San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad

San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad (SF&NP) provided the first extensive standard gauge rail service to Sonoma County and became the southern end of the regional Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Although first conceived of by Asbury Harpending, who had even obtained many of the right of ways, the SF & NP was bought and subsequently constructed by Peter Donahue, who drove the first spike on August 30, 1869.[1]

San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad
San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad Station House-Depot, Tiburon, California
(on the National Register of Historic Places as the Peter Donahue Building)
Overview
LocaleNorthern California, USA
Dates of operation1869–1907
SuccessorNorthwestern Pacific Railroad
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
San Francisco and North Pacific Railway, 1893
San Francisco &
North Pacific RR
 Ukiah (1889)
 Robinson Creek
 Hopland
 Feliz Creek
 Tunnel 9
 Tunnel 8 Squaw Rock
 Commiskey Creek
 Tunnel 7
 Tunnel 6
 Tunnel 5
 Cloverdale (1872)
 Asti
 Geyserville
 Healdsburg
 Guerneville (1877)
 Russian River
 Windsor
 Mark West Creek
 Fulton
 Santa Rosa (1870)
 Santa Rosa Creek
 Sebastopol (1890)
 Page's
 Penn's Grove
 Petaluma River
 Petaluma River
 Petaluma (1869)
 Donahue Landing
 Petaluma River
 Novato
 Novato Creek
 Ignacio
 Gallinas Creek
 Puerto Suello Hill Tunnel
 San Rafael (1879)
 San Rafael Creek
 Cal Park Hill Tunnel
 Tiburon (1884)
 San Francisco Bay

Sonoma County's first standard-gauge railroad, operated by the Sonoma County Railroad Company, was the 1-mile (1.6-km) Petaluma and Haystack Railroad connecting the city of Petaluma with ferry service to San Francisco from Haystack Landing on the Petaluma River in 1864. Petaluma and Haystack coaches were pulled by horses after the locomotive exploded on 27 August 1866.[2]

SF&NP began construction from Petaluma northward in 1869, but inability to make satisfactory arrangements with the City of Petaluma caused the railroad to establish a new southern ferry terminus on the Petaluma River at Donahue Landing. Service was extended north to Santa Rosa in 1870, and Cloverdale in 1872. The Fulton and Guerneville Railroad was formed in 1874 to build a SF&NP branch from Fulton to Guerneville on the Russian River. The branch was completed in 1877.[3]

In 1879, the SF&NP was extended south through Petaluma to San Rafael in Marin County. The San Francisco and San Rafael Railroad was formed in 1882 to extend the SF&NP south another 3 miles (5 km) to a new ferry landing in Tiburon. SF&NP ferry terminal facilities were moved to Tiburon in 1884; and Donahue Landing faded into the rural countryside.[4]

The Cloverdale and Ukiah Railroad was formed in 1886 to extend the SF&NP north to Ukiah in Mendocino County. Service began to Ukiah in 1889. The Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Green Valley Railroad was formed in 1889 to build a SF&NP branch from Santa Rosa to Sebastopol. The branch was completed in 1890.[5]

The California Northwestern Railway Company was formed in 1898 as part of Southern Pacific Railroad ambitions to reach the redwood lumber mills around Humboldt Bay. SF&NP struggled through the panic of 1893, and was leased by the California Northwestern in 1898. California Northwestern oversaw eastward connections to the Southern Pacific Railroad and northward extension to Willits before merger into the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1907.[6]

An abandoned section of the original SF&NP right-of-way from Petaluma to Donahue Landing as seen in 2019

Locomotives
Number Name Builder .Type. Date Works number Notes[7]
1 Little Josie Norris Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1862 1009 ex-San Francisco and San Jose Railroad #2 San Jose became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #4
2 J.G.Downey Booth 4-4-0 1870 14 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #6
3 W.J.Ralston Booth 4-4-0 1870 15 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #7
4 Geyser Booth 4-4-0 1873 16 scrapped 1904
5 Santa Rosa Booth 4-4-0 1873 17 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #5
6 Cloverdale Grant Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1878 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #11
7 Petaluma Grant Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1878 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #12
8 San Rafael Baldwin Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1881 5485 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #8
9 Marin Grant Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1883 1664 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #9
10 Healdsburg Grant Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1883 1665 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #10
11 Ukiah Booth 4-4-0 1874 30 scrapped 1907
12 Peter Donahue Rogers Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1884 3305 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #19
13 Tom Rogers Rogers Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1884 3306 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #20
14 Tiburon Grant Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1888 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #14
15 Eureka Grant Locomotive Works 4-6-0 1888 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #102
16 Vichy Rogers Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1889 4154 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #18
17 Lytton Rogers Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1889 4155 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #17
18 Skaggs Rogers Locomotive Works 4-6-0 1889 4212 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #101
19 Baldwin Locomotive Works 4-6-0 1900 17759 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #110
20 Richmond Locomotive Works 4-6-0 1901 3304 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #103
21 American Locomotive Company 4-6-0 1902 25620 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #105
22 Baldwin Locomotive Works 4-6-0 1904 23933 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #107
23 Baldwin Locomotive Works 4-6-0 1904 23951 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #108
24 Baldwin Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1904 24035 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #21
25 American Locomotive Company 4-6-0 1902 25621 became Northwestern Pacific Railroad #106

Sources
  1. Dillon, Richard H. (1984). Iron Men: California's Industrial Pioneers: Peter, James and Michael Donahue. Candela Press. p. 217.
  2. Kneiss, Gilbert H. (1956). Redwood Railways. Berkeley, California: Howell-North. p. 142.
  3. Stindt, Fred A. (1978). The Northwestern Pacific Railroad Redwood Empire Route (Third ed.). Redwood City, California: Fred A. Stindt. pp. 11–13.
  4. Stindt, Fred A. (1978). The Northwestern Pacific Railroad Redwood Empire Route (Third ed.). Redwood City, California: Fred A. Stindt. pp. 14&15.
  5. Stindt, Fred A. (1978). The Northwestern Pacific Railroad Redwood Empire Route (Third ed.). Redwood City, California: Fred A. Stindt. p. 15.
  6. Stindt, Fred A. (1978). The Northwestern Pacific Railroad Redwood Empire Route (Third ed.). Redwood City, California: Fred A. Stindt. pp. 16&36.
  7. Stindt, Fred A. (1978). The Northwestern Pacific Railroad Redwood Empire Route (Third ed.). Redwood City, California: Fred A. Stindt. pp. 126–145.
  • Stindt, Fred A. (1974). Trains to the Russian River. Railway & Locomotive Historical Society.
  • Stindt, Fred A. (1985). The Northwestern Pacific Railroad Volume Two. Kelseyville, California: Fred A. Stindt. ISBN 0-9615465-0-6.
  • Draper, Prudence and Lloyd (2004). Images of America: Cotati. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-2873-0.
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