Sierra Mountain Times

Steve Hayes holds a copy of his book next to a model of the Salt Lake City depot within in his 1,800 square foot train model room that covers the entire Western Pacific route. Photo by Thomas Atkins.

By Thomas Atkins

After laborious years of laying hundreds of miles of tracks and ties across the desolate countryside spanning San Francisco and Salt Lake City, the Western Pacific Railroad was finally completed, allowing passengers to travel this great distance in comfort. To herald the beginning of passenger service on the Western Pacific, a Press Representative Special train left the Salt Lake City depot at 7 a.m. on August 20, and three days and nearly 930 miles later, arrived at 4:15 p.m. on August 22 at the Oakland 3rd Street depot. For the next 60 years the Western Pacific provided continuous passenger service between Oakland and Salt Lake City, resulting in the construction of dozens of depots and stations along the route of the railway. Each day the thunder of the trains could be heard passing through the towns along the Western Pacific’s extensive route. One of these towns was Hayward, which is where Soulsbyville resident Steve Hayes spent his childhood and where his fascination with trains was fueled.

“I grew up in Hayward along the Western Pacific tracks,” said Steve, who moved to Tuolumne County with his wife Norma in 1965. “That is where I bought my first toy train, and I’ve kind of been into them ever since.”

Since the purchase of his first train, his collection has grown immensely and he even has an 1,800 square foot room in his house dedicated to a train model version of the Western Pacific Railroad.

“It’s a replica of the whole Western Pacific route from San Francisco to Salt Lake City all in model size,” he said proudly. “There is a group of about 12 to 15 guys that come over every Thursday night to play trains. We run them like a real railroad and we have dispatchers and everything. I started working on it in 1996 and I am still working on it…I will probably be working on it the rest of my life.”

Although currently his model set only has the Oakland and Salt Lake City depots constructed, Steve knows the history of nearly every depot and station in between…and you can too, thanks to the completion of Steve’s first book, “Western Pacific Depots and Stations.” Although it was completed a few months ago, it has taken him years to gather the fascinating information and pictures contained within the 327 pages of the beautiful hardback book.

“I started thinking about writing the book about six or seven years ago,” he said. “I was the convention chairman for the Western Pacific Historical Society out of Portola at the time and it was really difficult to find people to put on clinics about the railroad. It just seemed like every clinic you got was about the rolling stock engines, cars and that kind of stuff and nobody was paying much attention to the structures. So my first idea was to do a book on all the structures along the right of way of the Western Pacific. So my wife and I drove down to Oakland and I would take pictures of buildings and things along the way, but by the time we got to Hayward there just wasn’t that much there. There wasn’t that much left and I knew as you got out across the valley it would only get worse. So I realized it wasn’t going to work – because to do the book I would need pictures of the stations and depots.”

Most of these depots and stations were torn down or converted into other buildings after the Western Pacific made its last passenger run on March 22, 1970. Today, only 13 of these depots and stations exist. Four are private residences, two are restaurants, three are office spaces, one is a women’s shelter and one is an apartment building. Yet Steve knew that information and photos about 13 depots and stations wasn’t enough, and finding pictures and information about the rest that were lost to history would be a nearly impossible task. However, after putting together a small pamphlet about the Oakland 3rd Street depot and doing seminars about it at a few of train conventions he attends, doors began to open up.

The Oakland 3rd Street Depot. Photo courtesy of Steve Hayes.

“I went and visited the Oakland 3rd Street depot, which is still standing down at Jack London Square, and ended up he doing some research on it,” he said. “I put the information together in a little pamphlet and did seminars at a few conventions about what I found. Up until this point, I didn’t have the credentials…I wasn’t in the “in group”. But soon people began to realize that I was a credited source and they started to give me access to their photographs. Once I started getting photographs I realized that there was enough information for me to do a book. Getting photographs is very, very difficult. Even museums and historical societies have virtually nothing…so it was all about finding private collections. Plus I had collected a lot throughout the years with the book idea in the back of my mind and then it all just came together.”

The journey had begun, and for the next several years Steve embarked on numerous trips to do research for his project.

“I soon started finding people all over the place and my wife and I took many, many trips out across the desert to get pictures or to take pictures of old depot or station foundations,” he said. “My wife went on about a quarter of the trips with me and would generally go on the longer trips out across the desert. We had to do it in sections because it’s like 900 and something miles to do the whole thing. So we did it in pieces…probably in about 12 different trips.”

Although most of the Western Pacific traverses very desolate and desert-like terrain, the depot/station hunting couple always seemed to return with a good story to tell.

“There were a lot of times that we were out in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “We wouldn’t see anything out there…not even a cow! We were basically on jeep roads and there was one time we were so far out, that I thought it would be best to just keep going; Big mistake. There were many times when I would hike ahead down something to make sure when I got to the bottom we would keep going, and my wife was just going, “Oh my God.” We eventually came out to a place where we could look across and see trucks on Highway 80, and I said. “Look at that, we are almost there”…two hours later we still weren’t there!”

Was it really worth driving out to these remote locations in search of the remains of an old depot or station? Steve, who visited nearly 70 station locations, believes so.

“Did anybody give a damn if we had a picture of a foundation? Well, what I found was that I could actually measure them and then I could verify what kind of building was actually there,” he said. “And in some instances I would find differences in pictures and conflicting information which I had to resolve. But out of the three states, Nevada had more information available than anywhere. It was easier to find old depot remnants in Nevada because they didn’t clean things up…they just abandoned them. In California, they would clean up a building as soon as they tore it down, so it was virtually impossible to find any foundations or anything like that. And in Utah it was kind of like the railroad didn’t exist.”

But it wasn’t always road trips along the tracks searching for clues to the railroads past. Steve also spent a lot of time at the homes of collectors, museums and libraries scanning or purchasing pictures and information.

“You can only stand going through people’s files and papers for so long…and then you get kind of tired of it,” he said. “The hardest thing for me was getting overloaded, because at times there would be so much information.”

Yet Steve’s research has definitely paid off, and his book has been referred to as a work of art.

“I tried to make the book as comprehensive as I could,” he said. “If I found out what kind of nails they used, I put it in the book. My whole thing in writing the book was, I didn’t want to be right, I wanted it right.”

An early picture of the Stockton Depot, Steve’s favorite depot along the nearly 930-mile route between San Francisco and Salt Lake City. Photo Courtesy of Steve Hayes.

And because Steve published the book himself, he had all the creative freedom to make the book exactly how he wanted it.

“Part of the idea of publishing it myself was that I could control it,” said Steve. “I figured that if I was going to do something, I might as well do it my way. I didn’t want to throw anything out. I hate when you buy a book and the author tells you about all the pictures that aren’t in the book. My wife asked me, “How many pictures are you going to put in there of Stockton?” And I said, “As many as I have.” I mean, unless they are completely identical, but if ones got a bush in front of it to make it different, then I’ll use it because it shows that it was during a different time.”

Once Steve had gathered all of his pictures and information he began laying out the book through Publisher programs on his computer.

“I had never done anything like this in my life,” he said. “But I guess I have some kind of ability because what came out came out…and people have said that it is laid out very nicely. It surprised me. I have had a lot of positive feedback. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I am the definitive expert on Western pacific depots…and not because I know so much but because nobody else ever did anything on this subject. Nobody every looked all this stuff up…in fact they are all asking, “Where did you find all this information?” One of my friends who helped do one of the final edits on it said, “I now know more about Western Pacific depots than any sane person should know.” Well that’s cool; it did what I wanted the book to do.”

The book is definitely a fascinating journey and readers can relive the experience of what it must have been like to travel by train on the Western Pacific. Starting from Milepost Zero in San Francisco to Mile 927.95 in Salt Lake City one will discover a wealth of information about the dozens of stations and depots along the way.

Divided into eleven chapters, the book informs readers of everything they will need to know about this fascinating stretch of track. The first three chapters discuss the depots and stations, depot and station plan descriptions and construction standards and chapters four through ten break up the 928 mile journey different segments of track and their stations in between: San Francisco to French Camp, Stockton to Marysville, Oroville to Clio, Portola to Pronto, Winnemucca to Carlin, Elko to Salt Lake City, and the Northern California extension and the branches. Finally, to complete the expedition, chapter eleven gives descriptions on the passenger trains so you get a feel for the train you’d be riding in. It also contains interesting pictures of the BART construction, which paralleled the Western Pacific from Oakland to just south of Hayward.

Besides the hundreds of black and white and color pictures (many of which are very rare), this crisp and detailed book is also complete with building plans, blueprints, maps, charts and timetables and postcards. It seems to be lacking nothing, and is sure to bring pleasure to any train enthusiast, history buff, photographer or architect. Enjoy!

“Western Pacific Depots and Stations” can be purchased for $60 at Mountain Book Store or online at www.westernpacificdepotsandstations.com.