was instituted to accommodate the crowds.
Park Avenue Horse Car
The first type of streetcar that ran on Park Avenue in Emeryville was a horse-drawn passenger car constructed of wood with a wooden underframe. The car was small, with a closed section for passengers and open front and back platforms occupied by the driver. The cars were owned by the Oakland Railroad Company and were built in San Francisco by the Kimball Car Co. They operated at a speed of about five or six miles per hour. Although the body was closed. they were very cold in the winter months, having no facilities for heating.
In 1884, the Park Avenue line was extended from Hollis Street to the Southern Pacific tracks, where the cars connected with the local steam trains operating to Berkeley and West Berkeley. The extension was built mainly to provide service to workers employed at the Judson Steel Works, and also to afford a connection with the SP local steam trains.
On March 16, 1886, it was announced that the San Pablo Avenue line would be converted to cable operation, and work was undertaken immediately. The cable car barn was constructed at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and what is now West Grand Avenue. Ten cars were built at the Hammond Car Company plant in San Francisco, and service commenced in July of that year. The company operated as the Oakland Cable Railway under the ownership of James G. Fair of the South Pacific Coast Railroad. After two years. Fair sold the operation to the Pacific Improvement Company, owned by the Big Four of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. The Park Avenue line continued to operate with a horse car. The cable line ended at the comer of San Pablo and Park Avenues.
California Type Car
The Oakland Railroad Company replaced horse cars with electric propelled street cars in 1892, and a singletruck, “California Type” electric car was placed in service on the Park Avenue line (a “truck is the swiveling wheel unit of a rail car). This was an improvement. as the electric streetcars were much faster and roomier than their horse car predecessors.
The “California Type” car was open on each end. with longitudinal seating on the open outside ends and closed in the center section. They were suitable for both summer and winter operation-if it was cold, the passengers could sit inside; in good weather they could sit outside and enjoy the breeze. This type of car was used on all of the streetcar lines in the East Bay and proved to be popular with the riding public.
The California type cars were much sturdier than the old horse cars, being constructed on a steel underframe with metal sheathing on the sides. They were equipped with two traction motors and hand-operated brakes. The exterior was painted a yellow & orange with silver trim; the interior was of highly polished mahogany with rattan seats. A two-man crew consisting of a Motorman and Conductor was used to operate the car. The Motorman operated the car from the head end, and the Conductor collected fares and answered questions asked by the ·passengers. The cars of this type were built by the Hammond Car Company of San Francisco, which built streetcars for San Francisco and other California towns and cities.
Birney Safety Car
In 1901 the Big Four sold the electric operation to F. M. “Borax” Smith. and it became a part of the Oakland Traction Company. later known as the Key System. In the teens, the line was primarily operated to serve the workers at Del Monte Cannery, Judson Steel and other factories located along and adjacent to Park Avenue. The new company continued to operate the small single-truck car on Park Avenue until August 19, 1920, when it was replaced by a one-man operated car known as a Birney Safety Car. The closing of the Racetrack in 1911 and the popularity of the automobile had caused a decline in patronage. and the company was compelled to cut operating expenses.
The Key System bought twenty-five single-truck small type Birney Cars (the name derived from the car’s designer). The Park Avenue line was assigned one of these Birney Cars, which served the line until passenger service was discontinued. This type of car was also called a “dinky,” due to its small size. They were sold to transit companies throughout the United States, and in some of the Eastern Cities they were called “Cootie Cars,” for reasons unknown.
End of the Line
The company took further steps to reduce their deficit in operating this line by eliminating midday service effective March 15, 1932; thereafter, service was limited to the morning and evening rush hours. Finally, the Key System applied to the California Railroad Commission to abandon service, and the last car ran on March 15, 1937. The Key System’s One-Man Birney Cars finally disappeared in 1938, when all twenty-five cars were cut up for scrap in the Emeryville Shop.
A two-block length of track was retained on Park Avenue to accommodate the Special streetcars that ran to the Oaks Baseball Park. They were finally torn up on this part of the line in 1949 after streetcar service ended in Oakland.
This story originally published in 1996 for the Emeryville Centennial Celebration and compiled into the ‘Early Emeryville Remembered’ historical essays book.
