I have enjoyed some of the other pix posted at RP of street running. So I decided to spend an afternoon capturing what to me is a fascinating local example of railroad street running in this day and age. In Oakland the UP double track mainline shares Embarcadero Way with cars, buses, trucks and pedestrians for about four blocks. This is a busy stretch of railroad that handles all the UP trains over the ex-WP Altamont route, the ex-SP coast route, as well as the Amtrak Capital Corridor trains, the San Joaquins, and the Coast Starlight. It amazes me that there has not been been some effort to put all this into a trench, but the bay is close and the high water table probably would be a huge problem for a trench. In the meantime, it is an interesting stretch of busy railroad.
