more at http://travel.quickfound.net "The longest and heaviest train ever taken "over the hill" in one block.' A 117-car Northwestern Pacific Railroad train, the "Redwood Empire Special", hauls 3,000,000 board feet (9,175 tons) of California redwood lumber from Sacramento over the Sierra Nevada mountains eastward. California Governor James "Sunny Jim" Rolph, former mayor of San Francisco, sees the train off. Public domain film from the Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The film was silent. I have added music created by myself using the Reaper Digital Audio Workstation and the Independence and Proteus VX VST instrument plugins. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern_Pacific_Railroad The Northwestern Pacific Railroad (reporting mark NWP) is a regional railroad that serves the North Coast of California. Its main line is 271 miles (436 km) long and runs between Schellville and Eureka. There are portions of the line still intact from the Ignacio Wye to the edge of San Rafael. Currently only the 62 mi (100 km) stretch between Schellville and Windsor is in operation. The portion of the NWP main line between the Ignacio Wye in Marin County and the depot in Healdsburg is owned by Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART), a proposed commuter railroad. The Schellville--Ignacio and Healdsburg--Eureka portions are owned by the North Coast Railroad Authority. The NWP's current locomotive roster includes an ex-Burlington Northern GP9, numbered NWP 1922, leased from Bruggere and Monson (BUGX), and a Tier-3 hybrid "Genset" locomotive, numbered NWP 2009 and purchased from Railpower Technologies. The BUGX 1322, a former AT&SF; GP7 #2699, built in 1952 and leased from BUGX, is used as a reserve unit. The NWP was started in the late 1800s as a combined enterprise between the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads, who both realized only one railroad would be profitable in the Eel River canyon. The two railroads bought and combined 43 different railroads to create the Northwestern Pacific and achieve a single railroad by 1914. Gauges ranged from 3 foot to standard, and even included an early wooden steam monorail in Sonoma, California. In 1936, the Santa Fe sold its interests to the SP, which assumed full control. Beginning in 1990, public interests began snatching up bits and pieces of the "Southern End," or from Willits, California to Schellville, California. The North Coast Railroad Authority was born by government action in the late 1980s to save the NWP from abandonment. The SP officially sold the last of the entire line in 1995, the same year all operations ended north of Willits. In 1996 the "reborn" NWP began operations, but poor management, lack of sufficient motive power and high costs led the line to fall apart. In 1999, the Federal Railroad Administration gave an emergency order that closed the line. In July 2011, the Federal Railroad Administration emergency order was lifted, allowing freight trains to resume service... History In the late 1800s both the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Santa Fe Railroad had great interests in building lines north from San Francisco to Humboldt County to tap into the rich logging industry up there. Both railroads planned on building a line north, the Santa Fe starting with a boat connection in present-day Larkspur, California, and the Southern Pacific, starting at its interchange in American Canyon, up north through Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties to finally terminate in Eureka, California. It soon became clear though as plans went forward that only one railroad would make money in the Eel River Caynon, and so the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe entered into a joint agreement, and in 1906 merged a total of 42 railroad companies between Marin and Humboldt Bay, to make one railroad line stretching from Schellville, California, to Eureka. Construction was finally completed through the unstable Eel River canyon by October 1914 when a Golden Spike ceremony and celebration was held to mark the accomplishment... The railroad service became popular; a 1911 NWP time-table shows 10 passenger trains each way, plus dozens of freights. In 1929 the AT&SF; sold its half-interest to the Southern Pacific, making the NWP a full SP subsidiary... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rolph James "Sunny Jim" Rolph, Jr. (August 23, 1869 -- June 2, 1934) was an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was elected to a single term as the 27th governor of California from January 6, 1931 until his death on June 2, 1934 at the height of the Great Depression. Previously, Rolph had been the 30th mayor of San Francisco from January 8, 1912 until his resignation to become governor. Rolph remains the longest serving mayor in San Francisco history...

• published: 18 Oct 2013
• views: 88