The “north end” from Willits to Eureka (which includes connections to the California Western Railroad) is currently out of service, but saved by 2018 legislation to be converted into the Great Redwood Trail.

[1][2] In the late 1800s both the Southern Pacific Railroad (“SP”) and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (“AT&SF”) had great interests in building lines north from San Francisco to Humboldt County to transport lumber south.

[3] Completion of the line between Willits and Eureka was disrupted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; plans and right-of-way documents were destroyed in the subsequent fire.

[3] After a time-expedient "punt" of the route through the unstable Eel River Canyon, construction was finally completed in October 1914 when a "golden spike" ceremony and celebration was held to mark the accomplishment.

[8][9] The only remaining service was a tri-weekly Willits-Eureka round trip, operated by a single Budd Rail Diesel Car, which ran until April 30, 1971.

The catastrophic Christmas flood of 1964 destroyed 100 miles (160 km) of the railroad in Northern California, including three bridges over the Eel River, and permanently changed the topography of the area.

An example of a 1970s work day on the NWP might look something like the following: During the final decade of Southern Pacific operation, carloads of lumber left Eureka each morning pulled by six EMD SD9 locomotives called "Cadillacs" by their crews.

[12] Remaining traffic revenues were insufficient for track maintenance through the Eel River Canyon, at that time the most expensive stretch of rail line in the United States.

This led to a contentious court battle since the SP did not properly notify the Interstate Commerce Commission of their intent to abandon the line.

NCRA purchased the Eureka Southern in 1992 and leased the line to the newly formed North Coast Railroad[15] In late 1996, severe flooding of the Eel River led to widespread landslide damage and destruction of roadbed which remained unrepaired and halted most service.

A lack of capital along with previous customers now finding the railroad expensive and unreliable after switching to truck traffic made repairs difficult to finance and complete.

[17] Beginning in the late 1990s, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District began purchasing sections of the NWP's south end from the Southern Pacific to save for a potential commuter train route thanks to growing suburbs in Marin and Sonoma counties.

The SP required the California Northern Railroad (CFNR) to take over freight operations on the NWP in 1993 as a part of their long-term lease agreements for their main stretch of trackage in the Napa, Fairfield, and Woodland areas.

The line was plagued by a series of harsh El Nino storms from 1997 to 1998 causing significant washouts and bridge instability on top of already deferred infrastructure maintenance and mismanagement.

Former SP SD9s, leased from Diesel Motive Company (reporting mark BUGX), and former North Coast Railroad GP9s, owned by the NCRA, were then pressed into short-lived service before additional washouts, mechanical failures, and low revenue again closed the line.

The railroad predominantly carries grain for dairy and poultry farms in Sonoma County, but also has provided shipment of lumber products out of Windsor, Petaluma and Schellville, a large piece of equipment for Pacific Gas and Electric, construction trains for SMART, bulk car storage, and currently hosts the Golden Gate Railroad Museum storage lot on a former lumbar yard spur in Schellville.

[22] Although tourist companies along with local historical groups have expressed interest in possibly opening an excursion and dinner train that would traverse Humboldt and Arcata bays, there are no plans to reopen the Eel River Canyon segment.

[23] Financial disarray and legal troubles beginning before the turn of the millennium [24] caused the NCRA to fall out of favor with local and state officials as well as the public.

[26] California's 2018 Great Redwood Trail Act includes detailed plans for investigating and resolving the Authority's debts, dissolving the NCRA, and converting its rights-of-way to rail-trail.

[2][27] In the bill, the Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) acquired 21 miles (34 km) from Healdsburg north to the Mendocino-Sonoma County border in September 2020, and in February 2022, took over NWP freight operations, having been approved by the US Surface Transportation Board.

[35] Summer tourists from San Francisco still visited Russian River vacation spots via joint narrow-gauge/standard-gauge NWP "triangle" excursions until 1927 when automobile travel became more popular.

After the standard-gauge line was extended to Cazadero, service north of Point Reyes was reduced to a daily (except Sunday) mixed train to Camp Meeker and return until the last narrow-gauge train ran on 29 March 1930; and the remaining narrow-gauge line between Monte Rio and Point Reyes Station was dismantled that autumn.

[35] The route of the dual-gauge line from Fulton to Duncan Mills later became the popular River Road connecting all the towns from the coast to the central county.