If You're Going to San Francisco.....

OK, I didn’t actually wear flowers in my hair, but I did visit on May 22-24, in transit to Alaska, and caught up with frequent contributor Ted Miles, who was kind enough to take a couple hours out of his busy day running the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park to show me around his steam railroad collection.

His steam railroad collection is unusual, since it floats.

We started out in the Northwestern Pacific Railroad ferry Eureka. Built in 1890 as railroad car ferry Ukiah, she was heavily rebuilt and altered in 1922 and became the largest passenger and auto ferry on San Francisco Bay. The original walking beam engine and sidewheel configuration was preserved in the 1922 rebuilding, and, apart from minor modernizations, she was altered very little during her working career, which ended in the 1950’s.

Boarding ferry Eureka.  All photos by Dave Lathrop.

Casual visitors will enjoy exploring the accommodations – nothing special in 1922, but certainly demonstrating materials and craftsmanship not found on working craft today in terms of the woods used and carpentry. Just shy of 300 feet in length, she is the largest wooden boat afloat, each bit of wood hand fitted. National Park Service recently finished repairing some deteriorated structure by replacement in kind, and the repairs blend invisibly into the original structure. The collection of vintage cars and trucks on the deck will also interest non-railfans.

The engineering spaces below decks are not normally open to the public but are fascinating to behold. The walking beam engine (as well as all the auxiliaries) were powered by return flue fire tube boilers having corrugated cylindrical fireboxes completely surrounded by water. Exhaust steam was condensed and recirculated through the boilers to limit the supplemental fresh feedwater requirements. Reciprocating steam dynamos supplied power for the ships electrical systems. These dynamos and a variety of pumps and a couple miles of piping provide many opportunities for visitors to the engine rooms to acquire concussions, so it is only available for visiting by special arrangement with a guide from site staff.

The steam tug Hercules is the archetype for the classic ocean going tug – a big engine with a hull around it, high funnel, and raised pilot house with semicircular front. At 139 feet, she is larger than the classical New York Central harbor tugs you mentally associate with railroad tugs, but much along the same lines in conception.

Eureka's engineers platform.

Hercules was never designed to carry passengers, but was built with finer woods and craftsmanship than many passenger vessels of today, although not quite as fancy as Eureka. She was built in New Jersey in 1907, and until 1924 worked the West Coast towing barges and log rafts between the Pacific Northwest and the Panama Canal before being purchased by the Western Pacific Railroad to shove car barges around San Francisco Bay.

Her engine room is filled with a big triple expansion up and down engine – sort of like a compound Shay engine that got lost at sea. The cylinder heads are about level with the deck. Auxiliaries surround the engine in the spaces against the hull, leaving a narrow walkway between. Again, the area is hazardous, so visitors are limited to viewing the engine room from deck level. To gain some insight as to life in the engine room, visitors can play a tape loop recorded in the engine room of the sound of the boat under way.

In was extremely impressed with Hercules condition – you could fill the boiler with water, throw in a match and take her out to work a full day anytime. I’d be proud to volunteer as oiler, or wiper, if they do.

Apart form these two railroad boats, the park has several other sailing and motor craft on display also at Hyde Street Pier, as well as a couple other locations. The sailing ships Balclutha and C.A. Thayer, schooner Alam, and various small craft are found at Hyde Street. The submarine USS Pampanito shares a pier with the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O’Brien at Pier 45, and the archive and library is at Fort Mason.

Tug Hercules.

Another steamer, the Eppleton Hall, resides at Hyde Street, but is in poor condition awaiting restoration and not on display to the public. She is a British sidewheel harbor tug, which somehow survived a 1969 trip across the Atlantic, sucking boiler water from the sea, with her boiler carrying 35 pounds of steam! And we question railroad preservationists sanity……..?

The park has recently opened a beautifully done new visitors center facility across the street from Hyde Street Pier – the berthed displays back down the pier don’t present much in the way of streetscape to attract impulse visitors, and it is hoped the new Visitors Center will divert more of the passing tourist parade into the park. Most of the exhibits were in place during our visit, and everything was very well and professionally done. The gift shop on the pier has something I wish I found everywhere - a special shelf with used books for sale, the proceeds of which were earmarked for the library and archive. Hard to walk away empty handed.

NPS policy prevents Ted from blowing his own horn, which is a shame – thanks to him and to his staff, and pleased to toot a bit on his behalf here. Railfans and steam fans will find a lot worthy of visiting there, and it has broader appeal as well that will perhaps help when traveling with less enlightened family members that may not share our appreciation for rusty iron on flanged wheels.

Other crossover attractions in the area I wouldn’t miss are the Exploratorium, cable cars and trolleys – the entire public transit system is available for $6 per day, less than the cost of parking, assuming you could find a space, which you can’t. Good microbrews at Gordon Bierstadt by the ballpark and old Belt Railway roundhouse, and fine Chinese cuisine at many mom and pop joints like U-Lee, which offered tons of great food at bargain basement prices. Try the hot and sour soup and potstickers, you won’t regret it.

I understand there is a railroad museum in San Francisco, but oddly enough didn’t see the first brochure in any of the tourist venues I visited that might have told me where they were, when they were open, or what they had to offer. Oh well, maybe next time I am on the other coast, whenever that may be.

(Dave Lathrop)