The steam engine of yesteryear pulls into Congress Junction station.
When I was growing up--a premise that seems at least debatable--we used to speak about taking the steam train to San Francisco. Use of the rather archaic term, which suggests the "steam cars" appellation from the early days of the industry, probably stemmed from a perceived need to differentiate between this mode and Saratoga's other rail transportation, the trolley line.
Saratoga had streetcar, or interurban, service from 1904 to 1933. The steam, later diesel, passenger trains operated from 1908 to January 1964. Known variously as the Mayfield or Vasona cutoff, the route serving Saratoga, left the Southern Pacific main line at California Avenue in Palo Alto, skirted the Stanford University campus, came down through Los Altos--actually opening that community for development--and Monta Vista and continued along the right of way that today serves the Kaiser Cement Corporation. Saratoga passengers got on at Congress Junction, where the tracks crossed Saratoga Avenue, or Azule, where they crossed Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. This branch line joined the SP's Los Gatos line at Vasona Junction, alongside Winchester Boulevard.
Without resorting to a map, it's a little confusing to try to describe the rail network, both steam-powered and electric, that served this part of the valley before the great postwar migration. Suffice it to say that there was a time when one could board a train in Santa Cruz and ride through wooded Los Gatos Canyon en route to San Francisco by way of the towns mentioned above.
Service to Santa Cruz through Los Gatos ended in March, 1940, but the San Francisco commuter trains originating in Los Gatos continued until 1959. After that, the commuter trains came directly from San Jose to the branch line of Vasona and continued on up to San Francisco.
This service was doomed by construction of Foothill Expressway, which occupies the old railroad right-of-way. The last train ran in January 1964.
Trains always have exerted a powerful grip on imaginations, especially young ones, and to say that, as a youngster, I was in thrall to this form of transportation practically at our doorstep would not be overstating the case. Even from the middle of town, we could hear the throaty blast of the steam whistle and the pounding of exhaust as the morning commuter train pulled out of Congress Junction. I'm proud to say that this gut feeling about trains was passed on to my daughter, as evidenced by her reaction when the SP replaced steam power with diesels in January 1957.
She wasn't yet 3, but on that first morning, when the train sound was the sterile bleating of an air horn, she was upset enough to climb out of her crib and scamper up to our bed. "Mommy," she said in alarm. "I hear a diesel." The kid has her priorities straight.
That commuter train wasn't the fastest way to San Francisco, but it had its rewards. During blossom time, there was a stretch near Monta Vista where one had the impression of traveling through a tunnel of white. And it was rather pleasant to lean back in the seat and look out at the poor souls contending with freeway traffic.
Whatever form rail transportation takes--expanded CalTrain service, BART extensions, new light-rail routes-- I wish them all well as they embody the concept of moving people rather than vehicles but they'll never match the color and allure of steam trains and streetcars.
For instance, I can't imagine the modern-day counterpart of a race between a steam train and an interurban electric car along parallel rights-of-way, such as existed along Fremont Road between Monta Vista and Los Altos. I never saw it but I heard about it, and the child in me believes it.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, July 17, 1996.
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