Sacramento Northern Railway - Today

Today

• Some of the SN's original track is still in service with the Union Pacific or other railroads, while portions of the right-of-way are used for BART in the Oakland and Walnut Creek-Concord area or light rail in the Sacramento area. A 22-mile (35 km) portion is owned by the Western Railway Museum near Rio Vista, California and Suisun City, California, and a portion of it has been re-electrified and trolleys operated as part of the museum. Extensive history with photographs are available on the museum website. See References.

• A number of SN cars and locomotives survive. Many are at the Western Railway Museum, while others are in the collections of the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola, California and the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California

• In Yuba City, the original Northern Electric bridge over the Feather River is still standing though the rails have been removed. It is located just to the south of the Hwy 20 bridge and still has the NE initials on both sides of the bridge. Another NE bridge exists in Sacramento over the American River, now part of a bike/jogging path from downtown Sacramento to the suburb of Rio Linda and paved with asphalt.

• The Marysville depot is still standing near J St and 4th (look up the hill) and is in private use.

• The SN's Oakland Yard at Shafter and 40th was demolished in the 1960s to make way for several new structures including a medical office building, razed by a fire in the late 1990s. In 2006-7, an apartment building was constructed with the name "Temescal Station", which, although reminiscent of the site's former railroad use, was never the name of the SN's yard and station here. At this location, the SN tracks joined those of the Key System for the trip to the Bay Bridge and on to San Francisco. There was a Temescal Station - a stop, not a depot - just northwest of Lake Temescal. The present freeway crosses Oakland's College Avenue in roughly the same location where the SN tracks had crossed coming up Shafter Avenue.

• Tracks still exist in rural Solano County south of Dixon where they cross Highway 113. These tracks run from Collinsville in the south up to Robbin Road. A large gap remains there, until the tracks continue west of Clarksburg.

• The SN's Woodland depot survived in increasingly poor condition until about 1980 when it was acquired by a private individual who found the original plans for it in the California State Archives and proceeded to raze it, then entirely reconstruct it.

• Remnants of the Tres Vias to Oroville branch line (grade and culverts) are still visible along Grand Ave and to the east of the intersection of Feather Avenue and Tenth Street in rural Thermalito; the grade presently serves as a storm water levee. The stone bridge pilings also remain where it crossed the Feather River as well as some wood pilings to the east though they are being removed/buried due to construction of Riverbend Park.

• Miles of the Oakland right-of-way remain throughout the Montclair hills and the village as paved walking paths, concrete retaining walls that used to support overpasses, and high elevated embankments. These structures cut through tennis courts, the school yard, and behind the park and recreation center building. They are also visible,(although less accessible) behind the old firehouse and adjacent structures. From Montclair/Piedmont the SN route ascended into Shepherd Canyon and entered a tunnel to cross under the Oakland Hills to emerge from the tunnel and drop down toward Moraga and Walnut Creek to Pittsburg (Mallard) where the car ferry awaited. In the days of SN operation the Shepherd Canyon area was lightly developed. In 1978, however, many houses had been and were being constructed around the west tunnel area. A hiking path led along the former right of way directly to the tunnel portal which had been sealed off with concrete. By 1992, a developer had placed fill at this location and a house was constructed right where the portal had been. As observed at that time, the top two feet of the concrete portal had become an unusual bench in the back yard of the new unoccupied home. Another house sat above and behind the first directly on top of the tunnel which had not been filled in. This construction caused the tunnel to subside along with the new house, which had to be destroyed.

• Part of the NE/SN Colusa line was still in operation until just a few years ago using diesel electric motive power. While passenger service to Colusa long ago ended, freight was moved from Marysville across the Feather River on Northern Electric branded bridges into Yuba City. West of Yuba City, a combined railroad and highway bridge was at Meridian and still existed with rails in 1992. Children at Bridge Street Elementary School often see brand new John Deere tractors and other equipment arriving in Yuba City and various agricultural commodities leaving the city. Leaving Yuba City heading westward towards Colusa on HWY 20, the abandoned NE/SN Colusa line is on the right and visible for many miles. This entire operation was abandoned by Union Pacific a few years ago with the grade crossings being removed in late 2007 from Hwy 99 and Hwy 20.

• A short portion of SN trackage remains south of Sankey Road, between Elverta and Pleasant Grove. From Pleasant Grove Rd., turn west on Sankey Rd. Cross the UP tracks and you will immediately notice some abandoned trackage on the left (SN). The tracks run from south of Sankey Road to just west of the WP tracks at a 45 degree angle. Used as a train training school at one time, the site remains with original SN trackage (which goes nowhere and connects with nothing) and some obsolete equipment (cars, engines) that are used by the Modoc Railroad Academy. Following the levee road north of Sankey from this point, the long abandoned SN railbed and small bridges still exist (no rails). Traveling on Hwy 99 north of Sacramento when the Hwy99/Hwy70 split is reached, the old SN roadbeds are on the right. You'll see power poles still with wiring traveling next to the rail bed and a rice silo where SN once loaded freight. Traveling north on Hwy 70, the SN railbed is on the left, visible all the way into Marysville with interesting small bridges.

• Although the trackage has been removed, many areas between Marysville/Yuba City and Chico have evidence of the old NE/SN. The wye at Colusa Junction is obvious as the area has yet to be paved over. North from there along Tierra Buena Road (parallel to the old grade), up to the intersection with Eager Road, stands the old trestle crossing Live Oak Canal.

• In the town of Live Oak, at the old crossing with the then Southern Pacific mainline (now also Union Pacific since 1996) one can see clear evidence of the old roadbed and street crossings at both "N" Street and Nevada Street.

• Virtually every cross street west of Larkin Road from Yuba City to the Thermalito afterbay near Oroville has evidence of the old railroad grade. Some even have rails still embedded in the asphalt. Some 500 feet (150 m) west of Larkin Road on Turner Avenue has rails in the ground. Also at the hardware store on East Gridley Road in Gridley can be seen not only rails in the concrete but the base to a grade crossing protection device.

• At the end of Anderson Way, also in Gridley off Larkin Rd, stands a foundation to a sub-station used to power the catenary wire and third rail when the line was electrified.