Sacramento Northern Railway

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The Sacramento Northern Railway began as an electric interurban railway system in the U.S. state of California, operating under that name between 1918 and 1983. It was a subsidiary of the Western Pacific Railroad from 1921. Passenger service ceased in 1941 and the system operated as a shortline freight-hauling railroad thereafter.

The Sacramento Northern Railway was created out of two different systems; one, the "North End", stretched north of Sacramento through the agricultural Sacramento Valley to Chico and was originally the Northern Electric Railway. This portion reformed as the Sacramento Northern in 1918. The "South End" linked Oakland with Sacramento, and was merged into the Sacramento Northern in 1928. It was formerly known as the San Francisco–Sacramento Railroad, and before that the Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Railway. The merged portions used different electrical standards, and only some cars could traverse the entire route.

The line was one of the longest interurban runs in the nation, and was built and operated to very high standards. As with most interurban systems, passenger service became increasingly unprofitable, even after the cars entered San Francisco itself via the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge from 1939. Freight service was increasingly the lifeblood of the railroad, keeping it in service long after passenger service ceased.

History

The first portion to be known as the Sacramento Northern Railway was the Northern Division or "North End", created from the Northern Electric Railway in 1918; this portion linked the state capitol of Sacramento with the towns of the agricultural Sacramento Valley, stretching as far as Chico. In 1921, it was purchased by the Western Pacific Railroad and operated thereafter as its subsidiary.

In 1928, the San Francisco-Sacramento Railroad (formerly the Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Railway, and originally the Oakland and Antioch Railway) was added as the Sacramento Northern's Southern Division or "South End".

The combined high-speed main line stretched for 185 miles between San Francisco and Chico. At the southern end, the railway shared the facilities of the Key System; at first, the Key Pier facility in Oakland, and then the crossing of the Bay Bridge into San Francisco's Transbay Terminal from 1939 after the bridge's construction.

The railway's fortunes were struck a heavy blow by the Great Depression and the rise of the automobile. Interurban passenger service was ended in 1941, while streetcar service in Chico continued until 1947.

Freight service continued and was heavy during the years of World War II. In 1944, the railroad received its first diesel locomotives, which began the process of de-electrification. All electric operation ceased in 1965, after which the railway operated as a minor freight subsidiary of the Western Pacific. Much trackage was abandoned over the years, especially that which duplicated routes on other railroads. The Sacramento Northern ceased to exist with the WP's acquisition by the Union Pacific in 1983.

Route

Oakland—Sacramento

The terminus of the railroad's right of way in Oakland was a compact yard on the corner of 40th Street and Shafter Avenue. The main line ran north up narrow Shafter in a residential area. At the end of Shafter, the tracks started a long, climbing curve up into the Berkeley Hills in the Rockridge district of Oakland. It then skirted Lake Temescal on its eastern shore and ran southeast through the Montclair district of Oakland. At Shepherd Canyon, the line made another climbing curve east and up the canyon. At a spot directly below Saroni Drive, the tracks entered a tunnel through the Berkeley Hills. The tracks exited the tunnel in Redwood Canyon and immediately made a sharp turn south to run down the canyon. The line then turned east again and ran through Moraga, past St. Mary's, and thence northeasterly through the valley past Walnut Creek and continuing to a ferry landing on Suisun Bay. There, a ferry boat, the Ramon, carried the entire train across to a landing near Suisun. The line then proceeded across an extensive marshland on a long trestle. After the trestle, the tracks continued to Sacramento, entering the city by way of the "M" Street Bridge (1911), and later by way of it's replacement (1935), the Tower Bridge, which is still in use.

Although the Oakland Yard of the Sacramento Northern was the end of the railroad's right-of-way, its trains continued on to the Key System's ferry pier, and later, over the Bay Bridge to San Francisco's Transbay Terminal, connecting by way of the Key's tracks on 40th Street. This service ended with the railroad's passenger service in 1941, but freight interchange with the Key System continued until that system's demise.

Service from Oakland to Lafayette ceased on March 1, 1957 and the tracks were removed and the tunnel sealed. The following year, service only extended from Sacramento to Walnut Creek. The Ferry "Ramon" was removed from service in 1954, thus creating a divide between Mallard and Chipps Island. To overcome this limitation, SN, through parent Western Pacific, obtained trackage rights on the Santa Fe Railway from Stockton to Pittsburg, where the SN would then enter its own tracks. When Union Pacific took over operations, they obtained further trackage rights on the Santa Fe which extended to Port Chicago, where SN had a small yard. Thus, the trackage in Pittsburg was removed in the early 1990's.

Sacramento—Chico

Technical information

Electrification

Because of merger and interconnection with the Key System, Sacramento Northern cars had to operate under a number of different electrical standards. The North End was electrified exclusively at 600 Volts DC, which was the standard trolley and interurban voltage. Trolley wire and trolley poles were used only in urban areas; in the open country, the line used a solid, top-contact third rail. Cars built originally for the North End could not operate south of Sacramento. The South End was electrified largely at 1,200 Volts until 1936, after which it operated at 1,500 Volts, with areas of 600 Volts in Oakland and Sacramento.

The cars had to use a pantograph rather than the trolley pole on Key System rails (electrified at 600 Volts) and over the Bay Bridge (electrified at 1,300 Volts for the Southern Pacific); the Key System used a bottom-contact third rail over the bridge. Because of the Key System's third rail, cars that could traverse the whole system had to have their third rail shoes removed, since the top-contact shoes would have fouled the Key System rail. They were normally added or removed in Sacramento. Such all-line cars were switchable between 600 V and 1,200 V operation; they could also operate at half speed at the 1,200 V setting on 600 V overhead.

The railway's high quality electrification used catenary rather than trolley wire over most of the road, leading to the eventual almost total use of pantographs rather than trolley poles over the whole road.

Suisun Bay crossing

Planned bridge

The Oakland, Antioch and Eastern needed to cross Suisun Bay, and chose to do so between West Pittsburg and Chipps Island, a gap of 2,600 feet (790 m). A bridge was originally planned, but the bay saw heavy shipping traffic and thus a high-level draw bridge with long approaches was required. Construction began on the bridge in 1912; the estimated price tag was $1.5 million and construction time was estimated as two and a half years. This would have delayed the opening of the railway, and so an alternative plan of a ferry service was implemented as a temporary measure. Construction of the bridge stopped in May 1913 after construction of the pier on the Contra Costa County side, because of a shortage of funds. The railway, not meeting revenue expectations, never did restart construction, and the "temporary" ferry service became permanent.

Car ferry service

Thus, the railway became one of only two interurbans to operate a car ferry, and was the longer and more ambitious of the two. The first ferry constructed, the 186-foot (57 m) Bridgit (a pun on "Bridge It") was constructed of wood in San Francisco and launched in July 1913. The Bridgit, however, was destroyed by fire on May 17, 1914.

After unsuccessful experiments with an unpowered barge, the railroad rented car floats from other railroads in the area and commissioned a new, steel ferry from the Lanteri Shipyard in nearby Pittsburg. The new vessel, the Ramon, was constructed entirely from flat steel plate to save time, and had no curved surfaces on its hull. It was a double-ended design with a central, raised bridge in the typical carfloat style. Power was by a 600 horsepower distillate engine, one of the largest ever constructed, which was rather insufficient to counteract high winds and currents in the bay.

Three tracks were installed on the deck, all long enough to carry three passenger cars or five freight cars. All three could not be used at the same time; the central track overlapped the other two, and either the single central track or the two outside tracks could be used, depending on load. All tracks were equipped with powered trolley wire.

The Ramon was retired in 1954 after a Coast Guard inspection determined that the hull plating was no longer in a safe condition, and it was scrapped locally.

Today

Some of the Sacramento Northern'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 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. A number of Sacramento Northern cars and locomotives survive, some at the Western Railway Museum, and others at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California

Notes