Trolley Tuesday 5/18/21 - The Northwestern Pacific Railway

Today, the Northwestern Pacific Railway (NWP) that runs between Sonoma and Marin County is but a shadow of its former glory, originally encompassing almost 300 miles from San Francisco Bay's North Shore and up the Northern California Coast to Eureka and other connecting points north and east. While it is now characterized as a sleepy little ex-Southern Pacific (SP) subsidiary, the railway was once home to one of the most forward-thinking and futuristic electric railway systems ever conceived in America. Featuring unheard-of qualities like third-rail operations and alternating current signal systems, the NWP was a victim of redundancy and soon faded from history to the tune of snorting steam locomotives and growling diesels. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's take a ride on the Redwood Empire Route as we uncover what happened to NWP's interurban lines.

Narrow-Minded Goals

The NPC's Sausalito Ferry Pier in 1890.
(Sausalito Historical Society)

What eventually became the Northwestern Pacific began in 1871 as a narrow-gauge logging railroad from Sausalito to San Rafael, California, via San Anselmo. The North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC) was built on the cheap, hence the "3-foot" gauge being chosen, for timber traffic between Marin County and San Francisco. In 1886, it reached what is now Cazadero. However, timber was not the only service rendered by the NPC, as passenger demand soon led to daily trains connecting to San Francisco proper through ferries in Sausalito and Tiburon, opening up the City by the Bay to North Shore passengers and vice-versa. There was even a tourist destination created for the NPC, as the Mill Valley & Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway established itself in 1896 as "the world's crookedest railway", featuring 281 curves on its 8.5 mile system, 2600 feet up the side of Mount Tamalpais. Unfortunately, by the turn of the century, the NPC fell on hard times and by 1902, it was sold to new owners John Martin and Eugene de Sabla, Jr, founders of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E, the ones usually setting California on fire today).

(Western Railroader, Number 308)

The Great Third Rail on the West Coast

A nine-car train through Sausalito in 1937.
(Mr. Whittaker, Western Railroader No. 178)

Martin and De Sabla, through their riches in the hydroelectric utilities business, saw promise in turning the NPC into a modern electric railroad system. They started by changing the name to the North Shore Railroad (NSR) in 1902 (unrelated to Samuel Insull's North Shore Line in Chicago and Milwaukee) and began designing something faster and more efficient than the contemporary steam locomotives working the line. It was to be a grand high-speed interurban between Sausalito and Point Reyes Station, with the rest of line northbound remaining 3-foot gauge for local freight, but Martin and De Sabla immediately saw issues with the contemporary technology. 

Quadruple rail through San Rafael, with  3-foot tracks
sharing alignments with third-rail standard gauge operations.
(Western Railroader No. 308)

One problem noted were unreliable trolley poles, whose inherent flimsiness meant they could jump off the wire at high speed, while the necessary overhead wire interfered with steam railroad operations and tall freight trains like timber and other loads. The solution was, instead, to bring the electric source closer to the ground via a protected 60lb/yard third rail, with a shoe sticking out of the rolling stock being able to pick up the electricity and drive the motors. This made the NSR the first third-rail electric interurban on the West Coast, before the advent of the Sacramento Northern, and the only one electrified for operational efficiency rather than smoke abatement.

Another problem sighted by Martin and De Sabla was the signals. As the NSR was expected to run at high speeds with high passenger frequency, they could not risk the electric trains interfering with the battery-circuited signals on their 600V direct-current system as the NSR (like most railroads) wired their signals rail-to-rail (the Pacific Electric (PE) in Southern California was a notable exception, wiring their signals wire-to-rail). The solution came from running the signals on alternating current, enabling a complete separation from their electric trains; this technology was later picked up by the New York Subway system in 1904 for their own signalling system. In some parts of the NSR, there were as much as four rails on a single line, with the 3-foot sharing alignments with the standard gauge third-rail electrics, especially at San Rafael's 4th Street Station. The NSR officially opened to the passenger-carrying public on August 16, 1903, and you'd think people would be lining up around the block to ride the fastest, most futuristic railroad in Marin County. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. 

"NWP at San Rafael's 4th St Station, 1910.
Three rails to the left are for narrow-gauge steam and standard-gauge steam and electric.
The fourth rail, being stepped on by brave Conductor Orr, is electrified at 600 volts."
(Mendocino Coast Model Railroad & Historical Society)

Enter E.H. Harriman... Again

Oh no, not him again.
(American-Rails)

Local interurban electrics meet with long-distance
NWP trains at Sausalito Pier, early 1900s.
(Marin Magazine)

At the time the NSR opened in 1903, the population of Marin was only 16,000 residents. Of those 16,000, an average of 10,000 riders rode the NSR based on fare records at the time, and soon Martin and De Sabla had to sell the railroad to make up for their losses. A buyer soon arrived in the form of the infamous Edward Henry Harriman, SP's president at the time who had just finished buying the rival California Northwestern Railroad (CNWR). Harriman, who wanted nothing more than complete control of all rapid transit and heavy rail that he could get his hands on, decided to lash the NSR and the CNWR together by pairing the two railroads at the latter's San Rafael Depot and electrifying East out to Baltimore Park and Manor in 1908. This merging of lines also combined the two's identities, officially becoming the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Interestingly, the NWP was jointly owned by the SP and the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe (ATSF) until 1929, when ATSF sold its ownership to the SP. Harriman remained in control of the NWP until his death in 1908, by which point the interurban was managed by Southern Pacific on his behalf.

The NWP system map as of 1939, two years before closure.
(The Greater Marin)

Names Change, Cars Stay the Same

North Shore Trailer No. 103, later 203, as built, 1902.
(Western Railroader No. 178)

The "Peanut" train approaches the camera inbound to
Sausalito, with the express-baggage trailing at the rear.
(Mendocino Coast Model Railroad & Historical Society)

Despite the numerous name changes, the NWP's electric car roster remained largely unchanged until 1930. The main backbone of the system came from a combination of home-built and St. Louis Car Company open-platform motor and trailer cars originally designed after narrow-gauge Pullman coaches from 1879. The motors were all numbered starting from 300, with the trailer coaches at 200 and the combines at 500. The first cars were built in 1902, with prototypes emerging from the NWP's "North Shore Shops" in Tiburon as mere conversions of narrow gauge cars from the original NPC. More substantial cars were constructed by the St. Louis Car Company in much the same fashion, with open platforms and seats taken out if a motorman compartment was in one of the cars, reducing capacity from 70 seats to 64. The baggage combination cars handled baggage, mail, and newspapers for and from San Francisco-bound ferries, and sported vestibuled ends that set them apart from the open-platform cars. Along the NWP from Sausalito to San Rafael, a popular train run by baggage motor No. 370 was known as the "Peanut Train", due to its shrill whistle announcing delivery of newspapers from San Francisco to Marin readers.

"Electra" in San Francisco during the 1906 Earthquake cleanup.
(Unknown Author)

The one electric locomotive rostered by the Northwestern Pacific was a little shop-built steeplecab that was popularly known as "Electra". Originally built in 1902 by NSR's Tiburon Shops, the locomotive was constructed out of two steam switcher tenders for its front end, a custom steel cab, and motors built by the Tiburon shops themselves. The locomotive drew an impressive 500 horsepower (an enormous amount for its day) and weighed a dinky 50 tons, but little "Electra" was quite special on the NSR. It's been popularly said that, when the locomotive ran, the primitive electric motors drew so much power from all the power houses at Alto, San Rafael, Sausalito and Mill Valley that the system "browned out" with significantly-reduced electrical pickup across the other trains. This meant "Electra" could only operate at night or at early mornings, when traffic was at its lightest. 

PE No. 1544, ex-NSR "Electra", under new ownership.
(Donald Duke, PERYHS)

In 1906, she was sent by car ferry across the San Francisco Bay to assist with rebuilding the city, earning itself an electric trolley pole to run on the Market Street Railway's streetcar tracks. This proved to be the last time Electra ran on the NSR, as shortly after she was purchased by the Central Pacific Railroad (by then, an SP holding company running the East Bay Electric) and sat unused until 1917. After that, she was purchased by another SP company, the Pacific Electric, where she worked on construction projects before retiring as the Torrance shop switcher in 1953. 

A handsome photo of NWP electric multiple unit No. 382 on the Mill Valley Line. This car later
became Pacific Electric "Hot Rod" No. 4507, then PE/MCL/LAMTA No. 306.
(Frances Wainwright)

A 3-car train of NWP EMUs (they never had nicknames)
at Baltimore Park, 1938.
(John Harder, KeyRailPix)

Between 1929 and 1930, the last NWP electric were finally delivered to Marin County. These were another St. Louis Car Company product, and represented a last hurrah for the futuristic, high-speed system that NSR's founders originally wanted. They were patterned after the East Bay Electric's "Oakland-Alameda-Berkeley" (OA&B) cars, with round owl-eyes and immense 72-foot lengths, but only differed in electrical pickup and body construction. Unlike the OA&B cars, Motors No. 375-386 and Trailers 250-256 were built with much faster Westinghouse motors and control stands compared to the older GE equipment on the OA&B and the body was a mix of steel frames and lightweight aluminum panels, giving them a top speed of 50 miles per hour and seating capacity for 80 people. On the NWP, these cars were painted a rakish orange with black roofs and ran on both the mainline and the Mill Valley branches. After only 11 years of working on the NWP, all of these cars were later sold to the Pacific Electric during World War II.

An Opened Gate Closes Business

An NWP electric train runs alongside a Southern Pacific... "pacific" in Marin on ferry train, mid-1930s.
(Codoni Collection, Marin Magazine)

Sausalito Pier following the end of interurban operations
in Spring 1941, from the terminal tower.
(Ken Kidder, Western Railroader No. 178)

By 1930, the same year as the NWP's new steel interurban cars, the population of Marin County had barely risen to 41,000 people. Also damning was the fact that most Marin County residents had automobiles at that point, considerably undercutting the NWP at every turn. Even worse was the big brush fire of 1929 that destroyed much of Mill Valley, causing both the destruction of the Mill Valley substation and the abandoning of the Mount Tamalpais Railroad. Despite the presence of giant interurban cars, traffic was significantly reduced and many of these cars went not even half-full to the ferry piers in Sausalito and Tiburon. 

The Golden Gate Bridge on opening day, 1937.
(Mental Floss)

The NWP purchased the infamous Petaluma & Santa Rosa Electric Railroad in 1932, the same one involved in the Battle of Sebastopol Road, but trolley service on this line ended in July of that year and NWP instead extended steam freight to local customers. Due to the loss in traffic, the NWP raised fares in 1934, to significantly unpopular response. The final death-knell, for both the interurbans and the ferries, came in 1937 when the Golden Gate Bridge opened between San Francisco and Marin County, rendering the NWP ferries redundant. SP filed a motion to abandon the electric passenger operations soon after and, after limping along for three years, the NWP's interurban operations officially closed on February 28, 1941.

Surviving Remnants

The NWP today at Petaluma, 2011.
(Ron Close)

PE No. 314 (ex-NWP No. 384) working in Red Car livery.
(Southern California Railway Museum)

Today, the Northwestern Pacific is a whole other beast entirely, operating as a subsidiary of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) handling local freight between Windsor and Schellville as NWP and local commuter trains for SMART. As for the electrics, not much survives today, with only three surviving pieces of electric rolling stock to speak of. Pacific Electric No. 314 (originally NWP No. 384) is the largest survivor and is currently preserved at the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, CA. Due to its relatively lightweight construction and faster, more powerful Westinghouse motors, these class of cars were known as "Hot Rods" by PE shop crews. No. 314 is currently stored in Carhouse 7, able to run but awaiting significant cosmetic restoration inside and out. 

PE No. 1544 as it sits, in front of an ex-OA&B/PE Blimp No. 1543.
(Joseph C.)

The ferryboat "Eureka" at Hyde Street Pier, also the
only walking-beam ferryboat still afloat in America.
(SanFranMan59)

Little "Electra" has found a home at Traveltown in Burbank, CA, after being donated by PE in 1952 following its retirement from being a shop switcher as PE No. 1544. The last surviving car is NWP No. 201, the only surviving original interurban car from 1902 built by the St. Louis Car Company. This car is currently owned and being cared for by the Petaluma Trolley of Petaluma, CA, and stored in Sebastopol. Another surviving piece of the original NWP, the ferry boat "Eureka", is floating on display on Hyde Street Pier as the only NWP ferry boat to survive. As for the original North Pacific Coast steam railroad, its only surviving locomotive is North Pacific Coast No. 12, named "Sonoma", at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

North Pacific Coast No. 12, "Sonoma", on display in Sacramento.
(Myself)

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included the Mendocino Coast Model Railroad & Historical Society, the Traveltown Museum, the Southern California Railway Museum, and the respective photo credits. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Thursday, we crack open a bottle of wine as we look at the long-unheard history of the San Francisco & Napa Valley Railway! For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!