Okay, "FriendlyAttacked"...when you say "Wrong! Cal Northern declined an option to lease the line from the SP, which I'm sure would have been happy to lease the whole thing to them and let them create lots of good traffic for them at Fairfield. If there had been a garbage train I feel the Cal Northern would have felt the maintenance was worth the headache because that would have been some great traffic." What do you mean? Facts are that California Northern leased the entirety of the remaining NWP, Willits-Ignacio-Schellville, plus the connecting SP branch from Schellville to Suisun, from the SP on 26 September 1993. By somewhere around the middle 1990s the garbage train was running from Napa to Washington, CFNR either got or exercised trackage rights on the UP main from Suisun to Davis. CFNR operated the trains themselves from Napa to Tehama, where they interchanged the garbage trains to and from UP. I don't remember if the garbage trains used BNSF or UP power, but they did run behind one of those. This movement only lasted a couple years until the trash started moving to the local landfill.

CFNR's tenure on the NWP lasted a little less than three years, as on 22 June 1996 the various public agencies purchased the rest of the old NWP from SP. Sonoma County joined NCRA's ownership group, which up to that point had been Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties. NCRA bought the part of the line from Willits south to Healdsburg. The Northwestern Pacific Railroad Authority- owned by NCRA, Golden Gate Bridge District, and Marin County- bought the Healdsburg to Schellville part of the line. NCRA also acquired the NWP name and logo from SP as part of this deal, they promptly renamed their North Coast Railroad to Northwestern Pacific and replaced CFNR as operator of the Willits-Schellville. CFNR thus retreated to the form it still holds today.

And to John, thanks again...but I'd still point out the quote in the article says the NWP told the CTC is "had no intention of operating a freight line north of Healdsburg". Yes, I know restoring service and running trains are two different things, but the article specifically states "operating", not "rebuilding" or "restoring" or "reviving" or "rehabilitating" pr "reopening" or any other words suggesting physical work being done to a long dormant rail line to return it to service. Unless you are suggesting that the article should have read the NWP told the CTC it "had no intentions of financing restoration work of the line north of Healdsburg" or something similar, I can only interpret "operating" to mean "running trains".

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV