'Golden Spike' Ceremony Held To Honor Niles Canyon Railway

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — Ask anyone with even a passing interest in U.S. history what makes Promontory, Utah famous. Those who answer correctly will say that's where on May 10, 1869 the ceremonial Golden Spike was driven, marking the completion of this nation's first transcontinental railroad between Council Bluffs, Iowa and Sacramento.

But there's more to the story of when, and where, the transcontinental railroad was really finished. The folks at the Niles Canyon Railway, a preservation/heritage railway running between the Niles neighborhood of Fremont and the Castlewood area south of Pleasanton in unincorporated Alameda County, went out of their way Friday to explain, and honor.

About 120 people attended a ceremony honoring the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Sacramento-to-Oakland section of the transcontinental railroad on Sept. 6, 1869, which created the United States' first coast-to-coast railroad. Niles Canyon Railway's 11-mile route is part of that last link to the Pacific, and as such is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

After a short presentation at the Niles Canyon Railway's Niles depot, invited guests boarded a train, pulled by a steam locomotive, a few miles east to a relatively isolated point in the canyon. Everyone got off and the train backed up 100 feet or so. A few minutes later, another steam locomotive rolled up from the east. And recreating a scene similar to the two steam engines, cowcatcher-to-cowcatcher, that met in Promontory for the famous Golden Spike event, the two Niles Canyon Railway locomotives nearly touched front couplers. A number of the Friday ceremony's attendees were allowed to swing a sledgehammer to pound ceremonial gold spikes in a forceful nod to a less well known but similarly important event.

"This is the real 'Golden Spike' ... just 150 years late," Henry Baum told Friday's gathering. Baum is president of the Pacific Locomotive Association, which operates the Niles Canyon line. "It's very historic what we're doing here today."

The line through Niles Canyon was part of the transcontinental main line for only 10 years or so, Baum explained, before another rail line opened a car ferry across the Carquinez Strait between Benicia and Port Costa. The ferry was replaced in the 1930s by a bridge over the strait between Benicia and Martinez, and that line became — and remains — a key main line.

The Central Pacific (later Southern Pacific) tracks through Niles Canyon became a secondary route. And in 1984, it was abandoned and removed by SP, deemed surplus. The right-of-way was deeded to Alameda County, which in 1987 leased it to the Pacific Locomotive Association. The all-volunteer preservation group re-installed the tracks from Niles east to Sunol, and later a few miles north toward Pleasanton.

Baum and perhaps 15 other Niles Canyon Railway members and guests present Friday were turned out in formal 1860's-era finery, including waistcoats and top hats, and long dresses and bonnets.

Also honored at Friday's gathering were Chinese railroad workers, responsible for much of the construction of the transcontinental railroad, including west of Sacramento. Fremont City Councilman Yang Shao told Friday's guests he is a descendent of workers who helped build the transcontinental railroad, and who suffered greatly in the process.

"I feel I'm here not by myself, but also representing all the Chinese railroad workers that really sacrificed with blood and sweat for the railroad," Shao said.

Gerry Low-Sabado of Fremont said she's a fifth-generation Chinese-American, a descendent of fishermen who founded Chinese fishing villages. Her great-grandfather, she said, helped building the now-abandoned rail line to Monterey and Pacific Grove. She said she was told stories of the railroad workers by her "elderly aunties."

"We're lucky to have the ability to tell the stories of the Chinese in this country," Low-Sabado said. "We need to tell the stories, and people are more and more willing to talk about it."

The Niles Canyon Railway's Sunol depot is hosting "Chinese on The Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad," an exhibit about Chinese rail workers. It will remain on display through the end of September. Fore more information, go to https://www.ncry.org/blog/chin...

—Bay City News