CP in Sacramento in Early 1868

From: "Larry Mullaly" lmullaly@jeffnet.org

I am working on an account of the California State legislature, December-March, 1868. The legislature at that time met at the Sacramento County courthouse on the northwest corner of 7th and I streets. I am trying to get a sense of the physical presence of the Central Pacific in the capital during this period.

The article on the Sacramento Shops by Bob Pecotich that appeared in the SP Trainline, Fall 2003, indicates that at this time the CP shops were limited to a 20' x 150' wood car construction building at 6th and “I” reached by a "levee-top" track running from the river. This would seem to put this structure on the adjacent block to the legislature. I am assuming that Folsom was still the primary location of the railroads locomotive shops.

Some questions: where are CP's mainline tracks to the wharf/depot area located at this time? Were there other CP facilities in the city at this time, apart from the K Street offices, and the relatively modest shop building listed above? How intensive were the fill operations during the winter of 1868?

Overall, the physical presence of the CP in Sacramento, apart from the railroad extensive wharves, seems surprisingly limited.

—Larry

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Houseworth stereoview #1202 Sacramento City - China Slough.

Houseworth stereoview #1203 Sacramento City, Central Pacific RR Works, at China Slough.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress and Kyle Wyatt.