Does anyone have info on the California Northwestern Railway? Was it merged into the Northwestern Pacific? Or was it reorganized as the NWP? What date did this happen? D: Boxcab E50
California Northwestern was purchased by Edward Harriman in 1903 or 1904. This was during the time period when Harriman (of the SP) and Ed Ripley (president of the Santa Fe) were fighting each other over who would get to build the first railroad connecting Eureka with the rest of the world. At the time there were quite a few small railroads operating a network of lines in the Eureka area, and another group of small railroads was operating in the south end. The Santa Fe ended up picking up just about all of the railroads in the Eureka area, while Harriman purchased most of the railroads at the south (including the California Northwestern). Both the SP and the ATSF were determined to complete the railroad on their own, but eventually they came to the realization that two railroads connecting Eureka to the outside world would just starve each other to death. The two ended up forming the NWP in January 1907, and the various smaller roads owned by each were folded into the new company. All told, the California Northwestern was one of 40 or 50 companies that were welded together by the SP and ATSF to form the Northwestern Pacific. The SP and ATSF jointly (through the NWP) completed linking the line building south out of Eureka with the combined lines building north out of the bay area. The NWP was completed in 1914. The NWP continued to be jointly owned by the ATSF and SP until 1929, when the ATSF sold it's half interest in the road to the SP. The NWP technically retained it's corporate existence as a wholly owned subsidiary of SP until somewhere around 1992, when it was finally merged into the SP system. Most of this info is from the book Redwood Railways by Gilbert H. Kneiss. A much better reference would be Fred Stindt's Northwestern Pacific Railroad, which is a very, very well done book, but is getting somewhat rare now (I have not seen this book available for less than $100 for the last several years). But it should be available through interlibrary loan should you decide to pursue this further. Hope this helps. JDLX Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
Yes. This helps. So the CNW was a truly independent operation until Harriman purchased it? Boxcab E50
I do happen to have a loco roster on my Foothill Rails site. Just follow the link in my signature and click on the Shortline Rosters button. Then select the "C" link at the bottom. Don't know if its complete or entirely correct but hope it helps.
Yes. California Northwestern was organized in 1896 to take over what had been the San Francisco & North Pacific Railroad. The Donahue Family had pushed the SF&NP from Tiburon to Ukiah with four branches (Ignacio-Schellville-Sonoma-Glen Ellen; Petaluma-Donahue; Santa Rosa-Sebastopol; Fulton-Guerneville-Russian River). Mervyn Donahue was the last in the line of Donahues that built the road; he died in 1890 at the ripe old age of thirty from complications stemming from a cold he got while personally viewing the proposed extension of his road beyond Ukiah. Mervyn had only one heir (who was a year old), and his estate (including controlling interest in the SF&NP) was left to the Archbishop of San Francisco. Mervyn Donahue's controlling interest in the SF&NP was sold at public auction in early 1893 to A.W. Foster and two others. There were a few more years of corporate intrigue and shenanigans...some minority stockholders hoping to get the SF&NP tried hard to get Fosters partners to freeze him out, and in response Foster organized the California & Northwestern in 1896, and the SF&NP was leased to the C&NW for twenty years. This action left Foster in complete control of the situation, and he came to completely control the railroad shortly after that as the minority stockholders gave up and sold their shares to Foster. The California & Northwestern continued to lease the SF&NP property (both companies were owned by Foster, so the lease was more a formality than anything else). When the ATSF and the SP commenced fighting each other for control of the Redwood empire Foster was contacted by both Harriman of the SP and Ripely of the ATSF; although the ATSF bid was a half million dollars higher than Harriman's bid, Harriman made the first move and therefore got the SF&NP/C&NW. There was a third company of Fosters involved, the San Francisco & Eureka, which had constructed the extension of the SF&NP/C&NW from Ukiah through Willits towards Sherwood between 1896 and 1903. However, after selling his railroads to Harriman, Foster did stay on for a while longer to manage them for Harriman; he also was given responsibility for the narrow gauge North Pacific Coast, which Harriman picked up about the same time as Foster's roads. Foster continued to run this part of Harriman's empire up until the time that his former companies were rolled into the new Northwestern Pacific in January 1907. Once again, information from Gilbert Kneiss's book Redwood Railways (Howell-North, 1956). JDLX Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
It's always fascinating to read about the wrangling that went on 100 years ago. Thanks for all the info! Boxcab E50
Nope. What is that old adage? "The more things change, the more they stay the same...?" Seems almost as though it was a little bit more accepted as a way of doing business back then. What they did in those years of empire building, does certainly add a lot of "color" to studying history! Boxcab E50
