Niles Canyon Railways

All aboard for this photographic journey through the unique railroad history of Niles Canyon, near the city of Fremont. The melodic wail of the steam whistle first echoed off these canyon walls in 1866 when the Western Pacific Railroad laid track into Niles as part of a planned route from San Jose to Sacramento. That was three years before the transcontinental route from Sacramento to Omaha was completed in May 1869. Four months after the driving of the Golden Spike that joined the eastern and western United States by rail, the connecting route from Sacramento to Oakland through Niles Canyon was finished--the very last leg of a rail route that truly joined the Atlantic to the Pacific waters for the first time.

About the author

The association has gathered over 200 images and provides learned commentary to document the canyon's historic railways, the famous bandits and silent-era movie stars who once roamed there, and the unusual assortment of trains that makes up the present Niles Canyon Railway.

Product details

• Authors: Henry Luna, Pacific Locomotive Association, The Pacific Locomotive Association
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (SC)
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.07.2005
• EAN: 9780738529837
• ISBN: 978-0-7385-2983-7
• No. of pages: 128
• Dimensions: 167 mm x 236 mm x 10 mm
• Weight: 322 g
• Series: Images of Rail; Images of Rail
• Subject: Guides > Motor vehicles, aircraft, ships, space travel > Rail vehicles