ELECTRIC TRACTION IN THE SACRA- 

 MENTO VALLEY 



FOR many years the one crying need of the rapidly developing Sac- 

 ramento Valley has been interurban rapid transit. At last this 

 long-felt want has been met, and on the first of September, according 

 to promise, the handsome equipment of the Northern Electric Rail- 

 way Company was put into regular passenger service between Sac- 

 ramento and Marysville. For years various roads have been projected 

 northward from Sacramento, but the people of the valley cities and the 

 rich agricultural country surrounding them hoped in vain for any outcome 

 of these various movements. It remained for the present company to de- 

 velop the magnificent system of which the length of track now in opera- 

 tion is only one link in a comprehensive interurban transit scheme invest- 

 ing the whole Sacramento Valley. The length of track between Chico 

 and Oroville has been in operation for more than a year, having been open- 

 ed for traffic in April, 1906. In November of the same year the road was 

 opened for business southward to Marysville. Other lines rapidly ap- 

 proaching completion are the arm from Marysville to Colusa and an 

 extension of the main line northward from Chico to Red Bluff, with the 

 idea of ultimately reaching Redding. Another projected branch will reach 

 westward from Chico to Hamilton and Orland. Meanwhile the California 

 Midland plans to reach eastward from Marysville and send branch roads 

 north and south of Crass Valley and Auburn. Active preparations are in 

 hand for the beginning of the Vallejo and Eastern, giving Sacramento elec- 

 tric transit to tide-water at Vallejo, and the Lake Tahoe electric connect- 

 ing the great Sierra resort with Sacramento. Thus the entire Sacramento 

 Valley is netted with modern electric roads, either completed and in opera- 

 tion, or in the last stages of completion, or projected for the immediate 

 future. Meanwhile the Northern Electric is securing franchises through 

 the towns on the west side of the valley, the plan being to build a north- 

 and-south line that will connect Winters, Woodland, Arbuckle, Colusa, 

 Willows, and the many other thriving agricultural towns on that side of 

 the big river. The Vallejo and Northern will provide the southern exten- 

 sion to tide-water. 



Meanwhile the line of the Central California Traction Company has 

 just been opened (Sept. 1st) between Stockton and Lodi, and this road is 

 being rapidly pushed to Sacramento on the north and Modesto on the 

 south. In another year or less these extensions will have become working 

 links, and continuous electric traction will thread the big interior valley 

 from Chico to Modesto. The line will be extended down the valley even- 

 tually to Fresno and Bakersfield, where as a final development southward 

 it will meet an electric line projected northward from the Los Angeles 

 system. Meanwhile, with the northern extension to Redding assured, 

 there remains only the difficult mountain country between that point 

 and Eureka to be conquered in order to bring the entire State from Hum- 

 boldt to San Diego counties within the stimulating mesh of interurban elec- 

 tric transit. 



The entire Northern Electric system, except the mileage within the 

 various city limits, is operated by direct current, with the third-rail con- 

 ductor, carrying a current of six hundred volts. Power is obtained from 

 the Valley Counties Power Company, in alternating current, transformed 

 to direct current in the Northern Electric Company's substations. The 

 roadbed is as fine as that on any railroad in the country, and the entire 

 equipment is of the very latest pattern, the passenger-cars being of the 

 standard Pullman type, although some of them are combination passenger, 

 baggage, and mail cars. When the system planned is in full operation 

 hourly trips will be made between terminal points, ranking the service 

 with that of the best interurban systems of the East. 



