The Napa Valley Wine Train

The tracks running through the valley carry one of Napa's most beloved attractions, the Napa Valley Wine Train. The rail line beneath it is far older than the tourist train. It was built in the eighteen sixties by Samuel Brannan, the flamboyant entrepreneur often called California's first millionaire, who built it to carry visitors from the ferries at the bay up to his resort at Calistoga.

Later the mighty Southern Pacific Railroad took over the line and expanded passenger service, and for decades the train was how people and freight moved through the valley. As automobiles took over, passenger service faded, and by the nineteen thirties it had largely stopped. In nineteen eighty five Southern Pacific moved to abandon the line.

A public campaign to save the tracks eventually drew the interest of Vincent DeDomenico, the businessman behind Rice A Roni, who helped acquire the line and reinvented it. Since the late nineteen eighties the restored vintage cars have carried diners on a leisurely thirty six mile round trip between the town of Napa and Saint Helena, gliding past the vineyards while passengers enjoy multi course meals. It is a living piece of the railroad that first opened this valley to the world.