NEW LIFE FOR THE PLACERVILLE BRANCH


MIKE ROQUE/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR EXCEPT AS NOTED I


N THE 1850S, CALIFORNIA WAS IN THE midst of the Gold Rush, and getting mail and supplies to the remote


population was a major undertaking. Everything had to take a months-long journey through deserts and over the Rockies and Sierra Nevada or go south by sea through the Isthmus of Panama. Both propositions were long and dangerous. In early 1852, a group of businessmen


saw the opportunity to build fast, reliable transportation from Sacramento to the mining communities, so they incorporated the Sacramento, Auburn & Nevada Railroad. Alas, their plans fell


46 SEPTEMBER 2016 • RAILFAN.COM


apart when the first section of track they were planning to lay was going to cost more than $2 million. However, retired U.S. Army Col. Charles Lincoln Wilson also saw the opportunity for a railroad to serve the area, so he reorganized the abandoned railroad company and formed the Sacramento Valley Railroad on August 16, 1852, the first railroad west of the Mississippi River. Construction began in Sacramento in February 1855, the line reached Folsom in January of 1856, and the inaugural run took place on February 22. Meanwhile, the people of the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Placerville


(PLASS-er-vill), a hub for the region’s mining operations, wanted rail service to carry heavy freight destined for the silver mines in the Comstock Lode in Nevada, so the first railroad to be named Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad was incorporated on June 12, 1862, and construction from Folsom Junction towards Placerville began in late 1863. The line reached Latrobe in August 1864 and Shingle Springs in June 1865, but the railroad was unable to secure additional financing to continue construction to Placerville and was on the verge of bankruptcy. On April 19, 1877, the Sacramento &


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