Railroads Serving Emeryville
Emeryville became known as the “Industrial Center of the West” due to the rapid development of the industrial and manufacturing plants that were established early in this century. Much of the industrial progress can be attributed to the railroads which served this progressive community.
Seven Railroads
Seven different railroads operated and provided rail service at one time or other. Street railroad service provided passenger transportation for the residents, of the community. The first company to operate passenger service was the San Pablo Avenue Horse Car Railroad. which ran from First Street and Broadway in Oakland out San Pablo Avenue to Stanford Avenue in the Golden Gate district, with a branch line on Park Avenue connecting with the Southern Pacific trains at Emery Station. The line opened in 1871. In 1886. under the Oakland Railroad Company. it was converted to cable car operation over the same route. except that the cable cars ended at San Pablo Avenue and Park Avenue. The Horse Car line continued from this point out San Pablo Avenue to the Golden Gate district at Stanford Avenue.
The cable cars ran until 1898. when the method of operation was changed to electric operated street cars. at which time the company became the Oakland Traction Company. Service was extended by the electric cars, first to West Berkeley. later to the county line, and in 1911 to Richmond.
In October 1903 the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose Railway, better known as the “Key Route,” commenced transbay electric train service between the East Bay and San Francisco. This service lasted up until April of 1958 when rail service was replaced by buses. The Key Route maintained their main shop in Emeryville on Yerba Buena Avenue between Hollis Street and San Pablo Avenue.
Northern Railway
The first steam railroad to serve Emeryville was the Northern Railway, a subsidiary of the Central Pacific, which later became the Southern Pacific. The Northern Railway built a line along the shore of San Francisco Bay reaching from Oakland to Martinez, later connecting with ‘points in the Sacramento and San-Joaquin Valleys and points east across the continent. Both freight and passenger trains ran over the rails of this line which was an important factor in the development of the factories and industrial plants that located along and adjacent to the right of way. The Southern Pacific maintained three stations in Emeryville, one at the foot of Park Avenue, originally called “Emery Station,” later changed to Emeryville, one at Shellmound and the third at Stock Yards.
Santa Fe Railroad
The second major steam railroad to enter Emeryville was the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. better known as the Santa Fe. This line entered Emeryville over the abandoned line of the former California and Nevada Railroad. This had been a narrow-gauge railroad that ran from the foot of Yerba Buena Avenue, out Adeline Street to Orinda via Berkeley. El Cerrito and Richmond. This road did not prosper due to the low density of population and inadequate freight traffic. The Santa Fe acquired their right of way from Richmond to Emeryville, establishing an attractive Depot at the comer of 40th Street and San Pablo Avenue. adjacent to which they built a large freight station. Service over this new line started on May 16, 1904, and today the Santa Fe still serves this community operating over the rails of the Southern Pacific between Richmond and Oakland.
This story originally published in 1996 for the Emeryville Centennial Celebration and compiled into the ‘Early Emeryville Remembered’ historical essays book.
