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Nice history! I ride by that powerhouse regularly. There are old train tracks peppered throughout lower Marin that speak to a different kind of place than it is

by mvkel 5y ago

Nice history! I ride by that powerhouse regularly. There are old train tracks peppered throughout lower Marin that speak to a different kind of place than it is today.

Lammy 5y ago
Sorry for veering off topic but by chance do you mean actual rails and not just visible ROWs like the elevated Center Blvd between San Anselmo and Fairfax? If so I’d love to know where so I can go get some photos of them and especially of their steelmarks showing the foundry name, year, and month they were rolled. I’ve explored a lot of it between Sausalito and the Alto Tunnel and never noticed any, but I also wasn’t looking very hard :)
- mvkel 5y ago
  https://youtu.be/0c0TzJTs82s https://youtu.be/0c0TzJTs82s This is the best resource I've seen. There are also some tracks halfway up Railroad Grade on Tam. When there are heavy rains, railroad ties wash onto the trail pretty regularly, too! Curious: do you think the Alto tunnel will ever get reopened? :)
  - Lammy 5y ago
    Neat, I’ll have to go check that out again. As for the tunnel I’m not really plugged into the local politics enough to have an informed guess. From what I’ve read SMART seems to be widely hated by these same groups of extreme-anti-growth people, and the other tunnel whose name I forget has already set the precedent of SMART sharing the tunnel with a walking/bike trail. That makes me lean toward “probably not” since it could incentivize southward SMART expansion from the current Larkspur terminus :/ e: I also want to go look for any remnants of the White Hill / Bothin Tunnel if it isn’t on a parcel owned by someone who would mind. There is a trail right there that goes down to the parking area at the SFD Blvd bridge, but the actual portal remains (if there are any) might be on the Girl Scout Camp’s land. Unsure.
    - mvkel 5y ago
      Good info! Re white hill, are you thinking of Tamarancho?
      - Lammy 5y ago
        Yep, here-ish for the later standard-gauge tunnel over toward Railroad Ave in Woodacre: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.0043212,-122.6207934,115m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en https://www.google.com/maps/@38.0043212,-122.6207934,115m/da... https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1SkFrgLj-TR4gyw9Y4mqcKWAUZUw&hl=en_US&ll=38.19757197708177%2C-122.787061&z=9 https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1SkFrgLj-TR4gyw9Y4m... Some relevant pages: https://web.archive.org/web/20130107031505/https://www.marinhistory.org/article_BothinTunnel.html https://web.archive.org/web/20130107031505/https://www.marin... https://www.marindirect.com/fxhistory/whiteshill.html https://www.marindirect.com/fxhistory/whiteshill.html http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?page=roads/ca/npc/gotg.htm http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?page=roads/ca/npc/gotg...

by mvkel 5y ago

Nice history! I ride by that powerhouse regularly. There are old train tracks peppered throughout lower Marin that speak to a different kind of place than it is today.

Lammy 5y ago

Sorry for veering off topic but by chance do you mean actual rails and not just visible ROWs like the elevated Center Blvd between San Anselmo and Fairfax? If so I’d love to know where so I can go get some photos of them and especially of their steelmarks showing the foundry name, year, and month they were rolled. I’ve explored a lot of it between Sausalito and the Alto Tunnel and never noticed any, but I also wasn’t looking very hard :)

mvkel 5y ago
https://youtu.be/0c0TzJTs82s https://youtu.be/0c0TzJTs82s This is the best resource I've seen. There are also some tracks halfway up Railroad Grade on Tam. When there are heavy rains, railroad ties wash onto the trail pretty regularly, too! Curious: do you think the Alto tunnel will ever get reopened? :)
- Lammy 5y ago
  Neat, I’ll have to go check that out again. As for the tunnel I’m not really plugged into the local politics enough to have an informed guess. From what I’ve read SMART seems to be widely hated by these same groups of extreme-anti-growth people, and the other tunnel whose name I forget has already set the precedent of SMART sharing the tunnel with a walking/bike trail. That makes me lean toward “probably not” since it could incentivize southward SMART expansion from the current Larkspur terminus :/ e: I also want to go look for any remnants of the White Hill / Bothin Tunnel if it isn’t on a parcel owned by someone who would mind. There is a trail right there that goes down to the parking area at the SFD Blvd bridge, but the actual portal remains (if there are any) might be on the Girl Scout Camp’s land. Unsure.
  - mvkel 5y ago
    Good info! Re white hill, are you thinking of Tamarancho?
    - Lammy 5y ago
      Yep, here-ish for the later standard-gauge tunnel over toward Railroad Ave in Woodacre: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.0043212,-122.6207934,115m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en https://www.google.com/maps/@38.0043212,-122.6207934,115m/da... https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1SkFrgLj-TR4gyw9Y4mqcKWAUZUw&hl=en_US&ll=38.19757197708177%2C-122.787061&z=9 https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1SkFrgLj-TR4gyw9Y4m... Some relevant pages: https://web.archive.org/web/20130107031505/https://www.marinhistory.org/article_BothinTunnel.html https://web.archive.org/web/20130107031505/https://www.marin... https://www.marindirect.com/fxhistory/whiteshill.html https://www.marindirect.com/fxhistory/whiteshill.html http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?page=roads/ca/npc/gotg.htm http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?page=roads/ca/npc/gotg...