Berkeley Branch Railroad
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The Berkeley Branch Railroad was a 3.84 mile long branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) from a junction in Emeryville called "Shellmound" to what soon became downtown Berkeley, adjacent to the new University of California campus. The line opened on August 16, 1876. The initial terminal point was at Shattuck and University Avenues in Berkeley. In 1878, the line was extended north along Shattuck to Vine ("Berryman's Station"). The line connected at Shellmound with commuter trains headed to the Oakland Pier and ferries to San Francisco. Eventually, Berkeley Branch trains proceeded directly to the pier.
The line was constructed in no small part because of heavy lobbying by prominent local citizens like Francis K. Shattuck and people connected with the University of California.
The Berkeley Branch Railroad was used under lease by the Central Pacific until 1885 when it was leased by the CPRR's affiliate, the Southern Pacific (SP). In 1888, the SP consolidated the Berkeley Branch Railroad into its subsidiary, the Northern Railway. Although the corporate Berkeley Branch ceased to exist at that time, its trackage continued to be called the "Berkeley branch line". In 1911, the line was electrified for commuter service, becoming a part of the SP's East Bay Electric Lines. When SP ceased running its electric commuter trains in July, 1941, the trackage up to Ward Street and Shattuck Avenue remained in use for freight and was referred to as the "Berkeley Lead". Until the early 1960s, the SP Ward Street Freight Depot was the Berkeley terminal point. Beyond that, the tracks were turned over to the Key System for its F-line commuter trains which ran unil April 1958. The Key System had previously used its own tracks, shared with streetcars (until 1948), along the east side of Shattuck. The Berkeley Branch tracks had always run along the west side of Shattuck south of University Avenue.
The Berkeley Branch route began at Shellmound where it was connected to the main line of the CPRR and its successor, the SP. A switching tower existed there, the Shellmound Tower. The tracks then curved onto Stanford Avenue, then Adeline, then Shattuck into downtown Berkeley.
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