Showing posts with label Western Pacific. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Western Pacific. Show all posts

Sunday, September 8, 2019

Transcontinental Railway Completed -- September 8, 2019

Daily Alta California, 08-September-1869
150 years ago, on 08-September-1869, the transcontinental railroad was truly completed when a train of the original Western Pacific Railroad ran from Sacramento to Alameda, where passengers could board a ferryboat to San Francisco.  This article describes the first return train. The Niles Canyon Railroad operates a surviving portion of the line. 

THE WESTERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

Passengers on the train for Stockton and Sacramento over the Western Pacific Railroad, yesterday morning, left this city at seven o'clock reached Stockton at 12 noon; left at 12:15 and arrived at Sacramento at 1:37. The train consisted of four passenger cars, and when it left the ferry pier carried about forty passengers, but when it reached Sacramento it was crowded, a large number of passengers having been picked up en route. Beyond San Leandro, going toward Stockton, the track is laid so hurriedly that fast running time cannot now be made, of course, but the work of putting down the ballast is going rapidly forward and trains will soon make as good time this side of Stockton as between that city and Sacramento - 48 miles -- which is now run in an hour and twenty-two minutes. The road from Stockton to Sacramento is in splendid condition, and the rest of the road will soon be as good, when fast time will be made. Next week passengers bound East overland will leave this city and proceed directly to the junction of the Central Pacific Railroad, without stopping at Sacramento. Passengers from Sacramento, bound East, will be taken up to Brighton, where the overland train will be made up. The trains leave this city regularly every morning at 7 and 3:30 P.M. The train from Sacramento (leaving that city at 3:30 P.M.) arrived here at 10:30 last night.

Daily Alta California, 08-September-1869

Saturday, May 11, 2019

National Train Day 2019 -- May 11, 2019

Happy National Train Day, everyone. I took this photo of Western Pacific GP7 713 at the Sunol depot when we rode the Niles Canyon Railway in August, 2016.

National Train used to be a bigger thing.  Everything is local now.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Through the Grand Canyon of the Feather River -- June 11, 2013

The Western Pacific Railroad was created in 1903 in an effort to break the Southern Pacific's monopoly on service to the San Francisco Bay Area.  The Western Pacific went through the Feather River Canyon, which involved lower grades than the Overland Route. This ad is from the 30-September-1913 San Francisco Call.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Train Station #35 -- June 5, 2011

The Western Pacific Railroad's depot at Third and Washington in Oakland. This is from the May, 1914 Pacific Service Magazine, published by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Hark the Herald #9 -- July 9, 2010


I took this fuzzy photo of the Western Pacific's Feather River Route herald onthe nose of F7 913 at the California State Railroad Museum in April, 2010. My dad did some geologic work in the Feather River area and was very fond of it.
Yesterday everyone bailed out of work a little before 4, hoping to get somewhere on BART before the demonstrations got started about the Mehserle verdict. The Eastbound platform at Montgomery was jammed with people.