>>1176851Now we get to my absolute favourite: The Sacramento Northern.
The Key System and IER operated as commuter-style interurban streetcars. They mostly ran through the east bay conurbation and into San Francisco when the bridge railway opened.
The Sacramento Northern was different, so much so that it deserves greentexting:
>from it's inception in 1926 to the end of passenger service in 1941 it was the fastest train from San Francisco to Sacramento, at 2h47, later cut down to 2h40 with the bridge railway>The fastest competing train was Southern Pacific, taking 2h55>the journey started from San Francisco using Key System Ferry to Key System pier, from there SN train on Key System C-line tracks until SN trackage>about halfway to Sacramento the train crossed Suisun Bay on a SN train ferry, and then continued on to Sacramento and Chico>The whole trip used three different electrifications, pantograph on Key System tracks, trolleypole on SN tracks until Sacramento, third rail from Sacramento to Chico>Some trains were equipped with all three current collection systems to make the whole 183 mile trip>In 1939 you could take an electric train from SF to Sacramento, taking less than 2h45>for comparison, present-day local buses take 3h10, fast buses 1h50 