Northwestern Pacific Railroad

The Northwestern Pacific Railroad (reporting mark NWP) is a regional railroad that serves the North Coast of California. Its main line is 271 miles (436 km) long and runs between Schellville and Eureka. There are portions of the line still intact from the Ignacio Wye to the edge of San Rafael. Currently only the 62 mi (100 km) stretch between Schellville and Windsor is in operation.

The portion of the NWP main line between the Ignacio Wye in Marin County and the depot in Healdsburg is owned by Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART), a proposed commuter railroad. The Schellville–Ignacio and Healdsburg–Eureka portions are owned by the North Coast Railroad Authority.

The NWP's current locomotive roster includes a leased ex-Burlington Northern GP9, numbered 1922, and a Tier-3 hybrid "Genset" locomotive, numbered 2009 and purchased from Railpower Technologies. A former AT&SF GP7 #2699, built in 1952 and leased from BUGX, is used as a reserve unit.

The NWP was started in the late 1800s as a combined enterprise between the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads, who both realized only one railroad would be profitable in the Eel River canyon. The two railroads bought and combined 43 different railroads to create the Northwestern Pacific and achieve a single railroad by 1914. Gauges ranged from 3 foot to standard, and even included an early wooden steam monorail in Sonoma, CA. In 1936, the Santa Fe sold its interests to the SP, which assumed full control.

Beginning in 1990, public interests began snatching up bits and pieces of the "Southern End," or from Willits, CA to Schellville, CA. The North Coast Railroad Authority was born by government action in the late 1980s to save the NWP from abandonment. The SP officially sold the last of the entire line in 1995, the same year all operations ended north of Willits. In 1996 the "reborn" NWP began operations, but poor management, lack of sufficient motive power and high costs led the line to fall apart. In 1999, the Federal Railroad Administration gave an emergency order that closed the line.

In July 2011, the Federal Railroad Administration emergency order was lifted, allowing freight trains to resume service.

Shortly after traffic ceased south of Larkspur, CA, a scene of the first Dirty Harry movie was filmed on the NWP trestle that passes over Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in the late 1970s. Actor Clint Eastwood, who plays an outstanding SFPD investigator, stands atop the trestle and jumps onto an under-passing hijacked bus in the movie. This trestle was partially removed by the City after a large semi truck hit it in the early 2000s and it became too dangerous to remain. It will eventually be rebuilt and become part of the planned Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit route.