I was involved in the reopening of the Carrizo Gorge tunnels on the old San Diego and Arizona Eastern in the late 1990s. The two tunnels that were burned were 8 and 16. 8 was mostly opened and relined with shotcrete and, where the rock was faulted, grout was pumped into the rockfalls to stabilize them. The tunnel was dug out and steel shells were welded together in the space. Concrete was pumped into the space between the rock and grout and the steel. The Morrison-Knudsen company did that work, but they were more interested in sucking the insurance money up and getting cost overruns. They were finally sent away and the tunnel remained closed for another 20+ years. Some San Diego County businessmen put together the Carrizo Gorge Railway company and proposed to the government owners, SANDAG, that they would do a survey inside the tunnels and see what was needed to finish both of them. I was working for one of the partners and became involved in the work early on. The survey found that Tunnel 8 was open nearly to the east portal. Tunnel 16, which was thought to be collapsed entirely, was actually open inside and only the portals had collapsed. Where the lowest estimate for clearing the tunnels was $7 million in 1985, we cleared everything out for $255,000.00. If you do the rebuilding right and avoid letting scamming contractors get involved, you may be able to reopen the NWP for much less than what others are estimating.

I lived in Eureka for a couple years and it’s clear that without any railroads that entire area would not have been what it is today, amazing how hard they tried to get lines in even when the cost was insane to lay track eastward.

All the graffiti artist in Humboldt notes these wonderful reference points! Thanks

Great video Sean. I wanted to share my little adventure video of footage I shot riding down the rails north of Fort Seward station to past Eel Rock. The tracks were barely passable then in 2007 in a modified Suzuki Samurai, which we used to travel up the tracks, and 4 wheel off the tracks where they were too damaged: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYHYhal8fLCiZ7ssi=Mb7Ci0oJxNQkaqBF

Thanks so much for all this. I am an ex-NWP person myself and it was nice to see all the memories.

My ex worked at Island Mountain back in the 70's.

You gents need to learn how to speak without saying UH so much. Very unprofessional and VERY distracting/

Just disgraceful that people can build something so large that costs so much work and money to just give up and abandon it. Here, they threw away a railroad.

Nice history. I watched this today as I drove through Arcata looking at the architecture and reading about the history.

Nice history. I watched this today as I drive through Arcata looking at the architecture and reading about the history.

The best presentation I have ever seen concerning the old NWP railroad. Great job!

How far North did this line run? I'm in Eureka once a week for work and have seen the tracks northeast of Eureka in some of the smaller towns.

Interesting video. I lived next to the NWP in mill valley. Used to walk through tunnel 1 to go shoplifting at the Corte madera center. Always saw the train on Saturday evenings. Wasn’t their talk of installing a container port in eureka and restoring the line to ship containers into the Bay Area?

This is so cool, I'm really hoping to float the Eel this next year, I love taking in history like this!

This a great presentation. I'd heard of the NWP and how remote and how much maintenance was needed but, never really knew the history and it's eventual demise. A similar scenario happened to the Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad in Oregon where I live. Interestingly, it was also an SP line and connected the Portland area with the coast and also went through a remote area called the Salmonberry River Canyon. The line did get washed out several times throughout its life but was rebuilt. However, in December 2007, a huge storm hit the coast and washed out several large sections of track and caused slides to block some of the tunnels. The cost to rebuild proved to be too much and now the line is just rotting away in the woods. At least the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad now uses the section along the ocean for passenger excursions.

Great presentation and history...Class of '70 HSC, History

Great presentation. And nice seeing a young person who appreciates railroad history. While this part of the SP is out of the area of my railroad videos your presentation informs me on the overall operational history of a great rail system.

I was a prostitute in Humboldt for 3 years. If you ever want to contact me, I’ve got some very savory stories.

Either the geologist hired to plan the Eel River route or the management dictating the route was incompetent.

Que up James McMurtry "We Can't Make It Here Anymore". We can blow up whatever The City of London Banks want us to. #Aloha

Thank you for the great documentary and all the work you've done to compile all the info. I grew up with the railroad and the SP trains passing through Ukiah. I always wanted to ride a freight through the Eel River canyon and see all that roadless wilderness. No matter our found memories, you can't get around the simple economics that a railroad has to generate more revenue than expense and to saddle taxpayers with a loosing proposition would be an injustice, even if we would enjoy seeing those trains rolling again.

used to watch the trains every summer in fortuna and loleta

I am a great believer in preserving rail lines. I don't think a horse trail can be preserved in the Eel River canyon!

The geology of the region swallowed this railroad. The ancient geo processes were not understood at the time of its building. There never was a practical means of maintaining it.

Hello from Texas. Enjoyed your presentation. Thanks for sharing.

46:55 My father had to of been the last one over that bridge. He said when he went across it he was forging water. He kept the car in 2nd and the throttle to the floor and some how him in his friend made. This was when it was getting dark so he really couldn't see how bad things were. But once he got his ill friend home in his car. My dad needed a ride home and called the bus station about half our after getting his friend home and the bus station told him that they can't because the bridge was washed out. My father was a bit confused because he just got done driving over that bridge.

Typical of the evil empire that was the SP. The worst railroad in history. Nothing about this road should ever be remembered.

impressive presentation, thank you

Was it published? Where can we find it?

Excellent. Hope to get up there again. Had a sister thst lived in Hydesville until recently. I took a Northern California Railroad Club trip in 1987 on the North Coast Daylight. Was a member of Pacific Coast Chapter, Railroad & Locomotive Historical Society and helped with original restoration of SP 2472 now kept in Schellville. Years ago rode Skunk Train and have yet to ride Smart train. Missed riding Bud car. Thanks for current status.

I recently hiked across what's left of the old railway starting from Rio Dell (there's an access point near the lumber mill) all the way up to the south side of the old trestle on the Scotia Bluffs. Long ago I was there with my parents and I remember seeing a train going by, so they were still in service. It would have been sometime in the mid-to-late 80s. On the north side of the trestle there were fossils in the material coming down from the cliffside there and my father was a fossil-hunter, and crossing the trestle was the easier way to get to them instead of the longer hike from the north side. As the gaps between the trestle ties were bigger than my feet and we didn't know the train schedules - and didn't want to be caught mid-crossing - I was never allowed to go across. So, July of 2021 I went back and it was so overgrown I couldn't believe it. I barely made it to the trestle, but I did and it's still standing! As I was there alone and there were parts of the trestle where plants had grown up and through, completely concealing the condition of the beams in those spots I ultimately decided not to risk crossing. I wish I'd gone back a decade or two earlier. It doesn't seem like it was a long enough period of time for it to have become overgrown to the point where the tracks simply disappear among trees and brush and dirt, but your presentation definitely indicated how it happened. That was an absolutely treacherous area to put a railroad. That's a great history you provided and I hope the railroad comes back to life in some fashion, even if it'll never be what it was. I was researching another spur line out in Santa Cruz that terminated in Davenport, where for a while they had 'Gordon's Chute', a clever-terrible idea to deliver cargo from the cliffs directly down to boats in the ocean, a hundred-foot drop. Lots of fascinating rail history out there!

You couldn't see the end of the tunnel from the west end because it had a curve at the end of the east end of the tunnel.

Uh um, uh um

Topophilia!

Jeffin Greatest. I am a Bair descendant and I don't recognize you. How are you related?

Having worked as a Conductor on the 'New NWP' in 1997, I can say in all certainty that no railroad will ever connect the Bay Area to Eureka again. The traffic is gone,...all of it. The canyon, and it's 'blue goo', and soggy sponge like ground, is impossible to build upon. The Eel, is too unpredictable, and weather up in the canyon is usually extremely wet in the Winter. Bridges, roadbed, track, fixtures, all gone, or in the case of Island Mountain...ripped out. Yes, a bit hard to believe, considering during it's heyday, trains of 100 to 150 cars were not uncommon, on the thrice weekly schedules. '97' was not a good year,...lots of accidents, derailments, and the like. Equipment was old, maintenance was absent, as it had been since SP had been operating the line. Largest train I witnessed was 154 cars....this was back in 1976 or 77 I believe, and it was string-lined and derailed on the Novato Wye, when the hoghead took the throttle out a couple of notches too far after rounding the curve towards Schellville. Dumped a number of boxcars and loads of lumber.... This Report....... Nicely done....Sean.... I give you an A+...

Awesome thanks again for your time I worked for them the last year of oppression 1998 IT was my first job in Humboldt, I was just 19 years old and had just moved up to Humboldt County I did track maintenance IT was hard work but I loved it

In 2000 I hiked the NWP from Cloverdale to Spyrock. I planned to go to Alderpoint but was deterred by 2 cowgirls pushing cows down the track . I was leery of the Island Mtn tunnel anyway. You say that the Eel River canyon is inaccessible, but you can access by starting at Dos Rios and hiking in. I wrote articles for the Anderson Valley Advertiser called Walking the Rails.

Loved this . I learned so much by watching this. Next time out To Willow Creek will be exploring a little more

The people of California must own this railroad and property. Why not revive this railroad for passenger and freight from San Rafael to Crescent City with an adjacent bicycle path as an ecology model for this century? How to pay for this investment? A public investment with railroad station become town hubs. Create legislature that demands with high density Eco friendly residential / commercial car free zones. Solves the housing shortage, add to quality of life, create millions of jobs. California companies become leaders in ecology friendly towns of the 21st century. Time to stop wasting 2 trillion of our tax dollar in Iraq and Afghanistan and other stupid military adventures and invest in California.

Love it! Great job!

It was one of Ray Shipley's detectives who told me this (can't remember who), but he said Murl Harpham was so good-looking he could pick up a prostitute, give her a warning, and she'd get in his car again the same night.

Thank you so much for this!

It's a shame that very few of us are interested in the Northwestern pacific railroad and it's history and that there's no plan to rebuild the line all the way to eureka. I've worked for union pacific since 2004 and are now living in lincoln working out of roseville!

Im just visiting Cali passing through Humboldt and couldnt miss the bridges and railroad grades off the 101 just outside of Eureka. So glad this presentation exists to give me all the details and photos in one place organized. Thanks for your work! I learned a lot!

This video gave me a surprising jolt of a hope I didn't know I had for the future of the THA. I am very impressed with the THA's renovations of the rolling stock, the purchase and rehabilitation of the locomotive barns, the laying of track, the running of the speeders, etc. Your presentation makes it easy to envision rail operating around Humboldt Bay again. That's no easy task - this is a very well-constructed narrative backed by thoughtful research, supported with great images.

They are talking about rebuilding a line to Eureka California

Excellent video, thanks for the speaker and all involved and the good citizens of this area!

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This is fantastic!