Diablo Railroad was organized on March 21, 1881, at Emery's, an unincorporated settlement which later became the city of Emeryville.

The 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge track commenced at 40th Street/San Pablo Avenue and continued 9.85 miles (15.85 km) north through present day Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and terminated in Richmond.

Diablo Railroad proposed to run from a pier on San Francisco Bay in Emeryville, then across central California and across the Sierra Nevada mountains at Sonora Pass near Bodie, California, and then east to a connection with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in Utah.

The track beyond Richmond (from a point just north of today's El Cerrito Del Norte BART Station) to Orinda was abandoned.

Upon completion of the standardization, on May 16, 1904, the Oakland and East Side Railroad was leased to the Santa Fe.

Today, the Ohlone Greenway runs along the original California & Nevada right-of-way between El Cerrito Del Norte Station and Albany.

A bicycle path follows the course of the tracks while a BART aerial line runs along the western edge, within the old right-of way.