I am looking for information as to where the picnic trains that left from S.F. stopped in niles canyon. I know there were 10 picnic locations but I am looking for some help from an oldtimer as to where exactly they where

-- mike rogers (all5rogers@yahoo.com), October 28, 2003

Answers

Call the Niles Canyon RR group. Took their tour from Sunol and they mentioned two or three places where the picnic trains stopped in the Canyon.

-- Roy Mize (roy@workplans.com), November 06, 2003.

The train made one stop at the SFWD Water Temple in Sunol. My grandparents asked me to take them there in the early 60s so they could see it again. Back in the teens & early 20s they took the ferry from SF to Oakland and the train from there to Niles and then on to Sunol so they could picnic on the temple grounds. It was mesmerizing watching the cascading water down the "well". Of course, being in my late teens, I had to spit into it.

My grandparents said there were lawns, picnic benches and walnut trees all around back then as there were in the 60s when we went. Last Time I saw it, it semmingly hadn't changed much (except the Water Temple has recently been refurbished). It's closed to the public on weekends so I couldn't go in. I don't know about weekdays.

-- Jim Smith (jrs50@earthlink.net), November 19, 2003.