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Glossary · Railroads & Industry

Sacramento Valley Railroad

California’s first incorporated transit railroad: Sacramento toward Folsom, first train February 22, 1856.

The Sacramento Valley Railroad was incorporated on August 4, 1852, the first transit railroad company incorporated in California. Construction began in February 1855 and its first train ran on February 22, 1856. It was the West’s pioneering incorporated railroad and a forerunner of the Central Pacific.

A young survey engineer, Theodore Judah, was recruited to plan it.

Sources

Questions people ask

When did the Sacramento Valley Railroad open?

Its first train ran on February 22, 1856.

Related terms

  • Theodore JudahThe civil engineer who surveyed the route over the Sierra Nevada and found the investors for the Central Pacific; he died in 1863, six years before the line was finished.
  • Central Pacific RailroadThe company that built the western half of the first transcontinental railroad, eastward from Sacramento over the Sierra Nevada.
  • California State Railroad MuseumA California State Parks museum at 111 I Street in Old Sacramento with 21 restored locomotives and cars.

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