Series XXVI: Southern Pacific Railroad: Western Division, West Oakland Yards

This series consists of photographs of the Southern Pacific's facilities in Oakland, California. These photographs were submitted to the Commission as Employees' Exhibit 25, are referred to by the letter R in testimony, and were taken by R. Vawter. Mr. Vawter was employed in engine service on the Western Division of the Southern Pacific Company, Pacific Lines, in the yards in Oakland, California. The West Oakland Yards were more than 30 miles long, and served the entire East Bay of the San Francisco metropolitan area. The Southern Pacific was a class I railroad in the western United States. It covered a vast territory, with lines stretching from New Orleans through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Los Angeles; from Los Angeles up the West Coast through San Francisco and Sacramento to Portland, Oregon; from Chicago through St. Louis to Dallas and Ft. Worth, Texas; and from San Francisco through Nevada to Ogden, Utah. The Sunset Route, between New Orleans and Los Angeles, went through El Paso, Tucson and Phoenix, with a branch line heading south into Mexico at Nogales. The photographs in this series document the SP facilities in Oakland as well as the industries it served and portions of downtown Oakland, California including the Fruitvale Cannery station, now a commuter station on the BART system.