San Francisco and Alameda Railroad
After being bankrupted by the 1868 Hayward earthquake, it was acquired by a subsidiary of the Central Pacific Railroad in August 1869.
Part of the SF&A line between Alameda Terminal and San Leandro served as a portion of the First transcontinental railroad starting in September 1869 (though most was replaced by the San Francisco and Oakland Railroad by November 1869), while the southern section was abandoned in 1873.
The middle section of the SF&A line between Fruitvale and San Leandro is still in service as part of the Union Pacific Railroad Niles Subdivision.
A. Cohen,[1][2] a prominent San Francisco attorney, together with Charles Minturn, an operator of river steamboats and bay ferries, E. B. Mastick, a prominent Alameda landowner, and others incorporated the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad to provide passenger and freight ferry-train service to Alameda, San Leandro, Hayward (then called Haywards) and perhaps farther.
Construction continued via private right-of-way between the Oakland Estuary and San Leandro Bay, (Alameda was then a peninsula rather than an island) to stations named Fruit Vale (later renamed Fernside[6]) at Fernside Boulevard and Pearl Street near the present Fruitvale Bridge, to Simpson's (later renamed Melrose) near the present 48th Avenue and then, turning southeastward, to Fitch's (later named Fitchburg) near the present 77th Avenue, to Jones (later Elmhurst) near the present 98th Avenue to the Bay side of San Leandro near Davis Street.
At San Leandro, the track turned sharply left (heading east) there onto Ward (now West Estudillo) Street to the SF&A San Leandro station at the intersection with the county road (now East 14th Street).
The track then turned sharply to the right to follow the county road southward (now East 14th Street in San Leandro, and Mission Boulevard in Hayward).
[10][11] By 1866 the Western Pacific Railroad had built a line from San Jose northwest to Vallejo Mills (mouth of Niles Canyon, later Niles and now part of Fremont) and had laid out the rest of the line through the canyon, through Livermore Valley, over Altamont Pass, and on to Stockton and Sacramento, before running out of money.
It was determined that the SF&A track north of Hayward with its sharp turns on Ward Street in San Leandro was unsuitable for main-line trains.
When the connection to the SF&O was completed in November, the transcontinental trains operated to Oakland Pier instead.
Passenger service was abandoned in January, 1941, and replaced by Key System buses using a shorter route via a tunnel (Posey Tube), aligned with Harrison Street in Oakland, but freight service continued over most of the route.
The first ferryboat used by the SF&A was a river packet named Sophie MacLane, leased from Charles Minturn's company.
After the SF&A was taken over by the Central Pacific Railroad, the Alameda was placed in the pool of CP ferryboats and served in various locations.
Soon after service was started, it was realized that a more powerful locomotive was needed, so the J. C. Kellogg, a 4-4-0 type, was built by the SF&A.
It was named the F. D. Atherton and was heavily damaged in the wreck at Simpson's the following year, but was rebuilt.
