San Francisco & North Pacific Railway

On June 29,1877, using the assets of the defunct Sonoma & Marin Railroad, Peter Donahue formed the San Francisco & North Pacific Railway Company and began building a standard-guage line south to a ferry connection in San Rafael.

In March 1889 James M. Donahue completed purchase of the Sonoma Valley and the Marin & Napa railways for merger into the San Francisco & North Pacific Railroad. At this time, Donahue was under legal compulsion to make a major relocation in Sonoma. In 1882, with the permission of the county supervisors, the railroad had built on Spain Street past the property of Henry Weyl, presumably the Sonoma Hotel. Weyl argued that his permission should have been secured, and won his case in 1883. The railroad lost an appeal to the California Supreme Court in 1886, and was ordered to move the line. Work on conversion to a standard-gauge line began at Ignacio on November 30, 1889, and was completed by April 1890. In the course of the relocation, the terminal facilities in Sonoma were moved about a block north to where it currently resides and is now home to the museum of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society.¹

On March 19, 1889, the old San Francisco & North Pacific Railway Company (Donahue) "sold, assigned, and transferred to [a new] San Francisco and North Pacific Railway Company all their roadway, depot grounds, stations, rolling stock, and other material,...except certain old material belonging to James M. Donahue personally."²

The Annual report of 1891 railway indicates the SF&NR had:

• a branch line which ran from Ignacio to Glen Ellen for a distance of 26.63 miles containing 46 curves opened January 1, 1870.
  

• the section from Ignacio to Sears Point opened June 1, 1888 (probably by the Marin & Napa Railroad).
  

• the section from Sonoma Landing to Glen Ellen which opened August 23, 1880 (probably by the Sonoma Valley Railroad).
  

• a branch line of 5.76 miles from Donahue to Landing containing 5 curves.

A published timetable for the Sonoma Valley Branch, dated April 16, 1893, shows:

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• Railroads
  

• Sonoma Valley Railroad
  

• Poor's 1878, pg. 923.
  

• Poor's 1889, pg. 900.
  

• 1876 California PUC report
  

• Journal & Argus, April 16 to September 17, 1870, Petaluma.
  

• Sacramento Daily Union, September 9 to November 3, 1870.

• The Twelfth Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners of the State of California for the year ending November 1, 1891
  

• Donald B. Robertson, Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History: California, Volume 4 (1998).