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The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric
interurban The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...
railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
that connected Chico in northern
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
with
Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
via the
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,
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oakland, Sacramento, Yuba City, Chico, and
Woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...
. This involved multiple car trains making sharp turns at street corners and obeying traffic signals. Once in open country, SN's passenger trains ran at fairly fast speeds. With its shorter route and lower fares, the SN provided strong competition to the
Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) 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 names ...
and
Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...
for passenger business and freight business between those two cities. North of Sacramento, both passenger and freight business was less due to the small town agricultural nature of the region and due to competition from the paralleling Southern Pacific Railroad. The SN had been two separate interurban companies connecting at Sacramento until 1925. The Oakland, Antioch, and Eastern Railway was a
catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary ( , ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or wire rope, cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, ...
wire powered line that ran from Oakland through a tunnel in the Oakland hills to Moraga, Walnut Creek, Concord, Pittsburg, to Sacramento. It was renamed the San Francisco–Sacramento Railroad briefly. The Northern Electric Railway was a
third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...
powered line that ran from Sacramento north through Marysville and Yuba City to Chico. It was renamed the Sacramento Northern Rail''road'' in 1914. In 1928, the two lines combined to become the Sacramento Northern Rail''way'' under control of the Western Pacific Railroad which operated it as a separate entity. An extensive multiple-car passenger service operated from Oakland to Chico until 1941 including providing
dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a passenger railroad car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. These cars provide the highest level of service of any rai ...
service on some trains. Passenger traffic was heaviest from Sacramento to Oakland. Freight operation using
electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...
s continued into the 1960s.


History


Vallejo and Northern Railroad

The Vallejo and Northern Railroad was a proposed
interurban railway The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...
line between Vallejo and
Woodland, California Woodland is a city in and the county seat of Yolo County, California, United States. Located approximately northwest of Sacramento, it is a part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. The population continues to grow every year, with a growth ra ...
. The company was incorporated on November 9, 1906, promoted by the same person who put forward the Dixon Branch. Terminal sites were purchased in Fairfield, Suisun,
Vacaville Vacaville is a city located in Solano County, California, United States. It is located from Sacramento, California, Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is on the edge of the Sacramento Valley in Northern California. The city was founded in ...
, and
Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California, United States, and the second largest city in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the ci ...
. Additionally, the railroad also began planning an extension from Woodland to
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
, going on to acquire franchise rights for running on Sacramento streets and purchasing property in Woodland. Despite the swift property acquisition, construction had not commenced, reportedly a result of the
Panic of 1907 The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange suddenly fell almost ...
. The company was merged into the
Sacramento Northern Railway The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric interurban railway that connected Chico, California, Chico in northern California with Oakland, California, Oakland via the state capital, Sacramento, California, Sacramento. In ...
predecessor Northern Electric Railway in 1909 after Northern Electric floated $10 million ($ in adjusted for inflation) worth of bonds in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
. A single
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
lettered ''Vallejo & Northern # 1'' operated in downtown
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
from November 15, 1911 until 1914. Construction of what would become the Sacramento Northern Vaca Valley Line began in 1913; and line opened for service on May 16, 1914. Northern Electric combination cars numbered 103, 104, and 22 offered passenger service over this isolated branch until passenger service was abandoned in 1926. Motor #701 pulled carloads of freight transferred from barges and shallow-draft steamboats at Suisun. The line was connected to Sacramento Northern's main line via a new branch between Vacaville and Creed in 1930.
Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...
proposed extending the Willotta branch of their Sacramento Northern subsidiary through Jamison Canyon to connect with the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad (P&SR) as late as 1932, but the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
and
Northwestern Pacific Railroad 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 h ...
purchase of the P&SR prevented such expansion. The connecting line through Cordero was relocated during construction of
Travis Air Force Base Travis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base under the operational control of Air Mobility Command (AMC), located three miles (5 Kilometre, km) east of the central business district of the city of Fairfield, California, Fairfield, i ...
in 1942, and diesel locomotives replaced electric operation in 1947.


Northern Electric Railway

The original, route connected Chico with
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
. The line began as the Chico Electric Railway (CERY), in operation beginning in 1905. The company had acquired two horse-powered street railways in Chico and Marysville, which were rebuilt for electrification. CERY was sold in 1906, after only a few months of operation, to the newly-formed Northern Electric Railway (NER). Northern Electric extended service to Oroville on April 25 of that year, continuing on through Marysville to Sacramento, beginning full service on September 1, 1907. A branch from Chico to Hamilton which crossed the
Sacramento River The Sacramento River () is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River D ...
via
pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, is a bridge that uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the support ...
was completed a few months later. The company initially sought to expand. The Woodland Branch began service on July 4, 1912, with an intent to continue the line to the Bay Area. The Marysville and Colusa Branch started less than a year later, which was part of a planned expansion into the Sacramento Valley's west wide. At this time, the company additionally opened the isolated Willota–Suisun–Vacaville branch, intending it as part of the eventual route to connect at Woodland. As a stopgap, passengers in Sacramento could transfer to California Transportation Company riverboats in Sacramento to continue on to San Francisco. The NER went into bankruptcy in 1914, and was reorganized into a new corporation named the Sacramento Northern Railroad (SNRR).


Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Railway

The Southern Division began as the Oakland and Antioch Railway, which opened its line between Bay Point and Walnut Creek in 1910, extending to Lafayette the following year. While a bridge was planned to cross
Suisun Bay Suisun Bay ( ; Wintun for "where the west wind blows") is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in Northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the e ...
, this never materialized; construction began around 1912 but ceased the following year. A wooden ferry, ''Bridget'', was built to temporarily move trains between West Pittsburg and Chipps Island. This was done simultaneously to major expansion, with a new line run across the Sacramento Delta, trackage agreements with the
Key System The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area ...
to their transbay ferry terminal in Oakland, and a new tunnel through the Oakland Hills. Regular service between Bay Point and San Francisco began on April 7, 1913. ''Bridget'' was destroyed by a fire in May 1914 — OAE rented tugs and barges until a new ferry was built. Her replacement, ''Ramon'', was put into service by the end of the year. Full service between Oakland and Sacramento commenced on September 3, 1914. The Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Railway, as it had become known in 1912, entered receivership in 1920 and was reorganized as the San Francisco–Sacramento Railroad.


Consolidation

In 1925 the WP created a "new" Sacramento Northern Railway (SNRy), in order to group the growing collection of their interurban railroad holdings. Thus, the Sacramento Northern Railway was created from two distinct interurban railroads. Western Pacific purchased the San Francisco–Sacramento Railroad in 1922 and proceeded to acquire the stock of the NER in 1927; they consolidated operations the following year. By retaining the Sacramento Northern Railway as a subsidiary rather than just absorbing it into the Western Pacific Railroad, the WP earned more income by interchanging freight with a separate Sacramento Northern Railroad due to extra fees earned from shipper-customers by interchanging freight from one railroad (itself) to another (the Sacramento Northern). Western Pacific also owned regional sister electric railroads, 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 the ...
(TS) (Stockton to Modesto) and the Central California Traction Company (CCT) (Stockton to downtown Sacramento). The CCT used the same downtown Sacramento terminal and ran directly on Sacramento streets. The two divisions used different voltages as well as different methods of current collection, thus only some powered equipment could traverse the entire Chico to Oakland route. When in Oakland, SN used Key System electric power. Some equipment carried a third rail shoe, a trolley pole, and a pantograph. The differing electrical systems, third rail for the North End and trolley wire for the South End, were retained. Cars from the higher-voltage southern division could operate over the whole line, but those in the northern division were relegated to that territory. Sacramento Northern also continued to operate
streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
services in many of its host cities. A line in Sacramento to Swanston ran between 1914 and 1932, largely subsidized by a local developer. The combined main line extended for between San Francisco and Chico. At the southern end the SNRy shared track, electric propulsion power, and facilities of the East Bay's expansive
Key System The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area ...
commuter lines. At first this used the Key System Mole in
West Oakland West Oakland is a neighborhood situated in the northwestern corner of Oakland, California, United States, situated west of Downtown Oakland, south of Emeryville, and north of Alameda. The neighborhood is located along the waterfront at the ...
. Then, beginning in 1939, trains began running on the tracked lower deck of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco an ...
into the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco.


Scheduled service

At , the railroad's ''Comet'' and ''Meteor'' services between San Francisco and Chico were the longest interurban lines in North America. It was built and operated to first-class railroad standards, such as providing dining and parlor car service and operated at speeds up to . Rail service to Oroville ended in 1938 after the bridge into the town center washed out. In June 1939 the mainline runs were cut back to three weekday trains from Chico to San Francisco, one from Sacramento to San Francisco, and three from Concord to San Francisco. The fastest train was scheduled at 5 hours 43 minutes from Chico to San Francisco, and 2 hours 48 minutes Sacramento to San Francisco.


Financial issues

As with most interurban railroads in the US, the SN's return on initial investment was lower and its annual operating costs were higher than had been projected at conception. Interurbans, like most railroads, were very labor-intensive, particularly with the labor costs of maintaining motorized rolling stock and repairing electrical systems. Passenger business was less than initially projected and became increasingly unprofitable, even after SN reached downtown
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
via the new
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco an ...
in 1939. Passenger service south from Sacramento to Pittsburg ended in August 1940, and Chico runs ceased at the end of October. In January 1941, SN operated two weekday trains from Pittsburg to San Francisco and two Concord trains. Interurban passenger service totally ended on July 1, 1941. Afterwards, SN transitioned to become a shortline freight-hauling railroad. Its freight business and its relationship with the adjacent Western Pacific Railroad was the lifeblood of the railroad, keeping it in profit long after passenger service had ceased. Although it had a somewhat shorter route from Oakland to Pittsburg/Antioch in competing with the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific steam railroads, its route through the Oakland hills was steep (4%) and curvy by railroad standards plus it had on-street operation in Oakland. Freight trains usually had just a few cars on those
grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...
with locomotives ("juice jacks") at both ends of the train. From Sacramento north to Chico, the SN competed with the Southern Pacific Railroad and, up to 1922, with the Western Pacific from Marysville south. It traversed a low density population rural farm country from Chico which contained only Marysville and Yuba City as major towns before reaching Sacramento. Thus, passenger business north of Sacramento was light and could not be expected to increase. The SN had branches to
Vacaville Vacaville is a city located in Solano County, California, United States. It is located from Sacramento, California, Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is on the edge of the Sacramento Valley in Northern California. The city was founded in ...
and Dixon, Woodland, Colusa, and Oroville.


Business decline

The railway suffered from statewide business decline due to the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
plus the increasing automobile use on improved roads. Interurban service ended in 1941. Streetcar service in Chico continued as a condition of letting the railroad operate freight trains on city streets. Freight service continued and was heavy during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The city of Chico paid for an extension to the Chico Municipal Airport as a new Army Air Corps training base was installed there, though this line was only used for freight. After the war, streetcar service had precariously fallen off, and the company was allowed to discontinue its passenger operations in Chico after December 15, 1947. The 1951 Lisbon Trestle Collapse, in which crewmen were injured but no lives were lost, required a costly rebuild of the long causeway trestle north of the Suisun Bay. The aging train ferry, ''Ramon'', was removed from service in 1954 after failing a
Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...
inspection. As a result, most traffic ceased on the main line south of Sacramento. Western Pacific arranged for trackage rights to close the gaps between Sacramento and Pittsburg. In 1956 SN reported 45 million ton-miles (65.7 million tonne-km) of revenue freight; at the end of the year it operated of road and of track. Operating revenue that year was $2.2 million (equivalent to $ in ), but in that year ICC included SN among the Class Is.


Reducing electrification

The SN received its first
diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...
s in 1941 and this began its process of de-electrification. All electric operation ceased in 1965 at Yuba City after which the railway operated as a dieselized freight subsidiary of the Western Pacific. Trackage was abandoned over the years, especially that which duplicated routes on other railroads. The SN name ceased to exist with the WP's acquisition by the
Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...
in 1983.


Present day segments

A segment of the SN line in Solano County is owned, operated, and electrified by the
Western Railway Museum The Western Railway Museum, in Solano County, California is located on California State Route 12, Highway 12 between Rio Vista, California, Rio Vista and Suisun, California, Suisun. The museum is built along the former mainline of the Sacrament ...
as a
heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...
. Much of the SN's former equipment is part of the museum's permanent collection. Segments of the Woodland Branch continue to see limited freight service as well as excursion trips and railbike hires operated as the RiverFox Train. Some of the right of way in Concord and Walnut Creek were reactivated in the 1970s for use by
Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...
. The streetcar line north of Sacramento to Swanston was also reactivated for the
SacRT light rail The SacRT light rail system serves the Sacramento, California area. It is operated by the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) and has of network comprising three main lines on standard gauge tracks, 53 stations, and a fleet of 121 lig ...
service in the 1980s. Segments of the right of way in
Contra Costa County Contra Costa County (; ''Contra Costa'', Spanish language, Spanish for 'Opposite Coast') is a U.S. county, county located in the U.S. state of California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the ...
and
Sacramento County Sacramento County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,585,055. Its county seat is Sacramento, which has been the state capital of California since 1854. Sacrament ...
have been converted to
rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...
s.


Route


Oakland to Sacramento

In June 1911, SN's predecessor, the Oakland and Antioch, purchased a parcel of land from the Realty Syndicate (associated with the Key System) for its planned terminal yard at 40th Street and Shafter Avenue in Oakland. Construction of the facility began immediately in conjunction with the laying of tracks from the site northward along Shafter Avenue toward the hills. Although the compact yard at 40th and Shafter was the end of its right-of-way, SN trains continued west along 40th Street on the tracks of the Key System and on to the
Key System The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area ...
's "mole". In later years, the trains ran over the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco an ...
which was built near the site of the Key mole, to San Francisco's downtown Transbay Terminal, connecting by way of the Key's tracks on Yerba Buena Avenue 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 main line ran on single track north up the center of Shafter Avenue in a residential area, passing Emerson Elementary School at 49th Street. At the end of Shafter, the track crossed College Avenue next to Claremont Junior High School and started a long curving 4% grade into the Oakland hills in the Rockridge district of Oakland. It then crossed the Temescal Canyon inlet of
Lake Temescal Lake Temescal is a small reservoir in the Oakland hills, in northeastern Oakland, California. It is the centerpiece of Temescal Regional Recreational Area, also known as Temescal Regional Park (and originally, Lake Temescal Regional Park). It is ...
via a bridge. During the preparations for the Broadway (Caldecott) Tunnel project, this inlet was filled in and the Sacramento Northern tracks re-routed along the top of a new high embankment above the lake, buttressed by a massive retaining wall that still exists today. From Lake Temescal, the tracks ran southeast through the Montclair district of Oakland. It crossed into Montclair over a trestle at Moraga Avenue and Thornhill Drive, 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 headed east, then made a sharp turn northeast as it passed through a major cut in the hill. It then climbed up Shepherd Canyon to a station called "Havens" at Paso Robles Drive, named for real estate developer Frank C. Havens, one-time partner of the Key System's
"Borax" Smith Francis Marion Smith (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California. He was known nationally and internationally as " ...
who was trying to encourage sales in Shepherd Canyon. At Havens, below Saroni Drive, the line entered a short ravine leading to the entrance of a one mile long single-track tunnel under the Oakland Hills. The tunnel itself is still intact but is sealed at both ends. In 1994, home developers filled in the approach ravine and tunnel mouth and constructed residential homes on this fill and on top of the tunnel. The upper foot of the top of the tunnel portal could be observed in the back yard of one of the new homes. A home further northeast behind the first was constructed on top of the unlined tunnel, and by altering drainage in the area caused the tunnel below the home to slowly subside. The home shifted and dropped and had to be removed. The SN track exited the tunnel into Contra Costa County at Pinehurst Road near
Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve is a regional park and nature reserve in the Oakland Hills, in the eastern East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area) region of the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is within Alameda and Contra Costa Cou ...
, and immediately curved over a bridge over Pinehurst Road to run southeastward through Redwood Canyon. The railroad designated a station just outside the tunnel portal as "Eastport." The tunnel portal is no longer visible, largely as a result of a landslide which occurred during the El Niño rains of the early 1980s. The right of way ran along an extant fire trail near 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 sharp curve at Eastport, the tracks immediately crossed over Pinehurst road on a bridge. The right-of-way then headed down Redwood Canyon on a ledge (still apparent today) just above Pinehurst Road, progressing southeast past the small community of
Canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...
. The line then turned north to Moraga, past St Mary's, and thence northeasterly through Lafayette, Saranap, and the valley past Walnut Creek and to Concord and Pittsburg. Some of the right of way through Contra Costa County is now used by the
BART Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...
system to Concord. At Pittsburg, the tracks ran parallel, adjacent, and south of the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific main lines, then dropped down, turned north sharply and went under the SF and SP through an underpass to almost immediately reach the SN ferry landing on
Suisun Bay Suisun Bay ( ; Wintun for "where the west wind blows") is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in Northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the e ...
. (This track layout and underpass are still shown on a 2009 Google website map of Pittsburg.) The Pittsburg side ferry landing and depot was called "Mallard" by the SN. There a ferry boat (the ''Ramon'') carried an entire passenger train across to a north side landing near Suisun called "Chipps" on Chipps Island. From here the line proceeded north across an extensive marshland (including Chipps Island and
Van Sickle Island Van Sickle Island is an approximately island in Suisun Bay, California. It is part of Solano County, California, Solano County, and administered by Reclamation District 1607. Its coordinates are , and in 1981 the United States Geological Survey ...
) on a long trestle. After the trestle, the tracks continued north through farmland past Montezuma, Rio Vista Junction, and Creed, where there was a branch west to Vacaville and Travis Air Force Base. In 1913 a spur was built that connected Rio Vista Junction to the town of Dixon to the north, but it was unprofitable and was abandoned after a year or two. Past Creed, the line continued to Dozier and Yolano before crossing the four-mile-long Lisbon trestle into
West Sacramento West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. The city is separated from Sacramento by the Sacramento River, which also separates Sacramento and Yolo counties. The population was 53,915 at the 2 ...
. This trestle collapsed in July 1951 as a steeple cab-powered freight train of steel plate for Pittsburg was crossing it. At West Sacramento, just west of the Tower Bridge, the line to Woodland left the southbound main line and headed west. Past West Sacramento, the line entered the city of Sacramento by way of the "M" Street Bridge (1911), and later by way of its replacement (1935), the
Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule, Suspension bridge, suspension, and, until 1960, Cantilever bridge, cantilever bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones ...
, which is still in use. The SN progressed through downtown streets onto I Street to reach the substantial columned two-story brick and stone Union Traction Depot ("Union Terminal") on I Street between 11th and 12th. Union Terminal, also used by Central California Traction trains to Stockton in the early years, is now gone after use in the 1950s–1960s as a grocery store. Downtown Sacramento streets, particularly east and south of the Tower Bridge, carried many SN and Central California Traction tracks.


Line section abandonments

Freight service from Oakland to Lafayette ceased on March 1, 1957. Overhead wire and tracks were removed and the Shepherd Canyon tunnel sealed. The former roadbed from St Mary's College through Lafayette was converted to the popular Lafayette–Moraga Regional Trail. The following year, freight service only extended from Walnut Creek to Sacramento. The ferry ''Ramon'' was removed from service in 1954, so SN, through parent Western Pacific, had to obtain trackage rights on the Santa Fe from Stockton to Pittsburg where SN trains could reach SN tracks and freight shippers in Pittsburg and Concord. When the Union Pacific absorbed Western Pacific/SN it obtained further trackage rights on the Santa Fe which extended to Port Chicago where SN had a small yard. Thus, Pittsburg trackage was removed in the early 1990s.


Sacramento to Chico

From the Sacramento depot at present day Terminal Way, the SN's "North End" ran to a Northern Electric-built truss bridge crossing the American River and then on to Rio Linda, to East Nicolaus, then to Marysville where it crossed the Feather River into adjacent Yuba City, split off the branch to Colusa, then went on to Live Oak, split off the branch to Oroville, then to Gridley and to Chico where it terminated. In Chico there were yards and primary shops.


Woodland Branch

The electrified Woodland branch line left the Oakland bound main line at West Sacramento and ran straight west toward Woodland (known as the Yolo Shortline RR until 2003 and now known as the Sierra Northern Railway). The track proceeds across a very long elevated wood viaduct-bridge over the wide Yolo flood plain to enter Woodland and go down Main Street to the Woodland Opera House where the interurban cars turned around. Today SERA terminates shortly before East Street several blocks east of the Opera House. The Woodland terminal was a unique Mission-style structure and was recently reconstructed. The Sacramento bound interurban cars exited the terminal onto Main Street through a unique archway in the station wall. An additional branch operated on Second Street via tracks owned by the Sacramento and Woodland Railroad.


In Sacramento

The SN entered Sacramento from the north crossing the American River on a through truss bridge. It then proceeded on private right of way between 18th and 19th streets to D street where it turned west in the middle of D to 15th Street then south on 15th to I street where it turned west on I to the city's interurban Union Terminal and interurban car storage yard bounded by H, I, 11th and 12th streets. Trains turned into the terminal leaving the street. It then proceeded west on I to 8th, then turned south to M Street, then west on M over the Sacramento River to West Sacramento. From there it turned south on a direct line to Rio Vista and the delta river crossing on the SN ferry at Chipps.


Marysville and Colusa Branch

The branch to Colusa was built by a nominally independent company and leased by the Sacramento Northern. Passenger services operated between 1913 and 1940. From Colusa Junction, east of Yuba City, the line runs almost directly west through Tarke and Meridian, alongside and north of the Colusa Highway, California State Route 20. It crossed the Sacramento River on a narrow combined rail and vehicle bridge before turning northwest and running to Market Street in Colusa. In 1992 this track and unusual Meridian bridge were still in use and provided the SN with a Southern Pacific-Union Pacific interchange at Colusa.


Danville Branch

This line branched from the southern division south of Walnut Creek at Saranap, running south and paralleling the Southern Pacific's Danville Branch. It opened to Danville on March 2, 1914, extending to Diablo Park a few months later in June. Service was provided by a single car, numbered 1051. The route proved unprofitable and service ended in 1924.


Vaca Valley Line

Northern Electric acquired the failed Vallejo and Northern Railroad in 1909 and proceeded to construct a route between Vacaville and Willota with a branch to Fairfield and Suisun. Passenger service ran between the line's opening in 1914 and 1926. Like other lines built by the Northern Electric, electricity was provided via third rail. Initially isolated from the rest of the system, a new connection was built from the main line at Creed to Vacaville Junction in 1930. That connection would be severed with the commissioning of Fairfield–Suisun Army Air Base, which was built directly on the route of the railway and adjacent lands. A new connector was built to the north, bypassing the base. These lines largely operated in their own right of way except in Fairfield.


Dixon Branch

A branch line to Dixon operated less than three years between 1914 and 1917. It was built by the Sacramento Valley Electric Railroad and operated by the Oakland, Antioch and Eastern. It ran due south from Dixon to Olcott.


Hamilton City Branch

An early branch of the Northern Electric ran between Chico and Hamilton City, primarily to move
sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...
s to the sugar processing plant in the latter city. It opened to passenger service on September 13, 1907. The line crossed the Sacramento River on a pontoon bridge. Sacramento Northern would go on to acquire the in 1909; the company had built a short line between Hamilton City and Monroeville.


Freight branches

The railroad additionally operated two long lines exclusively for freight. One ran into the farmlands around Clarksburg and another connected the main line to the formerly isolated Vacaville line. The latter was rebuilt further north when Fairfield–Suisun Army Air Base was installed.


Terminals and stations

Sacramento's first interurban terminal (for the Northern Electric Railway's line from Chico and Yuba City) was at Eighth and J Streets. Sacramento's two other interurban lines, the San Francisco–Sacramento and the Central California Traction (to Stockton) had separate terminals. Pressure from Sacramento to stop loading multiple-car interurban trains on city streets led to construction of a terminal for all three in 1925. This produced the impressive two-story columned brick Union Traction Terminal along I Street between 11th and 12th Streets, near the current
SacRT light rail The SacRT light rail system serves the Sacramento, California area. It is operated by the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) and has of network comprising three main lines on standard gauge tracks, 53 stations, and a fleet of 121 lig ...
12th & I station. Trains left I street to circle behind the terminal to one of four tracks for passenger loading. The station burned internally 1972 and was removed around 2000. The SN mission style terminal in Woodland was unusual in that the interurban cars from Sacramento went through an arch in the station's wall to reach a rail yard in the rear. The terminal was adjacent to the Woodland Opera House. The Oakland terminal was a very compact yard and buildings at 40th and Shafter with a wye connecting to the Key System tracks along 40th. While trains utilized Key System trackage for the final few miles of passenger service in Oakland, SN bypassed all intermediate stops and ran direct to the San Francisco terminal. Initially, trains terminated at the Key System Mole, where passengers could transfer to ferries to San Francisco. Trains to the
San Francisco Transbay Terminal The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street an ...
lasted over two years at the end of interurban service.


Technical information


Electrification

Because of its history as separate railways as well as the interconnection with the Key System, SN cars had to operate under a number of different electrical standards. The North End was electrified at 600 volts DC, the nationwide standard trolley and interurban voltage at the time of construction.
Trolley wire The Sydney Tramway Museum, operated by the South Pacific Electric Railway Co-operative Society, is Australia's oldest tramway museum and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is located at Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney. History ...
and
trolley pole A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" (electrified) overhead line, overhead wire to the control and the electric traction motors of a tram or trolley bus. It is a type of current ...
s were used only in urban areas. In the open country, the line used a solid, uncovered top-contact
third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...
. Cars built originally for the North End could not operate south of Sacramento. The South End (former OA&E, Oakland, Antioch, and Eastern) was electrified largely at 1,200 volts DC until 1936, after which it operated at 1,500 volts, with areas of 600 volts in Oakland and Sacramento. The interurban cars had to use a
pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...
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 capable cars were switchable between 600 V and 1,200 V operation; they could also operate at half power at the 1,200 V setting on 600 V overhead. The SN's south end high-quality electrification used
catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary ( , ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or wire rope, cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, ...
rather than a single trolley wire, leading to the eventual exclusive use of pantographs rather than trolley poles south of Sacramento. Catenary allows the vertical supporting poles to be spaced farther apart than if a single suspended trolley wire is used, plus it is better for pantograph operation at speed due to stability (The South Shore line uses pantographs with a single trolley wire in Michigan City streets but has catenary for high speed operation elsewhere).


Cars and trains

Sacramento Northern offered dining service aboard parlor-
observation car An observation car/carriage/coach (in US English, often abbreviated to simply observation or obs) is a type of railroad Passenger car (rail), passenger car, generally operated in a passenger train as the rearmost carriage, with windows or a plat ...
s ''Bidwell'', ''Sacramento'', ''Moraga'' and ''Alabama''. The ''Alabama'' had been built in 1905 as the private car of
Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...
owner Henry E. Huntington and was purchased by the SN. This elegant car operated on the Sacramento Northern from 1921 until destroyed in 1931 by a fire caused by a short circuit in its
coffeemaker A coffeemaker, coffee maker or coffee machine is a cooking appliance used to brew coffee. While there are many different types of coffeemakers, the two most common brewing principles use gravity or pressure to move hot water through coffee ...
. Sacramento Northern name trains operating between Oakland, Sacramento and Chico included the ''Comet'', ''Meteor'', ''Sacramento Valley Limited'' and ''Steamer Special''


Suisun Bay crossing and ferry


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 . The bay saw heavy shipping traffic and thus a high-level drawbridge with long approaches was required. Construction began in 1912; the estimated price tag was $1.5 million ($ in adjusted for inflation) 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 due to uncertainties brought on by
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. The railway, not meeting revenue expectations, never did restart construction, and the "temporary" ferry service became the permanent method of traversing the waterway.


Car ferry service

The railway was 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 ''Bridgit'' (a pun on "Bridge It") was constructed of
wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
in San Francisco and launched in July 1913. It was destroyed by fire on May 17, 1914. After unsuccessful experiments with an unpowered
barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...
, the railroad rented
car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of Lighter (barge), lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it i ...
s from other railroads in the area and commissioned a new, steel ferry from the Lanteri Shipyard in nearby Pittsburg. The ''Ramon'' was constructed entirely from flat steel plate to save time, and had no curved surfaces on its hull. It was double ended with a central, raised bridge in the typical carfloat style. Power was by a distillate engine, one of the largest constructed, which was 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
scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...
ped locally.


Bridges and viaducts

The SN had two very long wood piling viaducts that crossed the Yolo flood plain. The Lisbon trestle near Rio Vista was built by the OAE as part of the main line on the north side of Suisun Bay; a section collapsed into the flood plain in 1951, with the replacement only in service a few years before abandonment. The Yolo causeway is an trestle built by the Northern Electric as part of their extension to Woodland. The M Street Bridge between Sacramento and West Sacramento was built in 1911 by the Northern Electric. It was a center-bearing
swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...
truss bridge By the 1930s, the bridge was experiencing increased congestion from both road and marine traffic and a replacement was planned by the State, County, and railroad. The
Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule, Suspension bridge, suspension, and, until 1960, Cantilever bridge, cantilever bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones ...
opened in 1935, replacing the span with a vertical lift bridge. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1982. California State Route 20 crossed the Sacramento River at Meridian on a bridge also carrying the Sacramento Northern's line to Colusa. The tracks were in the center of the bridge and the two highway lanes were on the sides. It was replaced in 1977.


See also

* List of California street railroads * History of rail transportation in California


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * These are probably the most complete and detailed reference materials available regarding the Sacramento Northern Railroad. Author and publisher Swett, now deceased, spent a lifetime producing publications about interurban railways nationwide. Some are available in the Library of Congress.


External links


Sacramento Northern Online.com: extensive Sacramento Northern coverage with history and photographs.

Abandonedrails.com: Interactive map of the Sacramento Northern Railway

Niagararails.com: Map of the Sacramento Northern lines

Oberail.org: Sacramento Northern Railway history and photographs

Yahoo Group: Sacramento Northern book



Blu-streak.com: Oakland Antioch and Eastern Railroad−OA&E, maps and photos

Bay Area Rails.org: Sacramento Northern RR photos

Western Railway Museum.org: Operating trolley museum at Rio Vista Junction, Solano County
— ''history and photos of SNRR''. {{Former Class I 1918 establishments in California