If you shop at the Woodlands Shopping Center or fill up at the Woodlands Gas & Food Mart in Kentfield, more than likely you will be standing on ground that once was the site of the Kentfield train station. The North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC) opened a rail line between Sausalito and Cazadero in Sonoma County in the early 1870s to bring lumber and farm goods to San Francisco using a Sausalito ferry for the final leg of the journey. The original tracks were narrow-gauge, and the electric power for the trains utilized a ‘hot’ third rail running alongside. As Marin County grew over the ensuing decades, passenger rail service increased and eventually became its primary function.
There were over 20 stations between Sausalito and Manor Park in Fairfax with stations at Escalle just to the south of Kentfield and Ross to the north. There were also stops through the San Geronimo Valley to Pt. Reyes and points north. The NPC was purchased by the North Shore Railroad (NSR) in 1902 and operated by John Martin and Eugene de Sabla Jr., who were innovators and leaders in the electric railroad industry. They rebuilt the southern section through most of Marin to accommodate standard-gauge passenger trains alongside the steam-powered, narrow-gauge freight cars. In some locations dual-gauge tracks were used and in others there were separate lines. In 1907 the NSR became part of the newly formed Northwestern Pacific Railroad that merged 42 distinct railroads that serviced the California coast from Sausalito to Eureka.
Before the automobile became the dominant means of transportation, railroads were the fastest and most convenient means of travel for inter-city commutes. When the photograph above was taken in 1939, passengers leaving San Francisco on the ferry could arrive in Kentfield in about 50 minutes while relaxing in comfort. We look back on rail travel with rose-colored glasses, but there were incidents that were also dangerous and sometimes
deadly. Newspaper articles from as early as 1911 and as late as 1940 detailed accidents, just at the Kentfield station, that severely injured or took people’s lives. San Francisco millionaire and merchant, Frank Johnson, was killed in 1911 while attempting to board a moving train leaving the Kentfield station. Mrs. John F. Riddle and her infant son were hospitalized in 1925 with severe injuries as they disembarked from a train at the station after it lurched forward unexpectedly. Mrs. Mary Silva of Petaluma was killed in 1930 when she drove her car into the train at the railroad crossing and David Mariani lost his life in 1940 when his horse-drawn wagon was hit by an oncoming train. At its height, the railroad through Marin carried close to 10,000 passengers daily between San Francisco and the north bay. But with the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge and the increasing affordability of automobiles it was just a matter of time before rail travel in Marin would end. The last commuter train ran through the county in February of 1941 and all that is left of the system are a handful of stations that have been repurposed over the years and the trackless ‘right-of-ways’ that now serve as roads, bike paths and hiking trails.
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)