Whipple rolled the dice on how long it would take for the geology and climate to catch up with independent operation. A long drought might have bought him and NCRA a few more years, but the demise of the timber industry would have ended things anyway.

The North Coast Daylight started out with such promise. A true hit for a scenic railroad that had been running mostly an overnight passenger train since the 1930's. By 1990 or so you could see the novelty wearing off. Several weather and track related cancellations didn't help. It also didn't help that Eureka rolled up the welcome mat around 5pm when the train arrived leaving most passengers to find something to eat and watch TV in their hotel room the rest of the evening. NWP was never more than a 25 mph railroad along the Eel River. On the return trip to Willits often there would be whole cars of sleeping passengers before we got to Fort Seward. Some probably had hangovers because there wasn't much else to do in Eureka the night before. The last trip (Arcata to Shively) in October 1997 was a sellout. A catered lunch at trackside in Shively. Many passengers went home with cases of produce for sale. A great way to end.....