The Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Keeping Alive The Memory Of The "Feather River Route"

The Western Pacific Railroad Museum, formerly known as the Portola Railroad Museum, part of the Feather River Rail Society, focuses primarily on preserving locomotives and equipment belonging to the Western Pacific Railroad, the famed "Feather River Route". It has its earliest roots dating back to 1984 and today features a collection of over 35 locomotives and 80 pieces of rolling stock.

For nearly 80 years the WP moved freight through its well engineered, albeit high maintenance, main line between San Francisco/Oakland and Salt Lake City although its small size (just over 1,000 of total mileage) and being surrounded by giants ultimately cost it its independence (the railroad, however, was a tenacious fighter). For its small size, however, the railroad was well known for a number of things including being one component of the highly successful California Zephyr passenger train and its Keddie Wye at Keddie, CA (which features a magnificent split-bridge where its Inside Gateway, a line that diverged from its Salt Lake City main line, connected to Bieber, California and a link with the Great Northern).

While the railroad held spectacular scenery and a main line that featured the lowest grades through the Sierra Range, its successfulness was mediocre at best through the first half of the 20th century. Not only did the unstable geography through the Feather River Canyon becoming a frustrating problem for the Western Pacific with numerous mud and rock slides occurring over the years but also traffic for the WP was hard to come by with few branch lines and other roads already well entrenched in the markets the railroad served (the WP would go through a series of bankruptcies during its early years).

While the Western Pacific Railroad Museum has several attractions such as caboose rides and operating a live locomotive, perhaps it is best known for its vast collection of original Western Pacific locomotives with no less than 15! Below is a complete WP locomotive roster at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum:

EMD SW1 #501

Alco S1 #512

Alco S4 #563

EMD NW2u #608

EMD GP7 #705

EMD GP7 #707

EMD GP7 #708

EMD GP9 #725

EMD FP7 #731

GE U30B #3051

These, of course, are only the Western Pacific units at the museum. To see a complete roster available at the WPRM please click here.

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