The
Northwestern Pacific Railroad (
AAR reporting marks NWP) was a
regional railroad serving the
Redwood Empire of
Northern California. The railroad ran from the
North Bay at
Tiburon to
Eureka, California, primarily near the
U.S. Route 101 corridor.
The NWP ran an electrified interurban commuter railroad in Marin County until 1941. The opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937 caused commuters to shift from the train-ferry service to commuting by bus and car.
The NWP was merged into the Southern Pacific in 1992, only four years before the Union Pacific/Southern Pacific merger.
The early history and predecessors of the NWP can be traced back to the dawning of rail service in the 1860s in Marin and Sonoma Counties and the redwood lumber railroads near Eureka. These earlier roads include the Sonoma Prismoidal, (an early wooden monorail), the narrow gauge North Pacific Coast Railroad, the Arcata and Mad River Railroad, and the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad.
