Northwestern Pacific Railroad


The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a railroad covering the stretch between Schellville and Windsor with freight and Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit commuter trains. Formerly, it was a regional railroad that served the entire North Coast of California, its main line was long, running between Schellville and Eureka, with an additional portion of the line running from the Ignacio Wye to the edge of San Rafael. The portion of the NWP main line between the Ignacio Wye in Marin County and the depot in Healdsburg is owned by SMART. The Schellville–Ignacio and Healdsburg–Eureka portions are owned by the North Coast Railroad Authority. Private contractor NWPco operates freight service under NCRA lease. California's 2018 Great Redwood Trail Act repurposes the abandoned railroad right-of-way from Eureka to the San Francisco Bay in Marin County for future use as the "Great Redwood Trail" rail-trail.

History

In the late 1800s both the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 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, California. 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. Completion of the project was disrupted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; plans and right-of-way documents were destroyed in the subsequent fire. 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. There were also dozens of miles of narrow-gauge trackage in Marin and Sonoma Counties.
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, and by 1935 both freight and passenger service slowed to a crawl because of the Great Depression. With the onset of World War II, freight shipments rose while passenger service stayed roughly the same. Freight service on the NWP picked up heavily again in the 1950s as a large increase in the demand for lumber came about 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. 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. 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. Five miles 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 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

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.

North Coast Railroad Authority

The California Legislature formed the 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 which operated until late 1996, when severe flooding of the Eel River led to widespread landslide damage and destruction of roadbed which remained unrepaired as of 2020. The Federal Railroad Administration 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.
While Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District began purchasing sections of the NWP's south end from the SP, and SP began to lease the line to the California Northern Railroad. CFNR 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 is owned by SMART, and the CFNR had trackage rights granted from Schellville to Willits.
When the CFNR lease was terminated, the NCRA took over operations using "Black Widow" EMD GP9 and SD9 locomotives running both freight service and occasional passenger excursion service from Santa Rosa and Healdsburg to Willits from 1996 to 1998. The line was plagued by a series of harsh El Nino storms causing washouts and bridge instability until the FRA shut down all operations over the entire length of the line. The six Black Widows were returned to their lessor Omni-trax in 1998, and former SP SD9s, leased from BUGX, and former North Coast Railroad GP9s, owned by the NCRA, were pressed into service. These locomotives and some maintenance of way equipment remained in storage at the Willits and Schellville yards, with the first set being returned to BUGX in December 2016.
In January 2001, the NWP resumed service between Schellville and Cotati using three leased locomotives with reporting mark "NWPY", but service was discontinued in September 2001 because the operator lacked capital to continue operations.

New NWP (2009–present)

The new SMART began electrical work from Schellville to Windsor in 2009. Reballasting and replacement of bad ties between Schellville and Windsor was completed by October 2009. Northwestern Pacific reopened the line and began operations in June 2011 over the section of track between Napa and Windsor, California. In July 2011 the first freight train delivered grain to Petaluma. Trains today on the NWP run from the Lombard interchange with the California Northern Railroad, up to Windsor. Service consists of about three trips weekly over the line. The railroad has hauled grain for dairy and poultry farms in Sonoma County, and lumber products out of Windsor and Schellville. Occasional maintenance of way work for SMART and car storage in Schellville have also been an integral part of NWP operations. At Napa, the railroad exchanges freight carloads with the CFNR in American Canyon.
Regular passenger trains began in late Spring 2017 between Sonoma County Airport and San Rafael, with bus connections to the Larkspur ferry landing and city of Cloverdale. While SMART will eventually extend commuter service to Cloverdale, NCRA and NWPco have plans to open the line to the Skunk Train connection and major yard facility in Willits, but no timeline has been established. Both agencies' plans are dependent on state and federal grants, and the success of the SMART train. Although tourist companies have expressed interest in possibly opening an excursion and dinner train that would traverse Humboldt and Arcata bays, there are no plans to reopen the Eel River Canyon segment.
Financial disarray and legal troubles beginning before the turn of the millenium have caused the North Coast Rail Authority to fall out of favor with state officials and the public, who have moved to replace the length of the former railroad with pedestrian trails. California's 2018 Great Redwood Trail Act includes detailed plans for investigating and resolving the Authority's debts, dissolving the NCRA, and converting its rights-of-way to rail-trail.

Predecessor lines

NWP mileposts conform to Southern Pacific Railroad convention of distance from San Francisco:

Steam locomotives

Diesel locomotives 1996–1998

Diesel locomotives 2001

Diesel locomotives post 2006

Narrow-gauge line

The NWP narrow-gauge line was built as the North Pacific Coast Railroad in 1873 from a San Francisco ferry connection at Sausalito to the Russian River at Monte Rio. Rails were extended downriver to Duncans Mills in 1876, and up Austin Creek to Cazadero in 1886. This narrow-gauge line became the Shore Division of the NWP formed by Santa Fe and Southern Pacific in 1907. Freight traffic was heavy as the lower Russian River valley was a major source of redwood lumber for rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The NWP narrow-gauge obtained additional freight cars from the South Pacific Coast Railroad as the SPC was converted to standard gauge between 1907 and 1909. Ferries Lagunitas, Ukiah, and Sausalito carried narrow-gauge freight cars across San Francisco Bay from Sausalito to the dual-gauge San Francisco Belt Railroad.
After the flooded Russian River destroyed the NWP Guerneville branch bridge at Bohemia on 19 March 1907, NWP rebuilt the bridge one-half mile downriver; and extended the Guerneville branch from Monte Rio to Duncans Mills as dual-gauge by 1909. Redwood lumber was then shipped out over the Guerneville branch. A freight transfer shed was built at San Anselmo so narrow-gauge tracks could be removed from the ferries in 1910; and more than half of the narrow-gauge freight cars were scrapped by 1912. A daily freight train operated from Occidental to San Anselmo in the morning and returned to Occidental in the afternoon. The train included a coach for Sonoma County students attending school in Tomales. A freight engine stationed at Duncans Mills was operated by the Guerneville branch freight crew as needed to bring infrequent freight down from Cazadero for transfer to the Guerneville branch until the line up Austin Creek to Cazadero was standard-gauged in 1926.
Summer tourists from San Francisco still visited Russian River vacation spots via joint narrow-gauge/standard-gauge NWP "triangle" excursions until 1927 when automobile travel became more popular. Standard-gauging of the southern end of the line from San Francisco Bay to Point Reyes Station at the head of Tomales Bay was completed on 5 April 1920. Freight service between Point Reyes Station and Occidental was reduced to thrice weekly with freight transfer at Point Reyes Station. Lumber production from the lower Russian River valley was ended by a wildfire on 17 September 1923. After the standard-gauge line was extended to Cazadero, service north of Point Reyes was reduced to a daily mixed train to Camp Meeker and return until the last narrow-gauge train ran on 29 March 1930; and the remaining narrow-gauge line between Monte Rio and Point Reyes Station was dismantled that autumn. The route of the dual-gauge line from Fulton to Duncan Mills later became the popular River Road connecting all the towns from the coast to the central county.

Route

Mileposts conform to Southern Pacific Railroad convention of distance from San Francisco.

Railroad in film

The Northwestern Pacific Railroad has been featured in several motion pictures and films, thanks to both the historical and natural backgrounds offered by the route.
One of the most notable is in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, which was filmed in downtown Santa Rosa, California in the summer of 1942, using the stone depot and railroad yard as a background, as well as stock footage shot from an NWP passenger train.
The NWP trestle at Greenbrae, Marin County, was featured in the 1971 film Dirty Harry. Clint Eastwood made a famous jump from the trestle onto a school bus loaded with kidnapped children passing underneath.
Stock footage of a Eureka Southern "North Coast Daylight" train was used in an episode of ABC's TV show "Moonlighting," starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepard. The episode, titled "Next Stop Murder," aired on March 19, 1985 and was set on a murder mystery dinner train. Footage used included GP-38 #30 winding through South Fork and Shively, as well as a shot of the train passing through Tunnel #39.
A 1991 television remake of Shadow of a Doubt was filmed at the Petaluma NWP depot, using former Daylight passenger equipment owned by the NCRA and Southern Pacific 6051, loaned from the California State Railroad Museum.
In the 2003 film Cheaper by the Dozen, the Santa Rosa Railroad Square and depot area were used as backdrops.
The film Bloodloss or Day of Vengeance utilized the tracks for a filming location just south of Dos Rios in the summer of 2008.

Footnotes