Sacramento Valley Historical Railways

Happy 4th of July from the Historic Woodland Train Depot! The band prepares to welcome the first Northern Electric Railway train as it arrives on Main Street in Woodland July 4, 1912. Looking east on Main Street, the train makes its way through the crowd to the new Northern Electric depot on the southwest corner of Main and Second Streets. In the second photo on the same day looking west, the 4th of July parade crosses the newly constructed Northern Electric tracks in the intersection of Main and Second Streets. The track on the right went north on Second Street past the Opera House to Beamer Street. The track on the left turned into the new depot. Note the unfinished paving between the rails.

On this date in 1869, the California Pacific Railroad arrived in Woodland. Per the Yolo Mail newspaper: "The railroad track has crossed Main Street in our town, reaching out for Knight's Landing. The bell and whistle of the Locomotive combine to reassure us of the fact that Woodland has railroad communication with important points on the Pacific coast, Chicago, N.Y. City and nearly all the balance of creation."

We are having a work day this Saturday May 8 beginning a 9 am to clean up the depot grounds. We could use a couple of pick up trucks to haul stuff to the dump. If you would like to help, bring your good spirits and your mask.

The restoration of the wooden waiting room bench has been completed and the bench now resides in the main waiting room of the depot.

More replica signs have been installed on the depot in the original 1916 locations. The "No Bicycle Riding" signs were installed on each end of the building, while the telephone and telegraph signs were installed over the east door of the waiting room.

Work on the exterior portion of the Portal to the Past project has been completed. In November of 1959, Southern Pacific replaced the original single exterior on the west side of the Main Waiting Room with a set of double doors to accommodate the Greyhound Bus Company who moved in to the Waiting Room in January of 1960. Other modifications were made for Greyhound, including removing the wall between the Main Waiting Room and the Women’s Waiting Room, and replacing the windows on the north side of the Women’s Waiting Room with double doors. The double doors put in place for Greyhound on the west side of the Main Waiting Room have now been replaced by a single door to replicate the original 1911 doorway. Interior work on the project remains, including installing new wainscoting and plastering the wall.