WESTERN PACIFIC :N[f~p.~Sfs SACRAMENTO NORTHERN'S 50th ANNIVERSARY Vol. VII , No.3 Clepartment of Public Relations WESTERN PACIFIC RAILROAD SACRAMENTO NORTHERN RAILWAY TIDEWATER SOUTHERN RAILWAY 52b Mission Street, San Francisco 5 Lee "Flash" Sherwood, Editor Arthur Lloyd, Jr., Associate Editor Member A:merican Railway lJlagazine Editors) AS80oiu/1on International Oouncil 0/ Industr'ial Edit01"S Northern Oalifornia Industrial Editors' Association * Milepost No. 75: Passing th rough some of California's great produco regions. Nearby is Cochran Co., Inc ., vegetable packers. President Lindsey W. Cochran is one of W p iS directors. IFTY years ago this month at Oro­ on August 17, 1889, and crossed the F ville, Henry A. Butters gave the Feather River between those two cities signal to throw aside the first via an old covered bridge. However, the COVER CONTENTS shovelful of earth to begin construc­ rightful birthplace of the Sacramento tion of a new electric interurban line to North ern can be said to be Chico. Woodland station as it looked soon after com­ PAGE pletion of the Sacramento & Woodland Railroad. Chico. The Northern Electric, as it was It was the Diamond Match Company's Happy Birthday, II 'I"arn ento Service began July 4, 1912, on this separate com .. to be named, was to become the long­ Chico Electric Railway, which had pany and branch line of the Northern Electric. Northern 3 est third- rail interurban line in the been incorporated August 12, 1904, that ' WF,STEfl.N PACIFIC United States and, later, part of the inspired Butters to found the Northern i.:MilepoSls WP Will R rn 'rnb ' I" 19 Sacramento Northern and the Western Electric. The Chico Electric operated Pacific System. on what is now 9th Street and then up­ A. A. KI"<.11 III Rclil·cs. ..... 20 Butters had built the first rail line in town via Main Street. It was used pri­ South Africa in 1892 and ten years later marily to transport Diamond Match Tl"u 'k PI'o bl 111 AllSW 'I" -d ... 22 sold his interests there and promoted Company's employees to and from a railroad in Mexico. It was the profits work. Butters needed these trackage In MC11101"il1111 23 from this Mexican venture which fur­ rights in order to enter the City of nished the initial capital for the new Chico, and on March 10, 1906, he Mileposts in old ............................ 24 Northern Electric. bought 250 acres adjacent to its car­ Some of the companies wh ich be­ barns for use as shops and yards. abo sing 26 came a part of the new electric railway It is interesting to note that the Dia­ dated back much further. The oldest mond Match Company was owned by H:lill"Oad Lin s 36 of these was the Marysville & Yuba the Gould interests, who were then City Street Railroad Company, a pushing construction of the Western mule-drawn operation which began Pacific. 2 MILEPOSTS OCTOBER, 1955 3 S CHEDUL E ROLLING STOCK NORTHERN ,~~LECTRIC EQUIPMENT NORTHERN ELECTRIC RAILWAY CO. RAILWAY FREIGH T EQUIP,... ENT !50 BALL AST 3 W R ECKI N G. 2 S T EA M L OCO M O T IVES !5 ELECTRIC LOCO ,... OTlVES 2 S TEAM S H OVELS ",""0 P I LE DRIVERS \ 29 P ASSEN G ER . CO M BI N ATION BA C: ­ I •• ; • G A GE. S M OKING A N D E XPRESS <."~ II S TREET C A RS 2 1</1 19CELLAN EOUS i- -~- T he Northern Electri c Railway I;J . Ham;" Own> private right _ol_way the whole lenglh 01 th e Sacramento Valley. b C$id ~ Ihe very valuable franchises for shed railways in th e citi.,.. and lowns through which il I ( 'n,e Northern E leclric Hail way Covers II wooderl,,1 field An em pire in e xt ~ll t I~N Endowoo will, all th e natural resource, luan requires LOJlQ~, d .. 'C • , R ich 5Oil. perfecl clirnale I Water, T imber. Minerals 1 ;:.,-"'" s-~ V il1 ;oges. towns.eili"" A mule-drawn " horse.. carll soon after completion of the Marysville & Yuba City line. Year, 1889. T he .oad is alto to be built 1--------:-::= . ~ To Rffl Btull and Rfflding Colusa. Woodland and fairoah (' MQ ' ~ ' " Plans for a gala celebration of the the Chico-Oroville line, relations be­ Thus giving ~ r vice to tho ~ e G rowillg c"",le. ~ of acti .. ity formal opening of the Oroville-Chico tween the new Northern Electric and And the country surrounding Ih ~1ll With thc varied productioos line were somewhat dampened by the Western Pacific were often strained O f lalm, mine and limbe. land San Francisco fire and earthquake of and Butters even held up his Marys­ The bon.d . a .., in denominations April 18, 1906, an event that cast a ville franchise application until he O f $ 100. $500 and $ 1000 shadow over all California electric could ascertain the exact location of T o rull 3 years A t 7 <fo inte.est pel ~nnum railway projects at the time. However, the Western Pacific depot there. P ayable twice a year the N@rthern Electric did formally in­ The California Midland was to have IntCfcsl Coupons auached augurate regular passenger service be­ been a 1200-volt third- rail line to Au­ The First Subscriber tween Chico and Oroville on April 25, burn and Nevada City. John Martin, M., Jas. C. Gray. Treasurer of the Ophir 1906, and the days of the horse-drawn its promoter , had been responsible for H ardwa,..., C.., mpany 01 Orovill e. was the lin! subscriber to Ihe de!x:n lur", bonds 01 th e coach were over. the first third -rail electric railroad in Northern Elecl.ic Railway Company. H e While construction of the Chico­ writes: e,.s;s .... e California, the electrified suburban " I h,. .. ", '",·estoo $ 15.000 in the first issu", N~""" " Cl H " ' ~ L. ......n 0 e", ····on of No,th""n Elec tric Bond •• and no ..... send :::,.!!.~s, ••oL."~ & ""d ~!.';.:".!< ::!.::'" Oroville line was taking place, North­ North Shor e Railroad (now North­ :>., . 'n""""'S· ' ·9C9·L. ". ~ $5,000 lor Ih", pr=1 issue. e9'~." o"d ~. "" L." •• . n or.. .." ·· ... ern Electric had been seeking a fran­ western Pacific) . It was generally " I am only SOIry lh,,1 I "Ill nol able tn £~.~s."..:..o_ ':::'.:!'.!!'.!!~!'!: !.. E:.·.1!..<..!"!'2-_ _ ___ _ in vest more. e ... ... co~ ... , \I, R Q L .... ~ .... Op.'."·" chise through Marysville. At that time thought that Butters and Martin were "11.", Northern Eleclric Compa ny and its the Western Pacific and a project called working together, but on January 18, mll.n"&,,,men t hav", my full sympathy and ~ , ... '"."- 1IIIliiilfitlmiilii ~ coofiden c'" snd [ wi sh them all sucee"" in the California Midland were both 1906, much surprise was created when Iheir gTeal underlaking:' ~:'{;:i;fu E5 iiliii seeking an entrance into -Marysville Butters objected to Martin's applica­ also. Although the carrying of Western tion for a franchise on "E" Street in The prospectus for stockholders in the No rthern Electric Railway, issued in 1907 soon after com­ Pacific construction workers accounted Marysville for the California Midland. pletion of the line to Sacramento, contained this page. Th e Colusa Branch was still in the planning for most of the passenger traffic over By February 23, Butters and Martin slage. A proposed line from Chico 10 Red Bluff, shown al lop of map, was never built. 4 MILEPOSTS OCTOBER, I955 5 agreed to a franchise by which the ice on December 3, 1906, led to its gen­ Northern Electric and California Mid­ eral adoption, so that three years later land were to share trackage in Marys­ the overhead trolley on the original ville. However, the 1906 San Francisco line between Thermalito and Speed catastrophe ended all hopes for the was changed to third-rail. As a result, California Midland, but construction the entire section gang along the af­ was continued at a slow pace on the fected line resigned en masse. Northern Electric. The center of street railway opera­ Northern Electric's Vice-President tions in Chico was shifted from the E. S. Dimmock and Frank Ross, its Diamond Match Company's plant to superintendent, did not get along too Mulberry in 1906. Power was pur­ well together. On June 11, 1905, Dim­ chased from the Pacific Gas & Electric mock was hurt in the second of two Company, rather than from the Great wrecks on the Northern Electric at Western Power Company's power Durham which may have led to some house on the Feather River east of changes in management which took Oroville, which led to rumors in 1906 place July 11, 1906. A. D. Schindler, that the then-building Western Pacific No . 1369, an old 4-4-0, about to be unloaded on the levee at Meridian, was one of two steam who came from the Pacific Electric, was also to be electrified. engine,s purchased by the Northern Electric from' the Southern Pacific Company for freight service. was made general manager and Dim­ On December 18, 1906, the Northern mock became general superintendent. Electric was enjoined from laying This early combination express and freight motor was in later years shortened and heavier motors Frank Ross became a special repre­ tracks in Marysville by the Western installed for freight service only. It was last used in switching service at Oroville as SN No. 410. sentative at Sacramento and played a Pacific, whose tracks had just reached leading part in obtaining for the North­ that point. Northern Electric had laid ern Electric the franchises which it de­ its rails in Marysville despite the WP sired but which were opposed by vari­ and began to grade its line between ous influential Sacramento forces.