California Northern Railroad
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| California Northern Railroad | |
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| Reporting mark | CFNR |
| Locale | Northern California |
| Dates of operation | 1993– |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 81⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | American Canyon, California |
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| California Northern Railroad (Tehama-Davis) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| California Northern Railroad (Tracy - Los Banos) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The California Northern Railroad (reporting mark CFNR) is one of several Class III short-line railroad companies owned by RailAmerica, Inc. It operates over Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) tracks (now Union Pacific Railroad) under a long-term lease.
The CFNR was originally owned by the Park-Sierra Rail Group (owner David L. Parkinson of St. Helena, CA), who also owned the Arizona and California Railroad. The CFNR was later sold to RailAmerica.
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[edit] Lines Operated
[edit] SP & Old NWP (Suisun/Fairfield - Willits)
[edit] Current Suisun/Fairfield - Schellville
Presently, the CFNR only operates between Suisun/Fairfield to a connection with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at Schellville, California. The CFNR also operates into Vallejo, California over the original California Pacific Railroad mainline that was constructed in 1867/1868. Mare Island Navel Base, in Vallejo, is also coming back alive to the CFNR with lumber, scrap metal, rock, and boating material being shipped in and out, though this ceased a few years back. The line is being updated to a facility on the former navy base where a contract to service the fleet of Capitol Corridor rail cars will soon put activity on the Mare Island branch again.
The CFNR operates over the Union Pacific with trackage rights between Suisun/Fairfield and Davis with thru CFNR trains nightly.
[edit] 1993 Operation between Schellville - Willits
Originally, in 1993 the CFNR operated much further than Schellville and their operation extended as far north as Willits, California. At Willits the CFNR interchanged with the North Coast Railroad. The North Coast Railroad ran from Willits - Eureka, California over the old NWP.
The CFNR also interchanged with the California Western Railroad at Willits. The California Western Railroad ran west from Willits to Fort Bragg, California.
[edit] SP's West Valley Line (Davis - Tehama)
The CFNR currently operates over SP's former West Valley Line. This line between Woodland and Tehema was constructed by Central Pacific's subsidiary, the Northern Railway. The track between Davis and Woodland was built by the California Pacific Railroad and at one time extended as far north as Yuba City/Marysville via Knight's Landing.
The California Pacific and Northern Railway/Central Pacific came under the operational control of Southern Pacific between 1885-1888.
[edit] Construction Completion Timeline
- September 23, 1869 Davis - Woodland - Knight's Landing (California Pacific Railroad)
- July 1, 1876 Woodland - Williams (Northern Ry/Central Pacific)
- December 28, 1879 Williams - Willows (Northern Ry/Central Pacific)
- July 31, 1882 Willows - Orland (Northern Ry/Central Pacific)
- September 27, 1882 Orland - Tehama (Northern Ry/Central Pacific)
- July 1, 1888 Willows - Fruto [3] (West Side and Mendocino Railroad/Northern Ry) Branch currently ends at Johns-Manville Fiberglass Plant west of Willows
In 2009, CFNR fixed/replaced the Thomes Creek Bridge in Richfield (North of Corning, CA) for a connection in Tehama, CA with the Union Pacific (UP). Future plans in 2010 are to replace the track at Tehama Wye leading to Union Pacific Valley Subdivision to interchange with the Redding Turn (Redding - Roseville) and the Redding Local. Currently UP uses the last 2 miles of the West Valley Subdivision leading to the Tehama Wye on the North end as a 200 cars parking lot of reefer cars. The ex-SP Hamilton City Branch is used as a Grain and Centerbeam parking lot for UP and BNSF Rairoads, CFNR gets a stiff check for storing the cars monthly.
[edit] SP's West Side Line (Tracy - Los Banos)
This mainline route was formerly known as Southern Pacific's "West Side Line" and at one time extended from Tracy, California and then south through the West side of the San Joaquin Valley (I-5 corridor) via Patterson, Gustine, Newman, Los Banos, Oxalis and then east to Fresno via Ingle and Kerman. California Northern Railroad now operates the northern section of the line from Tracy - Los Banos. SJVR operates the southern section of the line from Oxalis to Fresno and was at one time owned by Port Railroads, Inc. (PRI; also a Kyle subsidiary) and operated by the SJVR. On 1996 April 24 the PRI was merged into the SJVR. Both the PRI and SJVR were already Kyle Railway subsidiaries. The section of track between Los Banos and Oxalis was abandoned by Southern Pacific in 1993 and the tracks were removed soon after. The Southern Pacific constructed the track from Tracy to Newman (37 miles) and from Los Banos to Armona (near Fresno) in 1891. Southern Pacific's overnight Owl passenger train (#57/58) operated over this line between San Francisco and Los Angeles into the 1960s.
[edit] CFNR Interchanges
- Davis, California
- Suisun City, California
- Tehama, California
- Tracy, California
- Schellville, California
- Rocktram, California
[edit] Equipment
Motive power for the California Northern had consisted of over a dozen GP15-1 and four SD9 locomotives built in the mid to late 1950's. [1] Currently, California Northern owns nine locomotives, as several have been sold to other railroad companys, inlcuding Union Pacific, Fillmore and Western Railway, Trans Canada Switching, Hudson Bay, Mosaic, Twin Mountain,and San Joaquin Valley Railroad[2]. In 2009 the railroad began a program to replace their existing fleet with new fuel efficent locomotives, known as "gensets", or 3GS21B, built by NRE Locomotives [3]. 80 percent of the funding for the purchase of these new locomotives comes from a grant from the Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ Edward Lewis [1]
- ^ California Northern Roster Photo Gallery=[url=http://www.trainweb.org/calnorthern/photos.html
- ^ [2]
- ^ Treleven, Mike (2009-08-08). "On track with a clean, efficient new locomotive". Napa Valley Register.
- Lewis, Edward A. American Shortline Railway Guide - 5th Edition, Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1996. ISBN 0-89024-290-9
- Robertson, Donald B. Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History - Volume IV - California, The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1998. ISBN 0-87004-385-4
- Walker, Mike. Steam Powered Video's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - Poster Merger Edition - California and Nevada, Steam Powered Publishing, 1997. ISBN 1-874745-08-0
[edit] External links
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