A Forgotten Tunnel…

I recently found an article from 1961 about the discovery of an underground tunnel on what was the MacDermont Mansion in West Oakland. Here is what I discovered looking into the mansion.

MacDermot Mansion – Oakland Local wiki

Updated December 2022

Forgotten Tunnel Revives Dimming Memories

In 1961 the Peralta Villa, a 20-year-old WWII housing unit, was being demolished to make room for new low-rent apartments. They were located in the area bounded by 7th, 8th, Center, and Cypress Streets.

While clearing the land, a workman discovered a concrete-lined tunnel long forgotten and never recorded on the city records.

Was it a WWII bomb shelter? Did rum runners use it during prohibition?

The guesses proved to be wrong, but an exciting story.

The Tunnel

The tunnel (built between 1905 -1910) was the work of Louis MacDermot, the son of a prominent early Oakland family who owned the land. The MacDermont’s home (1407 8th St) was built sometime before 1876 (some say it could have been the French consul). Charles F. MacDermont’s name appears on title records as early as 1870.  The home was a showplace with landscaped grounds covering the entire block.   In the 1920s, the city proposed buying the site for a park, but the plan fell through. The home stood empty and decaying behind a wooden fence until 1941 when it was razed to make way for war-time housing. The tunnel went undetected then.

The concrete-lined tunnel ran across the stable yards from the brick boiler room near the family home to a machine shop. It was about 3 feet wide and 4 1/2 feet high. There were L-shaped hooks with oval rollers embedded on the sides.  Conductors for electrical wire had were installed on the ceiling.  The hooks held steam lines that heated the machine shop.

The man who built Railroads – the small ones

Railroad buffs might know the name Louis MacDermot. He built miniature railroads. He and his mechanics designed locomotives, freight cars, and coaches in great detail.

In 1913, he was awarded the concession to build and operate an intramural railway at the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), due to open in February 1915.   He set out to design and build the locomotives at home and assembled the railroad cars in a large building nearby. However, during the course of construction, PPIE management expressed concern about pedestrian safety in crowded areas and found more convenient means of transportation. 

The success of the Great Fair was not transferred to the Overfair Railway. First they were relegated to the very edge of the fair, thus reducing its economic potential.  MacDermont absorbed most of the railway’s costs out of his own pocket

  The first completed locomotive was the working engine No. 1500, an 0-6-0T type.

The Railway earned only slightly more than $22,000 in revenues. By contrast, B. F. Fageol’s Auto trains earned over $307,000 in nickels and dimes. Exposition management claimed the Overfair’s buildings and right-of-way were a leasehold improvement and so they kept them.The railway cost MacDermot an estimated $250,000 to build.

The Overfair Railway ran along the Marina between Fort Mason and the Presidio. A 10-cent fare provided transportation to the Polo Field, State / Foreign buildings, California Building, Exhibit Palaces, Yacht Harbor, and The Zone.

Over open Railway on the Marina –  San Francisco Bay -1915 –SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY.

The Decline of the MacDermot Estate

After the Fair, MacDermot became an eccentric recluse, quartered on the deteriorating grounds of the family’s Oakland mansion.

Unfortunately, this fate was also shared by the Overfair Railway wooden passenger and freight cars.  The locomotives had the luxury of spending their “retirement” in sheds. The others did not fare so well.

Another photo of the MacDermot home with one of the cars in the yard – OMCA

The Mountain Lion Railway

In 1941 he agreed to build the “The Mountain Lion Railway” for the Oakland Zoo. He moved three engines and the twelve best passenger cars to the Alameda County Zoological Gardens (today’s Oakland Zoo).  The operation started on August 1, 1941, with two cars running behind a forlorn No. 1913.  The faithful Pacific lost its boiler jacket and leading truck, relegating No. 1913 to a 0-6-2.  The Overfair equipment had substantially deteriorated, and MacDermot’s increasingly erratic behavior soon forced the Zoo’s management to eject the Railway.  Please see – Swanton Pacific Railroad Society Newsletter January 2008

Various photos at the Oakland Zoo – Photo from the Swanton Pacific Railroad Society collection.

Lost Dream

Louis MacDermot died in poverty on February 28,1948. His passion for perfection, like his health, had long since eroded. For the princely sum of $5,200, Billy Jones bought all the disassembled Overfair locomotives from MacDermot’s trustee in 1948. Jones’ purchase, undoubtedly, saved the miniatures from the junk pile. Under his guidance, the fleet was restored to its Exposition glory. The engines, however, were converted from coal to oil, a more practical fuel in California. Mechanical lubricators were added. See

The Railroad Today

Swanton Pacific Railroad in Davenport, CA

The Swanton Pacific Railroad serves as an operational memorial to Al Smith, who acquired and relocated the trains to the Swanton Pacific Ranch. The rolling stock consists of three one-third-scale Pacific-type steam locomotives built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a diesel switcher locomotive, and a variety of passenger and maintenance railcars.

 Cal Poly’s Live Steam Railroad –  Swanton Pacific Railroad

Until Al Smith’s death, in December of 1993, the Swanton Pacific Railroad was largely a partnership between Smith and Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture. Although volunteers came from “all walks of life,” to build, maintain and operate the railroad, the University has been central to the preservation and continued operation of the Overfair Railway.

Al Smith left to the University’s College of Agriculture both the Swanton Pacific Ranch and Railroad. Smith also created an endowment for the railroad to provide operating capital. Al Smith had secured the future of the Overfair Railway.

History Lost

In August of 2020 the CZU Lightning Complex Fire tore through northern Santa Cruz County, the rail yard for the Swanton Pacific Railroad, the ⅓-scale passenger train system was heavily damaged, along with adjacent buildings. At least two steam locomotives — built by Oakland inventor Louis M. MacDermot for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco — burned as well. The Mercury News – August 29, 2020

Following the fire, those volunteers who had maintained the railroad for decades were once-again rolling up their sleeves to pitch-in with the rebuilding.

University Announces Plans to Permanently Close Historic Bay Area Railroad

A dean with Cal Poly University informed the volunteer-run Swanton Pacific Railroad Society by email the school intends to donate the antique steam-engines and equipment to an outside organization, rather than rebuild and operate the popular railroad that’s run on the land since the 1980s. The school said it would instead focus on educational pursuits on the land. 

“Though invaluable from a historical perspective,” wrote Dr. Andrew Thulin, dean of Cal Poly’s School of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, “the railroad does not fit within the strategic intent of the ranch when viewed through that lens.” 

NBC Bay Area

For more on the railroad – 

• Oakland Tribune – Aug 1968 – Calling the Mini Rail Buffs 
• Oakland Tribune – Jan 1969 – Railfans Dream Train For Sale – 
• Over fair Railway Inventor Louis M. MacDermot –  PPIE100
• Swanton Pacific Railway – SF Gate Dec 28, 2014

• Wildfire Damages Historic Railroad – NBC Bay Area

The End