The original
Western Pacific Railroad (1862–1870) was established in 1862 to build the westernmost portion of the
first transcontinental railroad, between
Sacramento and
San Jose,
California (later to Oakland). After completing the last link from Sacramento to Oakland, this company was absorbed into the
Central Pacific Railroad in 1870. The second company to use the "western pacific" appellation was the
Western Pacific Railway Company, founded in 1903. Under the direction of
George Jay Gould I, the Western Pacific Railway proposed to build a
standard gauge track connection to the
Pacific Coast for his aspiring
Gould transcontinental system. Construction was financed by the
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, a company in the Gould system, which had lost access to California due to the attempted acquisition of the Southern Pacific Railroad by the Rio Grande's main rival, the Union Pacific Railroad. The Western Pacific Railway acquired the
Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad and began construction on what became known as the Feather River Route. Completed in 1909, it was the last major rail line connected to California. After
Western Pacific Railway Company defaulted on mortgage bonds, its assets were sold in 1916 to
The Western Pacific Railroad Company. The original line used
85 lb/yd rail on untreated ties, with no tie plates except on curves over one degree; in 1935 more than half of the main line still had its original rail, most of it having carried 150 million gross tons. In 1931 Western Pacific opened a main line north from the
Feather River Canyon to the
Great Northern Railway in northern California. This route, today part of BNSF's
Gateway Subdivision, joined the Oakland – Salt Lake City main line at the
Keddie Wye, a unique combination of two steel
trestles and a
tunnel forming a
triangle of intersecting track. In 1935, the railroad went bankrupt because of decreased freight and passenger traffic caused by the
Great Depression and had to be reorganized. Western Pacific (WP) operated the
California Zephyr passenger train with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The WP handled the "Silver Lady" from Oakland, California, to Salt Lake City, Utah from 1949 to 1970. The Western Pacific owned several connecting
short-line railroads. The largest was the
Sacramento Northern Railway, which once reached from San Francisco to Chico, California. Others included the
Tidewater Southern Railway, the
Central California Traction, the
Indian Valley Railroad and the
Deep Creek Railroad. In December 1953, the Railroad retired its last steam locomotive from revenue service. At the end of 1970, WP operated of road and of track, not including its Sacramento Northern and Tidewater Southern subsidiaries. In 1982, the
Interstate Commerce Commission approved the purchase of the Western Pacific and the
Missouri Pacific Railroad by the Union Pacific Corporation. The Union Pacific maintains one locomotive in its fleet,
Union Pacific 1983, in a Western Pacific influenced
livery. ==Passenger operations==