MARIAM HANSEN
ST. HELENA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
This is the story of how one of the last remnants of the electric San Francisco, Vallejo & Napa Valley Railway ended up in a backyard on Pope Street.
It all started when the Vallejo, Benicia & Napa Valley Railroad Company incorporated on April 24, 1902. The service was expanded to San Francisco and in 1906 the service was reincorporated as the San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley Railroad Company (S.F.V.&N.V. R.R. Co.). It was one of the few electric railroads in the west that ran on alternating current (AC). By December 1907 crews were laying track on St. Helenaâs Main Street and taking many loads of gravel out of Sulphur Creek for the rail bed.