For the train enthusiast.
The Western Pacific Railroad, from itsinception in 1903 until the UnionPacific takeover in late1982, was always fending off one crisis or another,managing to remain independent through luck and clever financial maneuvering. GeorgeJ. Gould, eldest son of Wall Street speculator Jay Gould, formed the WP tobreak Edward H. Harriman’s railroad stranglehold at Salt Lake City and also tocreate a true transcontinental line. George was not up to the task and he lostcontrol of the WP to banker Alvin Krech in 1916.
Gould’s WP from Salt Lake City to SanFrancisco was well built but expensive. His chief engineer, Virgil G.Bogue, did a masterful job locating the route and laying rails, but the finalcost was much higher than anyone anticipated. Gould bankrupted the WP and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in theprocess and Krech seized them both.
Krech made many improvements and additions but nearly pushed the WP intoanother costly bankruptcy. Wealthy investor Arthur Curtiss James rode to therescue by taking control of the WP in 1926. James made the costly decision tobuild the Inside Gateway line from Keddie to Bieber, meeting up with the GreatNorthern. That and other WP projects, some successful and some not, ran WP intoits second reorganization in 1936.
James was long gone by the time WP found its way out of bankruptcy at the veryend of World War II. More conservative management over the next twenty yearskept the railroad in the black but it was always touch and go. A costly andtiresome fight against Southern Pacific’s takeover bid in the early 1960s,followed by a lengthy effort to cut off the money-losing California Zephyrpassenger train, weakened the WP to the point it was acquired by takeoverspecialist Howard Newman in 1970.
Newman, aided by legendary operating executive Al Perlman, bolstered WP’sfinances, took it into a holding company, and then spun it off to a group ofexecutives in 1978 headed by Mike Flannery. It was too late to save therailroad by then, and Union Pacific gathered it into its Missouri Pacific merger proceedings a year later. UP quicklybrought the WP into compliance with modern railroad standards and it has servedthe larger company well.
Today, much of the WP has been abandoned and some has been sold, but theoriginal Bogue main line from the Bay Area to Salt Lake City remains intact andin operation.
This book also relates the parallel story of the Sacramento Northern Railway, an electric interurban that AlvinKrech acquired for the WP in the 1920s for its freight traffic base. SNsuffered the same precarious ride as its parent company and was finally mergedinto Union Pacific along with the WP.
Hardcover with dust jacket. 512 pages.