Western Pacific Railroad

The Western Pacific Railroad (abbreviated WP) is a former railway company in the United States. It operated a mainline from Salt Lake City to San Francisco and numerous branch lines in California, some of subsidiaries, such as the Sacramento Northern Railway, the Tidewater Southern Railway, the Indian Valley Railroad and the Deep Creek Railroad belonged.

The Company was incorporated on 3 March 1903 as the Western Pacific Railway and opened the nearly 1,500 -mile standard gauge line for freight traffic on 1 December 1909 and for passenger traffic on 22 August 1910. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad held the majority of shares the company, which, however, was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1915. On 14 July 1916, the company was re-established as Western Pacific Railroad.

In 1926, the WP under the control of Arthur C. James, who also has a significant interest in the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. To connect the range of WP with the network of Great Northern, they built a distance of Keddie Wye according to Bieber, which was opened in 1931. In 1982, the Western Pacific Railroad along with the Missouri Pacific Railroad was taken over by the Union Pacific Railroad.

The most important train in the network of WP is the California Zephyr, an express train that runs between Chicago and San Francisco and from Salt Lake City used the route of the Western Pacific.