About Our Train
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Railroad History
The Napa Valley Wine Train's history is almost as long as the state of California's. The rail line upon which the train travels was built in 1864 by San Francisco's first millionaire, Samuel Brannan, in order to take visitors to his spa resort of 'Calistoga'. Shortly thereafter, Brannan was forced to sell many of his holdings in order to pay for his divorce, and the railroad became the property of California Pacific Railroad, and then Southern Pacific bought the Napa Valley Railroad in 1885. During the late part of the 19th centuary and the early part of the 20th centuary, the railroad played a vital role in the economic and agricultural development of the Napa Valley, and provided regular passenger service to the communities of the valley.
With the birth of the automobile, however, the train began to lose much of its former importance. Passenger service was discontinued in the 1930's. Southern Pacific abandoned the right of way north of St. Helena in 1960. And by 1984 Southern Pacific ran only one frieght train a week on the tracks. In an effort to make a profit on the faltering rail line, Southern Pacific chose to abondon the line and sell the property in 1984.
In 1987 a group of concerned citizens founded the Napa Valley Wine Train, with the goal of preserving the transportation corridor for future use and reducing traffic congestion in the valley. The Napa Valley Wine Train purchased the rail line from Southern Pacific, restored vintage 1910's era Pullman rail cars, and hired a team of food service experts to provide visitors with an unmatched luxury rail experience. Over the last 20 years, we at the Napa Valley Wine Train has been improving the right of way, and has made modern improvements to some of our antique equipment.
1915-17 Pullman Cars
In 1915 the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) bought thirty three new First Class Coaches from the Pullman Company. These cars, numbers 1200 through 1232, were put into service on the Northern Pacific's premiere trains, the North Coast Limited and the Northern Pacific Express/Atlantic Express. The new cars were just under eighty feet long and were built entirely out of steel. An all steel car offered significant improvements in safety to rail travelers, a fact which had led passengers to demand that cars be made out of steel instead of wood. Wood cars were more likely to break up, burn, or be telescoped in an accident. The trade-off was that these newly built steel cars were heavy. Each weighed about 141,100 pounds and rode on six-wheel trucks. Other amenities of the newly built cars included electric lights, steam heat and arched windows. A single car contained seating for eighty four passengers.
In 1935, after twenty years service that included the heavy traffic loads of World War I, the railroad began rebuilding the cars. The United States was in the middle of the Great Depression, and passenger traffic was down significantly from twenty years earlier. Competition among the railroads was great, each trying to outdo the others to attract a smaller number of travelers. In order to remain competitive, the NP decided to install better seats, to give the passengers more room, and more significantly, to add air conditioning equipment. This was the general state of the cars in 1960, when the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad purchased eight of these cars for its Ski Train service from Denver to Winter Park. NP 1214, 1217, 1225, 1227, 1216, 1213, 1210, and 1218 became D&RGW 1011-1018.
In 1987 they were traded to the Napa Valley Wine Train. The Napa Valley Wine Train began an extensive restoration project to restore and recreate the cars. Using the Orient Express, Andalusian Express and other luxury railroads as a model, the train was furnished with Honduran mahogany paneling, brass accents, etched glass partitions, and velveteen fabric armchairs. Great effort was exerted to ensure that the interior of the railcars evoked the spirit of luxury rail travel at the beginning of the twentieth century
Another 1915 Pullman Car, originally built for the Southern Pacific Railroad, serves as the Napa Valley Wine Train 'Chef de Cuisine' kitchen car. Guests are invited to observe our chefs in action from the windows of a mahogany-paneled passageway that passes by our onboard kitchen.
Vista Dome Car
Ten Dome Cars, numbered 50 through 59, were built in 1952 by Pullman Standard. These were the first "full domes" built and the first Pullman Standard domes with curved glass. They seated 68 above and 28 in a cafe downstairs and needed 16 tons of air to cool the cars. A 70hp diesel generator was included. Our Dome car, number 52, went into service on the Olympian Hiawatha. It was then transfered and renamed several times becoming Columbia and numbered CN 2405 by Columbia National, then named Mt. McKinley by Princess/Tour Alaska. Next used on the Princess California Express, it became Amtrak Auto Train number 9311 before finding its home at the Napa Valley Wine Train as the Champagne. This car's exterior was rebuilt by the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus train yard.
Our Locomotives
FPA-4 Diesel Locomotives
What does FPA-4 mean? 'F' for Freight, 'P' for Steam Generator, and 'A' for Cab Unit. DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE means that diesel engines drive an electric generator which provides electricity to the traction motors that turn all four sets of wheels on the locomotives
The ALCO FA was a family of B-B (two identical trucks, or wheel assemblies under the locomotive) diesel locomotives designed to haul freight trains. Our locomotives were built in Montreal Canada at Montreal Locomotive works, the Canadian equivalent to the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). NVR70 was built in 1958 and 71,72 & 73 were built in 1959. They are a dual passenger-freight version of a Cab Unit design. Geared to operate at over 90 mph, they were originally equipped with a steam generator for heating passenger cars. The steam has been replaced by our Head End Power (HEP) units that provides electricity for the passenger cars.
Newer mechanical design and models manufactured by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and General Electric (GE) ultimately led to the retirement of the locomotive model from service. Several FPAs still exist in a preserved state in railroad museums. In addition to our operating FPAs, a few are in operational status for the Grand Canyon Railroad.
Locomotive 71 (Compressed Natural Gas)
The Napa Valley Wine Train started a program for the experimental conversion of a Napa Valley Wine Train Alco locomotive to 60% natural gas and 40% diesel fuel mixture. In 1999 the conversion became permanent. A total conversion of locomotive 71 was completed and it was put into service using 100% Compressed Natural Gas on 5/14/08. The four ALCO FA4 diesel locomotives were purchased from the Canadian National Railroad.