The original Western Pacific Railroad was established in 1862 to build the westernmost portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, between Sacramento and San Jose, California. After completing the last link from Sacramento to Oakland, this company was absorbed into the Central Pacific Railroad in 1870. The second company to use the "western pacific" appellation was the Western Pacific Railway Company, founded 1903. Under the direction of George Jay Gould I, the Western Pacific Railway proposed to build a standard gauge track connection to the Pacific Coast for his aspiring Gould transcontinental system. Construction was financed by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, a company in the Gould system, which had lost access to California due to the attempted acquisition of the Southern Pacific Railroad by the Rio Grande's main rival, the Union Pacific Railroad. The Western Pacific Railway acquired the Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad and began construction on what became known as the Feather River Route. Completed in 1909, it was the last major rail line connected into California. After Western Pacific Railway Company defaulted on mortgage bonds, its assets were sold in 1916 to The Western Pacific Railroad Company. The original line used 85-lb rail on untreated ties, with no tie plates except on curves over one degree; in 1935 more than half of the main line still had its original rail, most of it having carried 150 million gross tons. In 1931 Western Pacific opened a main line north from the Feather River Canyon to the Great Northern Railway in northern California. This route, the "Highline", joined the Oakland – Salt Lake City main line at the Keddie Wye, a unique combination of two steel trestles and a tunnel forming a triangle of intersecting track. In 1935, the railroad went bankrupt because of decreased freight and passenger traffic caused by the Depression and had to be reorganized. WP attracted rail enthusiasts from around the world. It operated the California Zephyrpassenger train with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The WP handled the "Silver Lady" from Oakland, California, to Salt Lake City, Utah from 1949–1970. The Western Pacific owned several connecting short-line railroads. The largest was the Sacramento Northern Railway, which once reached from San Francisco to Chico, California. Others included the Tidewater Southern Railway, the Central California Traction, the Indian Valley Railroad and the Deep Creek Railroad. In December 1953, the Railroad retired it last steam locomotive from revenue service. At the end of 1970 WP operated of road and of track, not including its Sacramento Northern and Tidewater Southern subsidiaries. In 1982, the Union Pacific Corporation purchased the Western Pacific and the WP became part of a combined Union Pacific rail system: the Union Pacific Railroad, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and the WP. The Western Pacific and the Missouri Pacific was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad by the Union Pacific Corporation. In 1996, Union Pacific purchased the WP's long-time rival, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company. In July 2005 Union Pacific unveiled a brand new EMD SD70ACe locomotive, Union Pacific 1983, painted as an homage to the Western Pacific.
Passenger operations
The California Zephyr was the famous Western Pacific passenger train but the railroad had a few others:
Exposition Flyer
Royal Gorge
Scenic Limited
Zephyrette
Many special charter passenger trains have used parts of the WP route:
Feather River Express, Special charter train for Portola Railroad Days
