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Photograph courtesy of Bill Wulf
Los Gatan Henry Crall lived to tell the tale following the derailment of the electric streetcar he was riding.
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Picture from the Past
The path of Interurban streetcars didn't run smoothly at all times
Interurban streetcars were handy, if risky, form of transit
By John S. Baggerly
Los Gatos resident Henry Crall was a passenger on the interurban streetcar shown above that jumped its tracks at Austin Corners, crashed through a white picket fence and landed on its right side.
Crall, other passengers and the motorman escaped the wreckage, probably by crawling out of the broken front window. After emerging, Crall saw a photo opportunity and hiked back to his Los Gatos home, fetched a camera, returned and prevailed on someone to snap his photo as seen above. The accident happened to Peninsula Railway car No. 57 on December 18, 1921.
Peninsula Railway linked San Jose with Campbell, Los Gatos and Saratoga and back to San Jose by San Carlos Street. The company's headquarters were on San Jose's Market Street.
The car in the photograph had just departed Los Gatos, crossed over Daves Avenue on a trestle--no longer standing--and was downward bound to Austin Corners, where automobiles branched into Quito Road. At Austin Corners the rails turned west toward what today is La Hacienda Inn and a Santa Clara County fire station. The rails then turned northward and hugged the west side of the two-lane road into Saratoga.
A ride on the old interurban line (1904-1934) offered riders a scenic route along two-lane highways running by prune and apricot orchards.
As for the wrecked car, local historian Bill Wulf says that oily eucalyptus leaves were known to make that area slippery and hazardous but had never before caused a car to jump the tracks and topple over.
In 1906, one of the cars entering Los Gatos and descending Saratoga Avenue lost its brakes, jumped the tracks and ran into the old Los Gatos Cemetery, the site occupied by Double D's Sports Grille today. For a number of years it was said that someone was killed on that run, but Wulf has never been able to verify such an accident.
The Southern Pacific Railway company later became owners of the Interurban Street Car line. When a mishap occurred, conductors on trains gave passengers cards that read: "For the protection of Engineers and Motormen." Signing the cards released the company from liability.
Interurban streetcars are not lost in time. According to Wulf, two cars, No. 52 and No. 61, are located at the Western California Railroad Museum at Rio Vista Junction on Highway 12. The city of San Jose maintains car No. 73, which is rolled out on special occasions. Its wheelbase fits VTA's light rail tracks.
In the 1930s, students in fast-growing Willow Glen were given the choice of attending different high schools: San Jose, Campbell or Los Gatos. The interurban line carried those students who picked Campbell and Los Gatos.
Los Gatos High School coach Doug Helm welcomed Willow Glen athletes and, of course, that mischievous chap Cupid asked no geographical questions when he created marriages between students hailing from different towns.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
