Who’s running the train?
The railroad giveth and
– sometimes – the railroad taketh away.
The Hollister track spur helped build Hollister. Local lore has
it that the people of what was then San Benito County’s leading
city, San Juan Bautista, said
”
no thanks
”
to the prospect of a rail line, so it went through Hollister and
continued all the way to Tres Pinos.
Who’s running the train?
The railroad giveth and – sometimes – the railroad taketh away.
The Hollister track spur helped build Hollister. Local lore has it that the people of what was then San Benito County’s leading city, San Juan Bautista, said “no thanks” to the prospect of a rail line, so it went through Hollister and continued all the way to Tres Pinos.
It was the railroad that brought San Benito County’s bounty of hay to the stables of the Bay Area, earning Hollister its “Hay Capital of the World” title, and giving the Hollister High Haybalers their unique mascot.
But when Col. William Wells Hollister and the other members of the San Justo Homestead Association laid out the streets of Hollister, they reached for their Midwestern roots, and placed the city on a neat north-south, east-west grid.
When the railroad subsequently arrived, it built its trackline straight through town toward Tres Pinos, crossing several streets at a diagonal.
That was not a problem for horses and high-wheeled buggies, nor is it a problem for automobiles and trucks.
But the tracks, particularly on Prospect Avenue and at Third and East streets, as pictured here, pose a significant navigational challenge for bicyclists.
The problem is that the tracks are nearly perfectly designed to catch the front wheel of a cyclist who does not cross them at right angles. When tracks run diagonally down a street, an unwary cyclist, or one hemmed in by traffic, runs the risk of having a wheel catch and making a quick trip to the pavement.
Public Works received an inquiry about how to report injuries or hazard at local Union Pacific rail crossings after two cyclists reported suffering broken bones in recent spills.
“Good question” was our first answer. But a check with Union Pacific reveals a spokesman in Sacramento who keeps track of exactly those things. Zoe Richmond, of Union Pacific, suggested that anyone observing a problem at a rail crossing call up toll free at 888-877-7267.
