The Western Pacific Railroad was a

Class I railroad In the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, st ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

had on rail service into northern California. WP's

Feather River Route The Feather River Route is a rail line that was built and operated by the Western Pacific Railroad. It was constructed between 1906 and 1909, and connects the cities of Oakland, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The line was built to compet ...

directly competed with SP's portion of the Overland Route for rail traffic between

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...

, and

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

, for nearly 80 years. The Western Pacific was one of the original operators of the ''

California Zephyr The ''California Zephyr'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville), via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. At , it is Amtrak's longest daily route, and second-longest overall ...

'' passenger line. In 1982, the Western Pacific was acquired by the

Union Pacific Corporation The Union Pacific Corporation (Union Pacific) is a publicly traded railroad holding company. It was incorporated in Utah in 1969 and is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the parent company of the current, Delaware-registered, form of ...

and it was soon merged into their

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

History

The original

Western Pacific Railroad (1862–1870) The Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870) was formed in 1862 to build a railroad from Sacramento, California, to the San Francisco Bay, the westernmost portion of the First transcontinental railroad. After the completion of the railroad from Sacra ...

was established in 1862 to build the westernmost portion of the

first transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

, between

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

and

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

(later

). After completing the last link from Sacramento to Oakland, this company was absorbed into the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the " First transcontinental railroad" in North America. Incor ...

in 1870. The second company to use the "western pacific" appellation was the ''Western Pacific Railway Company'', founded 1903. Under the direction of George Jay Gould I, the Western Pacific Railway proposed to build a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in E ...

track connection to the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

for his aspiring Gould transcontinental system. Construction was financed by the

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...

, a company in the Gould system, which had lost access to California due to the attempted acquisition of the

by the Rio Grande's main rival, the

. The Western Pacific Railway acquired the

Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad The Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad was incorporated on May 1, 1895, to serve the coal mines of the San Francisco & San Joaquin Coal Company at Corral Hollow. The line ran from Tesla, California, Tesla (located in the Corral Hollow canyon sou ...

and began construction on what became known as the

. Completed in 1909, it was the last major rail line connected into

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. After ''Western Pacific Railway Company'' defaulted on mortgage bonds, its assets were sold in 1916 to ''The Western Pacific Railroad Company''. The original line used 85-lb rail on untreated ties, with no tie plates except on curves over one degree; in 1935 more than half of the main line still had its original rail, most of it having carried 150 million gross tons. In 1931 Western Pacific opened a main line north from the Feather River Canyon to the Great Northern Railway in northern California. This route, today part of BNSF's Gateway Subdivision, joined the Oakland – Salt Lake City main line at the

Keddie Wye The Keddie Wye is a railroad junction in the form of a wye on the Union Pacific Railroad in Plumas County, California, United States. Located at the town of Keddie, it joins the east-west Feather River Route and the "Inside Gateway"—formally, ...

, a unique combination of two steel trestles and a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

forming a triangle of intersecting track. In 1935, the railroad went bankrupt because of decreased freight and passenger traffic caused by the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and had to be reorganized. WP operated the ''California Zephyr''

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self p ...

with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...

. The WP handled the "Silver Lady" from Oakland, California, to Salt Lake City, Utah from 1949–1970. The Western Pacific owned several connecting short-line railroads. The largest was the

Sacramento Northern Railway The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the California capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oaklan ...

, which once reached from San Francisco to Chico, California. Others included the

Tidewater Southern Railway The Tidewater Southern Railway was a short line railroad in Central California in the United States. For most of its history, it was a subsidiary of the Western Pacific Railroad. It was originally built as an interurban system, connecting to th ...

, the Central California Traction, the Indian Valley Railroad and the Deep Creek Railroad. In December 1953, the Railroad retired its last steam locomotive from revenue service. At the end of 1970 WP operated of road and of track, not including its Sacramento Northern and Tidewater Southern subsidiaries. Western Pacific Logo (1979-83)

After the

purchased the Western Pacific (WP) in 1982, the WP became part of a combined Union Pacific rail system: the Union Pacific Railroad, the

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...

, and the WP.

Passenger operations

California Zephyr Western Pacific locomotive Feather River

The ''

'' was the famous Western Pacific passenger train but the railroad had a few others: * '' Exposition Flyer'' (Chicago to Oakland in conjunction with the

and

, 1939 to 1949; named after the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939 and 1940) * ''Royal Gorge'' (between Oakland and Denver via Pueblo) * ''Scenic Limited'' (between Oakland and Denver via Pueblo) * '' Zephyrette'' (between Oakland and Salt Lake City) Many special charter passenger trains have used parts of the WP route: * ''Feather River Express'' (between Oakland and

Portola, California Portola ( ) is the only incorporated city in Plumas County, California, United States. The population was 2,104 at the 2010 census, down from 2,227 at the 2000 census. Portola is located on the Middle Fork of the Feather River and was named afte ...

), a special charter train for Portola Railroad Days * ''Northern California Explorer'' (Emeryville, Oroville, Keddie, Westwood, Klamath Falls, Black Butte, Chico, Sacramento, Emeryville)

Railroad presidents

There were twelve presidents of this railroad:March 1983 issue of ''Mileposts.'' Western Pacific Railway and Railroad * Walter J. Bartnett (March 3, 1903 to June 23, 1905) * Edward T. Jeffery (June 23, 1905 to November 6, 1913) * Benjamin F. Bush (November 6, 1913 to March 4, 1915) * Charles M. Levey (July 14, 1916 to March 30, 1927) * Harry M. Adams (March 30, 1927 to December 31, 1931) * Charles Elsey (January 1, 1932 to December 31, 1948) * Harry A. Mitchell (January 1, 1949 to July 1, 1949) * Frederic B. Whitman (July 1, 1949 to June 30, 1965) * Myron M. Christy (June 30, 1965 to November 30, 1970) *

Alfred E. Perlman Alfred Edward Perlman (November 22, 1902—April 30, 1983) was a railroad executive, having served as president of the Penn Central Transportation Company and its predecessor, the New York Central Railroad. Early career Perlman graduated from ...

(December 1, 1970 to December 31, 1972) * Robert G. "Mike" Flannery (January 1, 1973 to June 9, 1982) * Robert C. Marquis (June 9, 1982 to January 11, 1983)

Gallery

File:Western Pacific RR 1931 California.jpg, Western Pacific map of California in 1931 File:Western Pacific RR 1931 Nevada.jpg, Western Pacific map of Nevada in 1931 File:Western Pacific RR 1931 Utah.jpg, Western Pacific map of Utah in 1931

References

External links