Butler Road
A train passing the former station site in 2018
General information
LocationOyster Point Boulevard (Butler Road)
South San Francisco, California
Coordinates37°39′46″N 122°23′54″W / 37.66278°N 122.39833°W / 37.66278; -122.39833 (Butler Road (Peninsula Commute station))
Line(s)Peninsula Subdivision[1]
History
ClosedJuly 1983[2]
Former services
Preceding station Southern Pacific Railroad Following station
Bayshore
toward San Francisco
 Peninsula Commute South San Francisco
toward San Jose
Location

Butler Road station was a train station in South San Francisco, California, in operation until July 1983 on the Peninsula Commute, a commuter rail service run by Southern Pacific between San Francisco and communities on the San Francisco Peninsula. The Butler Road train shelter was built in 1926.[3]

History

The stop was next to the Shaw-Batcher steel mill, which opened in 1913; the mill was purchased by the Western Pipe and Steel Company in 1917.[4] 200 acres (81 ha) of land were acquired for a shipyard in August 1917,[5] and Shaw-Batcher was awarded a $30 million contract to build 18 merchant ships during World War I. The worksite population grew from 200 in early 1917 to 4,447 by July 1918, a month after the company's first ship was launched.[6] After the war, Western Pipe moved shipbuilding operations to San Pedro[7][8] and continued to produce pipe in South San Francisco, which was used in notable dam projects such as Hetch Hetchy, Grand Coulee, Shasta, and Folsom.[9] The shipyard was reactivated in 1939 for World War II,[10][11] and after the war ended, the site was sold in 1948 to Consolidated Steel (later United States Steel and its divisions),[12] which closed the mill in 1983.[12] Service to the Butler Road stop was also discontinued that year.[13]

The Butler Road stop was relatively little-used for much of its existence. In 1958, for example, only four of the 27 total northbound weekday commuter trains stopped at the station.[14] In 1978, only three of the 22 total northbound weekday trains stopped there.[15]

Butler Road, the roadway itself, has been renamed Oyster Point Boulevard.[16][17] The Peninsula Commute service was taken over by the State of California and renamed Caltrain in 1985, the name by which it is still known.

References

  1. ↑ SMA Rail Consulting (April 2016). "California Passenger Rail Network Schematics" (PDF). California Department of Transportation. p. 13.
  2. ↑ "Caltrans". National Railway Bulletin. Vol. 53–54. 1988. p. 38. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  3. ↑ McGovern, Janet (2012). Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service. Arcadia Publishing. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-7385-7622-0. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  4. ↑ "Industry: Shaw Batcher Company, shipyards during World War I." flickr. South San Francisco Public Library. 1918. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  5. ↑ "Big Ship Yard Soon for San Francisco". Sausalito News. Vol. 33, no. 35. 1 September 1917. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  6. ↑ "For Peninsulans World War I was close to home struggle". San Jose Mercury News. 10 April 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  7. ↑ "S.F. Shipyards of Shaw-Batcher Co. May Close Down". San Pedro Daily News. Vol. XIX, no. 135. 12 June 1920. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  8. ↑ "Schwab Enters Shipbuilding Field Here". San Pedro Daily News. Vol. XIX, no. 49. 24 March 1921. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  9. ↑ Gustaitis, Rasa, ed. (2012). San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-520-27436-5. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "Western Pipe & Steel Co., South San Francisco CA and San Pedro CA". Shipbuilding History. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  11. ↑ "S.S.F. Gets $10,000,000 Ship Job". The Times. San Mateo, California. 15 September 1939. Retrieved 23 May 2018.(subscription required)
  12. 1 2 "Bits of History: Exploring San Mateo County Historical Photographs". Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  13. ↑ Rail Passenger Development Plan, 1988-93 Fiscal Years (Report). Department of Transportation, State of California. March 1988. pp. 88, 122. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  14. ↑ Jafafa Hots (Flickr member). "1958 San Francisco - San Jose Southern Pacific Passenger Time Tables Back". Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  15. ↑ Railsaroundthebay.net. "1978 Southern Pacific Timetable photo". Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  16. ↑ South San Francisco Historical Society (2004). South San Francisco (Images of America). Arcadia Publishing. p. 4. ISBN 0-7385-2921-4. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  17. ↑ "1947 USGS South San Francisco map". USGS. 1947. Retrieved 27 December 2022.


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