Keddie Wye

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The Keddie Wye is a favorite railfan spot at a wye located at Keddie, California, named after Arthur Keddie. Mr. Keddie purchased the survey rights and the right to build a railroad through the Feather River Canyon from George Jay Gould I, the son of Jay Gould. The west and north legs of the wye are on bridges over Spanish Creek, and the southeast leg runs through a tunnel (Tunnel No. 32). Just to the northwest, where the bridged legs join, is another tunnel (Tunnel No. 31).

History

The Western Pacific Railroad (now part of the Union Pacific Railroad) built the tracks along the Feather River in 1909 to complete a San Francisco Bay Area - Salt Lake City, Utah, route competing with the Southern Pacific's route over Donner Pass.

The Feather River route was preferred over the Donner Pass route (elevation about 7,000 feet / 2,133.6 m) over the Sierra Nevada Mountains because the Feather River route's pass (Beckwourth Pass) is at a lower elevation (about 5,221 feet / 1,591 m) and most of the route follows a more subtle grade along the Feather River.

In 1931 the branch running east and then north to Bieber, California was completed, along with the north and southeast legs of the wye. This allowed the Western Pacific to diverge from its east-west route (along the west leg of the wye) and go north to Bieber, California, where it interchanged with the Great Northern Railroad (now BNSF Railway) and its traffic from the Pacific Northwest.

External links

[Maps and aerial photos]
* WikiSatellite view at [WikiMapia]
* Street map from [MapQuest] or [Google Local]
* Topographic map from [TopoZone]
* Aerial image or topographic map from [TerraServer-USA]
* Satellite image from [Google Maps] or [Microsoft Virtual Earth]
Higher-resolution satellite imagery from [Yahoo! Maps Beta]
[Western Pacific Pictures - Bieber train waits on the Keddie Wye]

Sources

Historical Guide to North American Railroads 2nd ed., 2000 (Kalmbach Books; Waukesha, WI)

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