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San Francisco's Interurban to San Mateo (CA) (Images of Rail) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Walter Vielbaum, Robert Townley, Walter Rice, Emiliano Echeverria, Don Holmgren
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $12.29
You Save: $7.70 (39%)
New (12) Used (4) from $12.29
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 1117103
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 0738530085
Dewey Decimal Number: 388.46097946
EAN: 9780738530086
ASIN: 0738530085
Publication Date: September 26, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
Its strange to think that an electric commuter rail line rivaling BART in efficiency, speed, and comfort ran over 100 years ago between San Francisco and San Mateo, but run it did. The 40 Line, or San Mateo Interurban, began in 1892 with an initial segment operating between Market and Steuart Streets out to the county limits on San Jose Avenue. Three years later, the line reached Baden in present-day South San Francisco, and by 1903 service was opened all the way to downtown San Mateo. During the lines heyday, there was talk of extending it down the peninsula from San Mateo to Palo Alto to connect with the Peninsular Railway to San Jose. The 1906 earthquake put this plan on hold. Following much the same route as todays Mission Street, El Camino Real, and Caltrain, the San Mateo Interurban carried over four million passengers a year along its main and spur lines until 1949, when the system was shut down amidst much fanfare.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Can't put it down!!! WONDERFUL historic photos. June 16, 2007
I've read three Arcadia Publishing books and this is my favorite so far, although all three were excellent.
Many of the pictures in this book were taken by the authors, two of which walked the entire 40 line to obtain them, while the railway was still in operation (interesting is that it was still a popular way to travel...a pity it's gone, really, since this was an ELECTRIC railway). Consequently the photos show not only the trolleys but an amazing series of landscapes - amazing how the area has changed from open fields (I wasn't around for the railway but I do remember the Dubuque meat-packing plant being next to Hwy 101 in South San Francisco) to what they are today.
There isn't much text - it is after all a photo history book - and the captions underneath the photos are interesting and informative. There are two essays written in the early 1900's for a newspaper contest and some statistics about the cars used in the railway throughout its existence.
A visit to the Western Railway Museum is now on my mental "to visit" list. Not sure how interesting it would be to people who have not lived in the area but I have been engrossed for the past 3 weeks! Great work, authors and thanks for sharing those photos!
 Little known S F interurban lines comes back to life November 3, 2006
Nice book - maybe priced a little high, but lots of photos I'd never seen before, along with information I didn't have. A great addition to a streetcar fan's collection.
Pre-BART, Pre-Automobile San Francisco Travel September 29, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
In 1892 the personal automobile didn't exist (well Daimler and Maybach built their first 'automobile' in 1889 or so - but there weren't very many). But even in this early time there was a need for transportation from San Francisco to the communities being developed southward. Before that time the only way to travel was by animal power, either horse or walking. The answer was an electric trolley system that began on Market street and ran down to San Mateo. This system continued to operate until 1949.
This book is one of the Images of Rail series put out by Arcadia publishing. It is basically a picture book with perhaps 200 photographs of what was called the '40 Line.' The pictures are nothing less than amazing. It must have been a labor of love on the authors part to collect these pictures and put them together as a book. (As one indication of this, all of the proceeds from this book are being donated to the Bay Area Electric Railroaders Association.)
While these pictures primarily show the sights connected with the 40 Line, the people, clothing, and backgrounds show a lot about life in those times. The first pictures show horses on dirt streets. The last show the cars of the 1940's.
This is a delightful book.
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