Sacramento Northern Railway

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Sacramento Northern Railway
Reporting marks SN
Locale Central and Northern California
Dates of operation 1918 (began Dec. 27, 1904 under the Northern Electric brand before the rename to Sacramento Northern)[1]–1983 (upon purchase by Union Pacific)
Track gauge 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters Marysville, CA [2]

The Sacramento Northern Railway began as a 93 mile electric interurban railway system linking the California state capitol Sacramento with the city of Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco, operating under that name between 1918 and 1983 (previously "Northern Electric" from 1904-1918). It was a subsidiary of the Western Pacific Railroad from 1921. Passenger service ceased in 1941 and the system operated as a shortline freight-hauling railroad thereafter. Western Pacific could generate more income by accepting or delivering freight using Sacramento Northern because of the transfer from one railroad to another. The SN name increased WP's profits when freight was shipped and transferred to WP. WP also owned a sister company to SN named Tidewater Southern which operated South of Sacramento.

The Sacramento Northern Railway was created out of two different systems; one, the "North End", stretched north of Sacramento through the agricultural Sacramento Valley to Chico and was originally the Northern Electric Railway. This portion reformed as the Sacramento Northern in 1918. The "South End" linked Oakland with Sacramento, and was merged into the Sacramento Northern in 1928. It was formerly known as the San Francisco–Sacramento Railroad, and before that the Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Railway. The merged portions used different electrical standards, and only some cars could traverse the entire route.

The line was one of the longest interurban runs in the nation, and was built and operated to very high standards. As with most interurban systems, passenger service became increasingly unprofitable, even after the rail cars entered San Francisco itself via the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge from 1939. Freight service was increasingly the lifeblood of the railroad, keeping it in service long after passenger service ceased.

Contents

[edit] History

The first portion to be known as the Sacramento Northern Railway was the Northern Division or "North End", created from the Northern Electric Railway in 1918; this portion linked the state capitol of Sacramento with the towns of the agricultural Sacramento Valley, stretching as far as Chico. In 1921, it was purchased by the Western Pacific Railroad and operated thereafter as its subsidiary.

In 1928, the San Francisco-Sacramento Railroad (formerly the Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Railway, and originally the Oakland and Antioch Railway) was added as the Sacramento Northern's Southern Division or "South End".

The combined high-speed main line stretched for 185 miles between San Francisco and Chico. At the southern end, the railway shared the facilities of the Key System; at first, the Key Pier facility in Oakland, and then the crossing of the Bay Bridge into San Francisco's Transbay Terminal from 1939 after the bridge's construction.

The railway's fortunes were struck a heavy blow by the Great Depression and the rise of the automobile. Interurban passenger service was ended in 1941, while streetcar service in Chico continued until 1947.

Freight service continued and was heavy during the years of World War II. In 1944, the railroad received its first diesel locomotives, which began the process of de-electrification. All electric operation ceased in 1965, after which the railway operated as a minor freight subsidiary of the Western Pacific. Much trackage was abandoned over the years, especially that which duplicated routes on other railroads. The Sacramento Northern ceased to exist with the WP's acquisition by the Union Pacific in 1983. However, SN's seniority list continued and is still in use by the Union Pacific today, although it is doubtful many former WP/SN employees are left 23 years after the merger.

The SN rail line connecting the California towns of Montezuma, Dozier, and Canon is now owned and operated by the Western Railway Museum as a heritage railway. Much of the SN's equipment is part of the museum's permanent collection.

[edit] Route

[edit] Oakland—Sacramento

Although the Oakland Yard of the Sacramento Northern was the end of the railroad's own right-of-way, its trains continued west along 40th St. on the tracks of the Key System and on to the Key System's "mole". In later years, the trains ran over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge which was built near the site of the pier, to San Francisco's Transbay Terminal, connecting by way of the Key's tracks on Yerba Buena Ave. and 40th Street. This service ended with the railroad's passenger service in 1941, but freight interchange with the Key System continued until that system's demise.

The terminus of the railroad's right of way in Oakland was a compact yard on the corner of 40th Street and Shafter Avenue. The main line ran north up narrow Shafter in a residential area. At the end of Shafter, the tracks started a long, climbing curve up into the Berkeley Hills in the Rockridge district of Oakland. It then skirted Lake Temescal on its eastern shore and ran southeast through the Montclair district of Oakland.

It crossed into Montclair over a trestle at Moraga Ave. and Thornhill Dr., then ran along a high berm between Montclair Recreation Center and Montclair Elementary School, before crossing Mountain Blvd. and Snake Road via trestle. High above the northwest side of Shepherd Canyon, the line followed parallel to that road heading east, then made a sharp turn northeast as it passed through a major cut in the hill, and then up the canyon to a station called "Havens" at Paso Robles Dr., named for real estate developer Frank C. Havens, one-time partner of the Key System's "Borax" Smith who was trying to encourage sales in Shepherd Canyon.

At a spot directly below Saroni Drive, the tracks entered a long single-track tunnel through the Berkeley Hills. The tunnel itself is still intact, but sealed at both ends. In 1994, home developers filled in the approach to this tunnel and constructed residential homes on this fill and on top of the tunnel. The upper one foot of the top of the tunnel portal was above ground in the back yard of one of the homes. A home further east was constructed on top of the unlined tunnel, and by altering drainage in the area caused the tunnel below to subside. The home shifted and dropped and had to be removed. The tracks exited the northeast end of the tunnel at Pinehurst Road near Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve, and immediately entered a sharp curve to run southeastward through Redwood Canyon. Although technically oriented to the northeast (perpendicular to the axis of the hills), the railroad designated a station just outside the portal "Eastport." The portal is no longer visible, largely as a result of a landslide which occurred during the El Niño rains of the early 1980s. It was located along an extant fire trail west of the spot where Pinehurst Road makes a sharp u-turn. This fire trail was previously known as Winding Way on some maps, and was originally an old 19th century logging road built by Hiram Thorn, for bringing redwood logs out of the Moraga Redwoods and to his mill, and then over the mountain into Oakland. Even earlier, the route up the canyon to what is now Huckleberry preserve was a cattle trail for the Spanish and Mexican ranchers, en route to a landing at the mouth of Temescal Creek on San Francisco Bay.

At the end of the sharp curve at Eastport, the tracks immediately crossed over the road on an overpass. The right-of-way then headed down Redwood Canyon on a ledge (which is still apparent today) just above Pinehurst Rd. southeast along the valley floor past the small community of Canyon. The line then turned north into Moraga, past St. Mary's, and thence northeasterly through Lafayette, Saranap, and the valley past Walnut Creek. Some of the right of way through Contra Costa County is now used by the BART system. The tracks continued to a ferry landing on Suisun Bay. There, a ferry boat, the Ramon, carried the entire train across to a landing near Suisun. The line then proceeded across an extensive marshland on a long trestle. After the trestle, the tracks continued to Sacramento, entering the city by way of the "M" Street Bridge (1911), and later by way of its replacement (1935), the Tower Bridge, which is still in use.

Service from Oakland to Lafayette ceased on March 1, 1957 and the tracks were removed and the tunnel sealed; the old roadbed from St. Mary's College through Lafayette was converted to the popular Lafayette-Moraga trail. The following year, service only extended from Sacramento to Walnut Creek. The Ferry "Ramon" was removed from service in 1954, thus creating a divide between Mallard and Chipps Island. To overcome this limitation, SN, through parent Western Pacific, obtained trackage rights on the Santa Fe Railway from Stockton to Pittsburg, where the SN would then enter its own tracks. When the Union Pacific took over operations, they obtained further trackage rights on the Santa Fe which extended to Port Chicago, where SN had a small yard. Thus, the trackage in Pittsburg was removed in the early 1990s.

[edit] Sacramento—Chico

From the SN's Sacramento depot, the line ran north, with a branch line that ran 16 miles west to Woodland (known as the Yolo Shortline RR until 2003 and now known as the Sierra Northern Railway)[3]. This track ran on the west side of the Sacramento River, over an elevated wooden bridge (over a flood plain), and then down Main St. in Woodland to the Opera House where the train turned around. Today's SLRR terminates at 2nd St., several blocks East of the Opera House.

The line north ran to Marysville, Yuba City, Oroville, and terminated in Chico.

Another branchline ran west to Colusa from a junction northwest of Yuba City.

[edit] Technical information

[edit] Electrification

Because of interconnection with the Key System, Sacramento Northern cars had to operate under a number of different electrical standards. The North End was electrified exclusively at 600 volts DC, which was the standard trolley and interurban voltage. Trolley wire and trolley poles were used only in urban areas; in the open country, the line used a solid, uncovered top-contact third rail. Cars built originally for the North End could not operate south of Sacramento. The South End was electrified largely at 1,200 volts until 1936, after which it operated at 1,500 volts, with areas of 600 volts in Oakland and Sacramento.

The cars had to use a pantograph rather than the trolley pole on Key System rails (electrified at 600 volts) and over the Bay Bridge (electrified at 1,200 volts for the Southern Pacific); the Key System used a covered top-contact third rail over the bridge. Because of the Key System's third rail, cars that could traverse the whole system had to have their third rail shoes removed, since the top-contact shoes would have fouled the Key System rail's cover. They were normally added or removed in Sacramento. Such all-line cars were switchable between 600 V and 1,200 V operation; they could also operate at half speed at the 1,200 V setting on 600 V overhead.

The railway's high quality electrification used catenary rather than trolley wire over most of the road, leading to the eventual exclusive use of pantographs rather than trolley poles over the whole road.

[edit] Suisun Bay crossing

[edit] Planned bridge

The Oakland, Antioch and Eastern needed to cross Suisun Bay, and chose to do so between West Pittsburg and Chipps Island, a gap of 2,600 feet (790 m). A bridge was originally planned, but the bay saw heavy shipping traffic and thus a high-level draw bridge with long approaches was required. Construction began on the bridge in 1912; the estimated price tag was $1.5 million and construction time was estimated as two and a half years. This would have delayed the opening of the railway, and so an alternative plan of a ferry service was implemented as a temporary measure. Construction of the bridge stopped in May 1913 after construction of the pier on the Contra Costa County side, because of a shortage of funds. The railway, not meeting revenue expectations, never did restart construction, and the "temporary" ferry service became permanent. [1]

[edit] Car ferry service

Thus, the railway became one of only two interurbans to operate a car ferry, and was the longer and more ambitious of the two. The first ferry constructed, the 186-foot (57 m) Bridgit (a pun on "Bridge It") was constructed of wood in San Francisco and launched in July 1913. The Bridgit, however, was destroyed by fire on May 17, 1914.

After unsuccessful experiments with an unpowered barge, the railroad rented car floats from other railroads in the area and commissioned a new, steel ferry from the Lanteri Shipyard in nearby Pittsburg. The new vessel, the Ramon, was constructed entirely from flat steel plate to save time, and had no curved surfaces on its hull. It was a double-ended design with a central, raised bridge in the typical carfloat style. Power was by a 600 horsepower distillate engine, one of the largest ever constructed, which was rather insufficient to counteract high winds and currents in the bay.

Three tracks were installed on the deck, all long enough to carry three passenger cars or five freight cars. All three could not be used at the same time; the central track overlapped the other two, and either the single central track or the two outside tracks could be used, depending on load. All tracks were equipped with powered trolley wire.

The Ramon was retired in 1954 after a Coast Guard inspection determined that the hull plating was no longer in a safe condition, and it was scrapped locally.

[edit] Today

  • In Yuba City, the original Northern Electric bridge over the Feather River is still standing though the rails have been removed. It's just to the south of the Hwy 20 bridge and still has the NE initials on both sides of the bridge. Another NE bridge exists in Sacramento over the American River. Now turned into a bike/jogging path, it runs from downtown Sacramento to the suburb of Rio Linda crossing the old NE bridge and is paved with asphalt.[4]
  • The Marysville depot is still standing near J St and 4th (look up the hill) and is in private use.
  • The SN's Oakland Yard at Shafter and 40th was demolished in the 1960s to make way for several new structures including a medical office building. The medical office building was razed by a fire in the late 1990s. In 2006-7, a new apartment building was constructed with the name "Temescal Station", which although reminiscent of the site's former railroad use, was never the name of the SN's yard and station here. There was a Temescal Station---a stop, not a depot---just northwest of Lake Temescal.
  • Tracks still exist in rural Solano County south of Dixon where they cross Highway 113. These tracks run from Collinsville in the south up to Robbin Road. A large gap remains there, until the tracks continue west of Clarksburg.
  • The SN's Woodland depot survived in increasingly poor condition until about 1980 when it was acquired by a private individual who found the original plans for it in the California State Archives and proceeded to raze it, then entirely reconstruct it. [5]
  • Remnants of the Tres Vias to Oroville branch line (grade and culverts) are still visible along Grand Ave and to the east of the intersection of Feather Avenue and Tenth Street in rural Thermalito; the grade presently serves as a storm water levee. The stone bridge pilings also remain where it crossed the Feather River as well as some wood pilings to the east though they are being removed/buried due to construction of Riverbend Park.
  • Miles of the Oakland right-of-way remain throughout the Montclair hills and the village as paved walking paths, concrete retaining walls that used to support overpasses, and high elevated embankments that cut through tennis courts, the school yard, and behind the park and recreation center building, and, less accessibly, behind the old firehouse and adjacent structures.
  • Part of the NE/SN Colusa line was still in operation until just a few years ago using diesel electric motive power. While passenger service to Colusa long ago ended, freight was moved from Marysville, across the Feather River on Northern Electric branded bridges into Yuba City. Children at Bridge Street Elementary School often see brand new John Deer tractors and other equipment arriving in Yuba City and various agricultural commodities leaving the city. Leaving Yuba City heading Westward towards Colusa on HWY 20, the abandoned NE/SN Colusa line is on the right and visible for many miles. This entire operation was abandoned by Union Pacific a few years ago with the grade crossings being removed in late 2007 from HWY 99 and HWY 20.
  • A short portion of SN trackage remains south of Sankey Road, between Elverta and Pleasant Grove. From Pleasant Grove Rd., turn West on Sankey Rd. Cross the WP rail tracks and you'll immediately notice some abandoned trackage on the left (SN). The tracks run from south of Sankey Rd to just west of the WP tracks at a 45 degree angle. Used as a train training school at one time, the site remains with original SN trackage (that goes nowhere and connects with nothing) and some obsolete equipment (cars, engines) that were used by the defunct school. Following the levee road north of Sankey from this point, the long abandoned SN railbed and small bridges still exist (no rails). Traveling on Hwy 99 north of Sacramento when the Hwy99/Hwy70 split is reached, the old SN beds are on the right. You'll see power poles still with wiring traveling next to the rail bed and a rice silo where SN once loaded freight. Traveling north on Hwy 70, the SN rail beds are on the left and are visible all the way into Marysville with interesting small bridges still in existence.
  • Although the trackage has been removed, many areas between Marysville/Yuba City and Chico have evidence of the old NE/SN. The wye at Colusa Junction is obvious as the area has yet to be paved over. North from there along Tierra Buena Road (parallel to the old grade), up to the intersection with Eager Road, stands the old trestle crossing Live Oak Canal.
  • In the town of Live Oak, at the old crossing with the then Southern Pacific mainline (now also Union Pacific since 1996) one can see clear evidence of the old roadbed and street crossings at both "N" Street and Nevada Street.
  • Virtually every cross street west of Larkin Road from Yuba City to the Thermalito afterbay near Oroville, has evidence of the old railroad grade. Some even have rails still embedded in the asphalt. Some 500 feet west of Larkin Road on Turner Avenue has rails in the ground. Also at the hardware store on East Gridley Road in Gridley can be seen not only rails in the concrete but the base to a grade crossing protection device.
  • At the end of Anderson Way, also in Gridley off Larkin Rd, stands a foundation to a sub-station used to power the catenary wires when the line was electrified.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Bowen, Jerry. Solano: The Way it Was.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Western Pacific Railroad
Related companies
Museums with WP holdings