Northwestern Pacific Railroad - History

History

In the late 1800s both the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Santa Fe Railroad had great interests in building lines north from San Francisco to Humboldt County to tap into the rich logging industry up there. Both railroads planned on building a line north, the Santa Fe starting with a boat connection in present-day Larkspur, California, and the Southern Pacific, starting at its interchange in American Canyon, up north through Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties to finally terminate in Eureka, California. It soon became clear though as plans went forward that only one railroad would make money in the Eel River Caynon, and so the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe entered into a joint agreement, and in 1906 merged a total of 42 railroad companies between Marin and Humboldt Bay, to make one railroad line stretching from Schellville, California, to Eureka, California. Construction was finally completed through the unstable Eel River canyon by October 1914 when a Golden Spike ceremony and celebration was held to mark the accomplishment. The SP controlled the southern end of the line, from Willits down south to Marin and Schellville, while the AT&SF controlled the northern end, from Willits to Eureka. There were also dozens of miles of narrow gauge trackage in Marin, controlled by SP.

The railroad service became popular; a 1911 NWP time-table shows 10 passenger trains each way, plus dozens of freights.

In 1929 the AT&ST sold its half-interest to the Southern Pacific, making the NWP a full SP subsidiary.

Revenue freight traffic, in millions of net ton-miles (P&SR not incl)

Year	Traffic
1925	150
1944	348
1960	604
1970	421

Source:ICC annual reports

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 crawl because of the Great Depression. It did not pick up again until World War II, when great demand for freight movement was needed. 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 Housing Boom of the '50s.

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. During March 1958, all mainline passenger service was discontinued. Freight traffic remained high until the 1970s, when the downturn in the lumber market and strong trucking competition led to a decline in use of the railroad, which already had fewer carloads than ever before.

By 1980, freight was still running in the Eel River Canyon, between Willits and Eureka, at that time the most expensive stretch of rail line to be operational and maintained in the United States. The NWP's parent company Southern Pacific began looking at cutting back its unprofitable branches and subsidiary lines, and the NWP was one of them. 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 due to the fact that 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.

In 1984, the SP sold the North End, from Willits to Eureka, to Brian Whipple, who ran it as the Eureka Southern Railroad. Although Whipple tried his best, the line was bankrupt within several years. In 1989, the North Coast Railroad Authority was founded by the California Legislature under the North Coast Railroad Authority Act, to save the NWP from total abandonment.

In 1992, what was left of the Eureka Southern was sold to the NCRA, who ran it under the "North Coast Railroad" until 1995, when severe flooding of the Eel River led to an almost total washout. The North End of the NWP has not been open since.

During that time, the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District began to purchase sections of the NWP's south end. The SP began to lease the line to the California Northern Railroad in 1993, until the entire south end was purchased by a combination of the GGBHTD and Marin and Sonoma Counties, which merged with the NCRA on April 30, 1996, forming complete transformation from the SP.

Using "Black Widow" GP9s and SD9s locomotives, the new NWP ran from 1996 until 1998, when money problems and management issues caused the line to nosedive. The line was shut down due to numerous washouts and unsafe portions of track. The NWP resumed service in 2001, between Schellville and Cotati, but was shut down approximately one month later, under the first and only Emergency Order put into place by the Federal Railroad Administration.

Beginning as early as 2009, the NCRA began to rebuild and fix up the NWP between Schellville and Windsor, and in July 2011 it resumed light freight service between those two points after many legal hurdles. Plans for the future include trains reaching Healdsburg and Willits by 2014. The Eel River Canyon segment is still on the drawing board while awaiting a decision whether or not to rebuild the segment, due to extreme costs and a lack of possible business. Multiple tourist companies are interested in possibly opening an excursion and dinner train that would go around Humboldt and Arcata bay, but are facing many legal hurdles and financial issues.