Interurbans In Marin County Part 2: Operations | Circa 1939 - 1941 | Northwestern Pacific Railroad
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- čas přidán 17. 04. 2023
- Interurbans In Marin County was originally a presentation given during the Redwood Empire Express Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society and Northwestern Pacific Historical Society joint convention held in 2017.
The original program can be found here:
• Interurbans In Marin C...
Marin County north of San Francisco was once an area of heavy rail activity, as steam and electric trains polished the rails of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad between Sausalito, San Rafael, and Manor. We hop aboard the NWP Ferry 'Cazadero' for a trip across the bay from San Francisco to Sausalito. We then follow then electric lines of the Northwestern Pacific north to Almonte, where we go up and back on the Mill Valley Branch. Once leaving Almonte we head north to Baltimore Park and over to San Rafael via the Green Brae cutoff. See the classic wooden equipment dating back to 1902, as well as the steel interurbans from 1929 and 1930. Once at San Rafael we follow the mainline west to San Anselmo, where trains head for Manor, or back towards Sausalito. We then head south back to Sausalito by way of the mainline through Ross, and Larkspur, before heading back through Almonte and along Richardson Bay into Sausalito. A trip aboard the NWP ferry 'Tamalpais' back to San Francisco along with views of the ferry 'Eureka' concludes the tour of the NWP electrics.
Today, Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit operates DMU trains out of Larkspur, through San Rafael and up to Santa Rosa using the original Northwestern Pacific. Several structures still stand and much of the old interurban right-of-way can still be explored as hiking and biking trails.
This video consists of 8mm and 16mm color movies from 4 different railfans, and shows the NWP electric operation in its entirety before it all disappeared.
Enjoy your trip around Marin by way of the Redwood Empire Route! - Auta a dopravní prostředky
In an alternate timeline that interurban is still running they never got rid of it like we did in our timeline.
1:15 The Eureka is sole survivor on display today.
This is the best NWP film I’ve ever seen!
Wow, what an amazing tour of Marin before it was heavily built up! I worked about 100 yards from the Ross station (now a Post Office) for over 15 years and 'walked the line' out of Ross to Kentfield many times, which is now a walking path.
Very well done, thank you! As a child I enjoyed riding the A train from Berkeley to the trans bay terminal downtown San Francisco (for 5 cents) where the train wound wind down to platforms below to connect with different rails out to Grand Ave South San Francisco, our destination. Had my first ride on SMART recently to Petaluma, its a nice line, and wonderful to see the old San Rafael station. Thanks for this.
What a wonderful video! I know this area well, having grown up nearby. Portion of this rail line was turned into the Mill Valley-Sausalito pathway and the Larkspur-Corte Madera pathway. The rail lines are mostly gone aside from the main line of the NWP that starts now near Greenbrae at the Larkspur station. Thanks for posting!!
Yea way before bart and AC transit the bay area was already connected by a very efficient transportation system
Another fine production, Hunter. Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication to making these historic films available to the public.
This is GOLD. Period
I love this! My grandmother used to tell me about riding the trains. I love the rails to trails movement and recognize many of the views.
Thanks for posting this great series. So fortunate that someone had enough sense to make these films back in the day for future generations. Incredible history!
My daughter lived in Kentfield and now in San Rafael. Believe me reader, this area has changed like few have. What a tour. Hard to realize the changes unless you visit the place.
Thank You for sharing this very entertaining and educational video with us. Near the end I began to wonder how different this area looks today. You did mention part of this is still used today.
Thank you, I grew up in Ross, I knew the Ross Post Office was the old train station. However I didn't know where all the old tracks and stations once were.
Excellent video! Thank you for sharing these valuable scenes.
I had the great good fortune to live on a double paddle wheel ferry boat called the Vallejo, back in the 90s. It had been converted into a houseboat in the 1950s.
I’ve been to an epic party on the Vallejo! It’s just stunning.
This is amazing thank you
Best yet. I'd not seen any of these before.
Thx again
What a fantastic contribution you continue to make Hunter Lohse for all of us seeking to find out more about the history of interurban travel in the bay area. Keep up the good work!
Hunter - Fabulous video. What a loss to Marin County. Having grown up at San Quentin in the 1940s and 1950s, I just missed the era of NWP electrification. I heard many stories from my parents and grandparents about it though. When my dad was a teenager he took the train from Fairfax to Tamalpias High school. When going through the Alto tunnel the kids used to hang out of the windows and knock out the light bulbs with sticks.
I've had stories relayed to me that the school train was the bane of every motorman's existence!
Just an incredible collection of archival footage. Thank you for this.
Thank you so much!! Ive always been a fan of NWP
Just a total WELL DONE to all that photographed and produced this wonderful video.
Here is 2024 there are still 3 Ferry Landings with a SMART connection in Larkspur. Thanks for post the excellent historical review.
Beautiful - Well Done, part of my history as a San Francisco Native...
Nice creative sound job. (Of course these movies were shot with out sound.)
Wow Hunter - this is one of the nicest videos I have ever seen on YT! I would have so enjoyed living there in that era. The scenery is beautiful! Thankyou so much!
Excellent!!! I'm loving these videos. Thanks for your efforts...
Ahh, to ring it all back !!
Fantastic Video Hunter...Thank You for saving a true Treasure of Better Time's... Well Done...Happy Trails...
Boy would Sheldon from BBT be excited to watch this! 😁
Wonderful video. Thank you.
Congratulations on a superb documentary and upload! Were portions of this footage “colorized”? Color film stock was significantly expensive back in that era. How did you obtain sound effects? Obviously, the original source footage was silent.
And lastly! How much were fares to travel by rail or ferry back in that era?
Notice the fashion of the time. And in color!!
I don't understand why these fell out of favor. Seems like it would replace a lot of vehicles
Even for an interurban railway, It was allowed to essentially become a rolling museum that most riders were forced to use before the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. The railroad had a transit monopoly over Marin County so understandably using a car felt like a godsend to the people of those times.
3:24 is the bridge in the background the 101 the golden gate would be to the right ?
Late reply here...yes, that's Highway 101 and the old bridge over Richardson Bay, North of Sausalito, looking slightly South of East. So yes, GG would be to the right, although several miles away over the Marin Headlands.
What about WALDO ?
How did they keep wild animals from getting electrocuted on the exposed live third rail?!?
They didn't. Wildlife protection wasn't a concern in those days. In fact there wasn't much protecting people from the third rail except common sense.
Brings back many fond memories