Western Pacific Railroad

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c. 1914 Map of the Western Pacific and Denver and Rio Grande Western systems
An EMD FP7 leads the California Zephyr east through Altamont Pass in 1970
Overview
Headquarters	Oakland, California
Founders	George Jay Gould
Reporting mark	WP
Locale	Western United States
Dates of operation	1903–1982; 42 years ago (1982)
Successor	Union Pacific Railroad
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Western Pacific Railroad (reporting mark WP) was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route directly competed with SP's portion of the Overland Route for rail traffic between Salt Lake City/Ogden, Utah, and Oakland, California, for nearly 80 years. The Western Pacific was one of the original operators of the California Zephyr passenger line.

In 1982, the Western Pacific was acquired by the Union Pacific Corporation and it was soon merged into the Union Pacific Railroad.^[1]