Interurbans In Marin County was originally a presentation given during the Redwood Empire Express Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society and Northwestern Pacific Historical Society joint convention held in 2017.

The original program can be found here:

   • Interurbans In Marin County: Electrif...  

Marin County north of San Francisco was once an area of heavy rail activity, as steam and electric trains polished the rails of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad between Sausalito, San Rafael, and Manor. We hop aboard the NWP Ferry 'Cazadero' for a trip across the bay from San Francisco to Sausalito. We then follow then electric lines of the Northwestern Pacific north to Almonte, where we go up and back on the Mill Valley Branch. Once leaving Almonte we head north to Baltimore Park and over to San Rafael via the Green Brae cutoff. See the classic wooden equipment dating back to 1902, as well as the steel interurbans from 1929 and 1930. Once at San Rafael we follow the mainline west to San Anselmo, where trains head for Manor, or back towards Sausalito. We then head south back to Sausalito by way of the mainline through Ross, and Larkspur, before heading back through Almonte and along Richardson Bay into Sausalito. A trip aboard the NWP ferry 'Tamalpais' back to San Francisco along with views of the ferry 'Eureka' concludes the tour of the NWP electrics.

Today, Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit operates DMU trains out of Larkspur, through San Rafael and up to Santa Rosa using the original Northwestern Pacific. Several structures still stand and much of the old interurban right-of-way can still be explored as hiking and biking trails.

This video consists of 8mm and 16mm color movies from 4 different railfans, and shows the NWP electric operation in its entirety before it all disappeared.

Enjoy your trip around Marin by way of the Redwood Empire Route!