The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a mainline railroad from the former ferry connections in Sausalito, California north to Eureka, with a connection to the national railroad system at Schellville. The railroad has gone through a complex history of different ownership and operators but has maintained a generic name of reference as the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, despite no longer being officially named that.
Currently, only a stretch of mainline from Larkspur to the Town of Windsor and east to Schellville on the "south end" is operated by Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART), which operates both commuter and freight trains with plans for future extension north to Cloverdale. The "north end" from Willits to Eureka (which includes connections to the California Western Railroad) is out of service; it is planned to be converted into the Great Redwood Trail.
History In the late 1800s both the Southern Pacific Railroad ("SP") and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ("AT&SF") had great interests in building lines north from San Francisco to Humboldt County to transport lumber south. The Southern Pacific Railroad controlled the southern end of the line from Willits south to Marin and Schellville, while the AT&SF controlled line south from Eureka through Humboldt County. Both railroads planned to build a line north, the AT&SF starting with a boat connection in present-day Larkspur, California, and the Southern Pacific, starting at its interchange in American Canyon, north through Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties to finally terminate in Eureka. As plans went forward it became clear that only one railroad would be profitable serving Mendocino and Humboldt Counties, so the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe entered into a joint agreement, and in 1906 merged 42 railroad companies between Marin and Humboldt Bay to create one railroad line stretching from Sausalito to Eureka.
Prior to completing the line to Eureka, operations over the southern portion of the Northwestern Pacific included daily freight trains #112 and #113 between Willits and Santa Rosa, train #133 between Santa Rosa and Tiburon, trains #153 and #154 between Petaluma and the Guerneville branch to Duncans Mills, train #102 between Glen Ellen and Tiburon, train #109 between Tiburon and Sausalito, train #145 over the narrow gauge between Occidental and San Anselmo, train #202 between Willits and Sherwood, and train #251 operating over the logging branches out of Sherwood. Passenger trains #131 and #132 ran between Sausalito and Willits, trains #21 and #22 between Sausalito and Ukiah, train #23 between Sausalito and Healdsburg, trains #17 and #20 between Sausalito and the Guerneville branch to Duncans Mills, trains #9, #10, and #14 between Sausalito and Glen Ellen, trains #6 and #7 between Sausalito and San Quentin, train #4 between Tiburon and San Rafael, train #92 over the narrow gauge between Sausalito and Cazadero, train #84 over the narrow gauge between Sausalito and Point Reyes, and #101, a mixed freight and passenger train operated on the Sebastopol branch. Sunday and holiday passenger trains often required two locomotives and sometimes two or more sections. Independence day traffic required borrowing 25 or 30 Southern Pacific coaches.
Completion of the line between Willits and Eureka was disrupted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; plans and right-of-way documents were destroyed in the subsequent fire. Engines 8, 12, 19, 104, 153 and 154 were shipped to Eureka by boat in 1911. After a time-expedient "punt" of the route through the unstable Eel River Canyon, construction was finally completed in October 1914 when a "golden spike" ceremony and celebration was held to mark the accomplishment.
The railroad used ferries of San Francisco Bay for freight transfer until connected to the national rail network at Napa Junction by the Santa Rosa and Carquinez Railroad in 1888. The Santa Rosa and Carquinez remained part of SP independent of the NWP with a primary freight interchange at Schellville. SP's Santa Rosa branch continued from Schellville through Sonoma to a separate terminal yard on North Street in Santa Rosa. Freight interchange was predominantly through Ignacio, but there was a second connection to the SP in Santa Rosa until the line through the Valley of the Moon was abandoned in 1935.
The railroad service became popular; an early daily NWP timetable shows 10 passenger trains each way, plus dozens of freights. The rail line soon replaced steam schooners as the main means of getting lumber from Humboldt County to market. Rail service to inland areas facilitated local development of the lumber industry.
In 1929 the AT&SF sold its half-interest to the Southern Pacific, making the NWP a full SP subsidiary.
The SP era
Passenger service boomed until the 1930s, when improved roads and highways made traveling and shipping by motor vehicle more accessible. By 1935 freight and passenger service diminished because of the Great Depression. With the onset of World War II, freight shipments rose while passenger service remained constant. Freight service on the NWP increased in the 1950s owing to an increase in lumber demand due to the post-war housing boom.
Branch lines were dismantled during the 1930s. The Sebastopol branch became redundant following purchase of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad in 1932, and California State Route 12 adopted the former alignment between Leddy and Sebastopol. The Trinidad extension reverted to a logging line after NWP service ended in 1933. Sonoma County's River Road adopted the former alignment of the Guerneville branch from Fulton to Duncans Mills after rails were removed in 1935.
Diesels were being used on all trains by 1953, with the exception of ten-wheelers number 181 and 183 pulling passenger trains numbered 3 and 4 between San Rafael and Eureka with number 182 on standby. The #3/#4 trains offered sleeping cars, a cafe-lounge in addition to coach cars. Passengers from San Francisco would take Greyhound Buses from the San Francisco Ferry Building at the base of Market Street to San Rafael.'Official Guide of the Railways,' December 1954, p. 904 NWP locomotives 112, 140, 141, 143, and 178 plus SP numbers 2345, 2356, 2564, 2582, and 2810 were stored at Tiburon for emergency use; but steam power had disappeared by 1955. On November 10, 1958, all mainline passenger service was discontinued south of Willits. The only remaining service was a tri-weekly Willits-Eureka round trip, operated by a single Budd Rail Diesel Car, which ran until April 30, 1971. When Amtrak took over intercity passenger rail service on May 1, 1971, it did not continue service on the NWP.
1964 flood damage
The catastrophic Christmas flood of 1964 destroyed of the railroad in Northern California, including three bridges over the Eel River, and permanently changed the topography of the area. The line was closed for 177 days while 850 men rebuilt the railroad through the Eel River canyon. The line was reopened on 16 June 1965.Stindt (1985) p.9 In the years following the 1964 flood, the rail line was less reliable due to increased landsliding in the Eel River Canyon; but freight traffic remained high until the 1970s, as improvements to US Highway 101 cut hauling times, making trucking competitive with the rail line. An example of a 1970s work day on the NWP might look something like the following: During the final decade of Southern Pacific operation, carloads of lumber left Eureka each morning pulled by six EMD SD9 locomotives called "Cadillacs" by their crews. The train might pick up a refrigerator car of butter from Fernbridge and more lumber cars from Fortuna and Scotia before making a meal stop for its crew at the Fort Seward depot. More lumber cars might be added at Alderpoint during the long, gentle climb up the Eel River canyon. A second crew took over at Willits, where more cars from the California Western typically swelled the train to approximately one hundred cars. of 2.25 percent grade from Willits to Ridge originally required helpers, but six "Cadillacs" typically moved the train from Willits to Ridge in two sections during later years. The remaining trip down the Russian River to Schellville included a meal stop for the crew at Geyserville.
1978 tunnel fire Many Humboldt County mills began shipping lumber in trucks when a fire caused collapse of the Island Mountain tunnel, or tunnel 27, closing the line north of Willits on 6 September 1978, and only half of that traffic returned to the rails when the line reopened on 10 December 1979. Remaining traffic revenues were insufficient for track maintenance through the Eel River Canyon, at that time the most expensive stretch of rail line in the United States. In September 1983, the SP announced that it was shutting down the maintenance-intensive NWP line north of Willits. This led to a contentious court battle since the SP did not properly notify the Interstate Commerce Commission of their intent to abandon the line. The line was ordered reopened by the U.S. Circuit Court in March 1984.
Sales and shortline development From the late 1960s into the 1980s the SP began substantially cutting back non-core routes. Trains stopped running to Tiburon in 1967 and the railroad gave the land to the town. In 1971, the line from Sausalito, once a major terminal on the line, was abandoned and converted into the Mill Valley / Sausalito Pathway connecting to similar trails throughout Marin built upon the former interurban lines.
In 1984, the SP sold the north end from Willits to Eureka to Bryan Whipple, who ran it as the Eureka Southern Railroad under the reporting marks EUKA. The Eureka Southern operated freight trains and revamped tourist train service until bankrupted by storm damage in the Eel River Canyon, selling the railroad and most equipment by 1992.
Between 1984 and 1989, the former Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad mainline from Santa Rosa to Sebastopol was abandoned by the Southern Pacific, subsequently acquired by the Sonoma County Parks Department and converted into the Joe Rodota Trail for walking and biking.
North Coast Railroad Authority (1989–2022)
The California Legislature formed the North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) in 1989 to save the NWP from total abandonment. NCRA purchased the Eureka Southern in 1992 and leased the line to the newly formed North Coast Railroad In late 1996, severe flooding of the Eel River led to widespread landslide damage and destruction of roadbed which remained unrepaired and halted most service. A lack of capital along with previous customers now finding the railroad expensive and unreliable after switching to truck traffic made repairs difficult to finance and complete. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) prohibited any train operation north of Willits in 1998. This order was amended in 1999 to allow the connecting California Western Railroad to resume operation to Willits Depot and turn trains on the wye at Willits Yard after agreeing to assist in the maintenance of the same.
Beginning in the late 1990s, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District began purchasing sections of the NWP's south end from the Southern Pacific to save for a potential commuter train route thanks to growing suburbs in Marin and Sonoma counties. The SP required the California Northern Railroad (CFNR) to take over freight operations on the NWP in 1993 as a part of their long-term lease agreements for their main stretch of trackage in the Napa, Fairfield, and Woodland areas. The CFNR generally operated one train from Willits to Hopland, where freight cars were transferred to a second train from Hopland to Schellville. The track from Lombard to Healdsburg was owned by the precursor to SMART, and the CFNR had trackage rights granted from Schellville to Willits where interchange occurred with the North Coast Railroad and the California Western Railroad.