The Key Route, Part 1: Transbay Commuting by Train and Ferry (Interurbans Special 95)

I think that Harre W. Demoro's The Key Route is a labor of love because the author, a veteran transportation reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland native, grew up riding the Key SystemÕs trains, got to know some of the KeyÕs employees (including the conductor who recited Irish poetry), was a part of his daily life, and had the honor of being one of the last passengers to ride this train from San Francisco to Oakland across the Bay Bridge in 1958 when bridge rail service was discontinued. I first read about this book in the ChronicleÕs Sunday book review section while I was in high school, and remember browsing thought it at a bookstore in downtown San Francisco after it was first published, so itÕs a bit of nostalgia for me. Also, after this book was published, the author wrote two feature articles about his experience in riding the Key System and growing up in Oakland for the ChronicleÕs Sunday magazine. One of them was about getting around Oakland by streetcar or bus, and the other was basically a nostalgic look back at his experiences in riding the Key SystemÕs trains, which included many photographs from his Key Route book.What draws me to the Key System story is the fact that my father rode the KeyÕs bridge unit train from Oakland across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco while he was stationed at the Alameda Naval Air Station during the 1950s. Several times before his death, my father told me that he took the wrong train. He wanted to get on the A-line to San Francisco, but rode a train to Berkeley instead. So after arriving in Berkeley, he transferred to the train that he wanted, the A-line to San Francisco. He also commented that the trainÕs conductors were very courteous. Such was my fatherÕs personal link to a forgotten relic of Bay Area interurban rail history.Ironically, there was something my father never told me about riding the Key System.The bridge unit trains got their power in two different ways. On the bridge, the trains got their power from an electric third rail through a special power shoe under the trainÕs body like most subway trains get their power today. Off the bridge, the trains got their power from an overhead wire through a pantograph on top of the cars body. This is the way most light rail vehicles and commuter trains in Northeastern corridor (Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Washington D.C.) get their power today. The KeyÕs trains also ran on the streets of Oakland and Berkeley just like a streetcar. Another interesting feature of this train is that as the train ran toward the Bay BridgeÕs entrance, it passed under a machine that pushed down the pantograph to prepare the train for third rail power on the bridge.