The Sacramento Valley Railroad (SVRR) was incorporated on August 4, 1852, the first transit railroad company incorporated in California. Construction did not begin until February 1855 because of financial and right of way issues, and its first train operated on February 22, 1856. Although the oldest working railroad in the state was the

Arcata and Mad River Railroad The Arcata and Mad River Railroad , founded in 1854, was the oldest working railroad in California. It operated on a unique narrow gauge until the 1940s when standard gauge rails were laid. Service ceased in 1983 due to landslides. It is Califor ...

, first operational in December 15, 1854, the Sacramento Valley Railroad was the West's pioneering incorporated railroad, forerunner to the Central Pacific.

Original SVRR route

On August 4, 1852, the Sacramento Valley Railroad was incorporated in California, and Charles Lincoln Wilson became its first president. He left for New York to find expertise and private funds for the railroad effort; he recruited a young survey engineer Theodore D. Judah from New York to come west with him to Sacramento. Judah arrived in mid-May 1854, and on May 30 his report and preliminary survey for the proposed SVRR line eastward from

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

to Marysville by way of

Folsom Folsom may refer to: People * Folsom (surname) Places in the United States * Folsom, Perry County, Alabama * Folsom, Randolph County, Alabama * Folsom, California * Folsom, Georgia * Folsom, Louisiana * Folsom, Missouri * Folsom, New Jerse ...

were in the hands of his employers. Because of financial and right of way issues, construction with grading subcontractors did not begin until February 1855, but soon other problems arose. In August 1855, the SVRR board elected Commodore C. K. Garrison, former mayor (1853-1854) of San Francisco, as president of SVRR. They also elected as vice president of SVRR the future

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

General

William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...

, who was at that time the head of the banking house of Lucas & Turner in San Francisco. William Sherman, contacted his brother John, who had recently been elected to Congress, for help in obtaining federal land grants for the railroad, but to no avail. The board also in August 1855 announced that the actual laying of tracks can begin. The railroad's gauge was , wider than , and was laid with Welsh iron "pear" rail. Mastering the technique, the track laying crew were putting down six hundred feet of track daily. The original plans for a line from Sacramento to Folsom and then to Marysville were not fully realized as the funding did not materialize. As constructed, the Sacramento Valley Railroad ran from the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento� ...

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually earthen and that often runs parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastli ...

at Front and "L" Street in present-day

Old Sacramento Old Sacramento State Historic Park occupies around one third of the property within the Old Sacramento Historic District of Sacramento, California. The Old Sacramento Historic District is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District. The Historic ...

and terminated at Folsom. On February 22, 1856, the first train operated over the entire line.

Theodore Judah Theodore Dehone Judah (March 4, 1826 – November 2, 1863) was an American civil engineer who was a central figure in the original promotion, establishment, and design of the First transcontinental railroad. He found investors for what became t ...

was the Chief Engineer of the Sacramento Valley Railroad. Judah would later become the Chief Engineer of the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the " First transcontinental railroad" in North America. Incor ...

and the chief proponent of the

first transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

over the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primar ...

by way of Dutch Flat. In August 1865, Central Pacific Railroad maneuvered its way to buy controlling interest in the management of Sacramento Valley, diverting the profitable over-mountain Washoe trade and travel, potentially worth several million dollars annually, to Central Pacific and leaving local trade and travel to Sacramento Valley. Thereafter, the gauge of its track and all its rolling stock was changed to correspond with the standard gauge of the Pacific Railroad. On April 19, 1877, the Sacramento Valley Railroad was consolidated with the Folsom and Placerville Railroad to form the Sacramento and Placerville Railroad. In 1877 the Placerville and Sacramento Valley Railroad was also deeded to the Sacramento and Placerville Railroad. The new railroad operated over of track between Sacramento and Shingle Springs. The railroad eventually came under the control of the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

(SP); first under SP's subsidiary, the Northern Railway in 1888, and then ten years later under the SP on April 14, 1898.

The route as it exists now

Today much of the original route still exists and was the former Placerville Branch of the Southern Pacific. The Placerville Industrial Lead is used by

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

and extends to the

Aerojet Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp. I ...

facility just west of Folsom. The Sacramento RT Light Rail Gold Line parallels the route and uses the right of way between Sacramento and Folsom. Most of SVRR's planned route was built by subsequent railroad companies after 1869. A notable historic section is still in operation today as

Niles Canyon Railway The Niles Canyon Railway (NCRy) is a heritage railway running on the first transcontinental railroad alignment (1866, 1869) through Niles Canyon, between Sunol and the Niles district of Fremont in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, ...

that linked Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay Area through Niles, California.

Original SVRR route

The route as it exists now

See also

References

Further reading