Oakland to Stockton

The Feather River Route is divided into the following subdivisions:

·        Oakland Subdivision from Melrose (Oakland) to Stockton

Track from the SP station at Oakland Mole, crossing the SP line through the East Bay at the former location of Magnolia Tower, leads to WP's Oakland Station on Third Street at Washington, a block north of Broadway. The track runs down the middle of the street all the way through the city, crossing a former SP branch on the flat east of Fulton Street. The ex-WP along Oakland’s Third Street through the city has now been abandoned, initially in favor of a connection to the former SP East Bay line at 5th Street, reaching the ex-WP line at 7th Street, whence the ex-WP line ran southeast along the west side of the BART elevated line, through Fruitvale, to Melrose. By 1999, the connection from the ex-SP line had been moved to Melrose (MP 10.3 on the Niles subdivision, a few miles south of Oakland), a Yard Limits connection crossing San Leandro Street and 47th Avenue at grade on the way, with an extra track on the spur, that reaches the former WP line at the CP F010 Hold Signal (MP 10.6), the beginning of CTC on this single track line, with an initial speed limit of 10 mph.

The former WP line between Oakland and Niles Junction runs alongside the elevated BART Fremont line over its entire length, initially on the east side of that line, heading southeast. San Leandro Street runs along the west side of the line. There are grade crossings at 48th, 49th, 50th, 51st, 52nd, 53rd and 54th Avenues. The ex-WP line passes Kohler (MP 11.3), where an industrial spur heads northeast, under the BART line, and crosses Seminary Avenue, 66th Avenue and 69th Avenue at grade. Snell Street is alongside to the east (with San Leandro Street still to the west) as the BART Oakland Coliseum station is overhead, followed by the 73rd Street overbridge. There are grade crossings at 75th, 77th, 81st, 85th, 92nd and 98th Avenues, and. then a location where an SP industrial track once crossed on the flat,  near Elmhurst (MP 13.7), where there is a grade crossing at 105th Street, and San Leandro Street crosses to the east side of the line.

There is a grade crossing at Peralta Avenue, MP 14.1, where a spur heads northeast to California Glass, the line crosses over San Leandro Creek and under the BART viaduct (which then runs on the east side of the line), and the speed limit rises to 35 mph, and a grade crossing at Davis Street. San Leandro (MP 14.7), where the speed limit rises to 60 mph, is essentially under the BART San Leandro station. There are grade crossings at Thornton, Williams, and Castro Streets and Marina Boulevard. There is a Hold Signal at CP F015 (MP 15.4), San Leandro Boulevard (as it has become) turns away to the east, there is a grade crossing at W 137th Avenue, and the line bridges over Washington Avenue. There are grade crossings at 139th and 143rd Avenues, Estudillo (MP 16.1), grade crossings at Halcyon Drive and Hesperian Avenue, the BART Bayfair station overhead, the line bridges over Ashland Avenue, and passes beneath SR 238 where the BART Dublin line leaves the BART Fremont line and beneath East Lewelling Boulevard.

There are grade crossings at Hampton Road, as Western Avenue comes along both sides of the line, Medford Avenue, Cherry Way, Blossom Way, Sunset Boulevard, A Street and B Street, a 6,922 ft. siding at Hayward (MP 19.4-20.9), almost directly underneath the BART Hayward station, bridges over D Street, Jackson Street (SR 92), Ward Creek, Orchard Avenue, with Whitman Street alongside to the west, Harder Road, and Zeile Creek, a grade crossing at Sorenson Road, a bridge over Tennyson Road, the South Hayward BART station overhead, a detector at MP 23.2, the BART viaduct crosses overhead from east side to west side, and the line bridges over Industrial Parkway West, crosses above the former SP Niles subdivision, and bridges over BART Access Road. At Carpenter (MP 24.9), industrial spurs head off to the west side of the line,  and the BART Hayward Yard and Shops are on the east side of the line. There is a Hold Signal at CP F025 (MP25.6), where more industrial spurs go off on the east side, and a grade crossing at Whipple Road.

The line passes through Union City (MP 25.9),  across F, G, H and I Streets at grade, beneath the BART viaduct to its east side, across Decoto Road at grade, adjacent to Decoto (MP 26.6), under the BART Union City station on the BART viaduct on the west side, Fabrico (MP 27.0), where there are industrial spurs on the east side, under Niles Boulevard, a Hold Signal at CP F027 (MP 27.8), and Eberly (MP 28.9). The line bridges over the Alameda Flood Control Channel (Alameda Creek) and curves due east, along the south side of the creek, through a 4,042 ft. siding between West Fremont (MP 29.3), where the speed limit falls to 30 mph, and Fremont (MP 30.1) before reaching the complex Niles Junction area.

Niles Junction, at the west end of Niles Canyon, is the point where the Niles Canyon line, the former SP and former WP lines through Hayward to Oakland, the former WP and SP lines to San Jose via Milpitas, and the former SP line to Newark via Fremont, all converge. The ex-WP main line first passes through Niles Sub Xing (MP 30.6), where the speed limit is 10 mph across the flat crossing with the former SP line, a connector northeast from that line trails in from the south,  bridges over Mission Boulevard (SR 238), and the ex-WP line south to Milpitas and San Jose heads off to the south-southeast at a wye junction at Niles Junction (MP 30.9), where the speed limit is 40 mph for passenger trains and 35 mph for freights. There is a grade crossing at Clarke Drive as the line turns north-northeast to enter Niles Canyon.

Both ex-WP line and erstwhile SP trackbed east from Niles pass through Niles Canyon, where some of the SP trackbed is now used by a tourist railroad, to the north of the ex-WP line., which turns east again and passes through 4,321 ft. tunnel 1 (MP 32.1) and 407 ft. tunnel 2 (MP 33.4), while the canyon curves around to the north. Niles Canyon Road (SR 84) crosses overhead while the line is in tunnel 1, and crosses back while the line is in tunnel 2, with the creek alongside to the north.  Curving along the canyon, but still heading generally east, the line passes through Sunol (MP 38.0), and then follows the canyon as it turns north.

There is a 4,175 ft. siding at Hearst (MP 37.6-38.6), after which the line crosses the trackbed of the erstwhile SP line. On the west side of the Livermore Valley, the line turns northeast, through Pleasanton (MP 41.2), where the Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) has a passenger station and the speed limit is 60-40 rising to 70-60 immediately thereafter, there is a detector at MP 42.5 and a Hold Signal at CP F043 (MP 42.9), as the line turns east, again in an urban area, passing a spur at MP 42.9 and through Radum (MP 43.4) and the 12,378 ft. siding at Livermore (MP 47.0-49.5), where the speed limit falls to 60-50, after which the line passes a spur at Trevarno (MP 49.2) and through Fox (MP 50.3), where there is a spur, the ACE station at Vasco Road (MP 50.7), and Lincoln (MP 51.5), where the speed limit falls to 55-50.

Between the Livermore-Pleasanton Valley and the San Joaquin Valley, the line crosses Altamont Pass, through rolling hills covered in (usually) yellow grass, sharing the pass with an Interstate Highway and the trackbed of the erstwhile SP line through this area. The speed limit is 35-30 on the west side of the pass  The line makes a sweeping curve around to the north,  passes under the  highway and crosses the SP trackbed and the adjacent cleft that comprises the pass on a deck girder bridge and steel trestle, and then turns east into the pass, on the north side of the cleft, with the SP trackbed on the far side. Cleft, road, and lines then curve around to the northeast, and then east-northeast, past the 5,418 ft. siding at Altamont (MP 55.6-56.7) and over the top of the pass. The speed limit on the east side of the pass is 40-35. The ex-WP line makes a sharp turn to the south, passing under the westbound lanes of the highway, and over the eastbound lanes on a beautiful concrete arch bridge, and then turns east, south, east and south again as it descends along the southwest side of the cleft (grassy hillside to its southwest), through Redmond Cut (MP 59.3), where the speed limit rises to 40-35, turning east, and then southeast to the 5,508 ft. siding at Midway (MP 62.8-63.9), where the speed limit rises to 60-40, falls again to 40-35 at the east switch, and then rises to 70-60 on the floor of the San Joaquin Valley.

 Turning east, with some curves back and forth as it passes through the foothills, the line passes a detector at MP 69.5, a spur at Avala (MP 70.9), a spur to the southwest with a wye connector at the west end of the 10,692 ft. siding at Tracy (MP 71.7-73.9), and near its center (MP 72.8), where the line turns northeast, passes a spur at MP 73.8 and crosses the former SP (now California Western) "West Side Line" on the flat at Lyoth (MP 74.1), where the speed limit is 30 mph through the crossing, rising again to 70-60 afterwards. The line passes through Cochran (MP 76.6) and turns north as it passes through the 5,377 ft. siding at Wyche (MP 81.6--82.7, where the speed limits is 60 mph before rising to 79-60 past the ACE Lathrop-Manteca station (MP 82.7) and the UP Connection (MP 84.3), where the connector northwest to join the former SP "Fresno Line" heads off, and dropping to 25 mph for the flat crossing with that line at Hicks  (MP 64.5).

By the time it reaches the 10,483 ft. siding at Lathrop (MP 84.7-87.3), the line has left the east-west alignment it had taken across the San Joaquin Valley and runs north-south across the flatland of the Sacramento River Delta all the way to Stockton (and Sacramento). The speed limit is again 79-60, past the connector to the Army Supply Depot (MP 85.8), part way along the Lathrop siding, French Camp (MP 88.4), Ortega (MP 90.0), where the former Tidewater Southern line from Modesto trails in, and used to continue to the northwest across the parallel ex-SP line, and the speed limit falls to 20 mph, McKinley Avenue (MP 90.4), where a connector to the ex-SP line at Hunter Street heads northwest, CP F091 (MP 90.9), the south end of the tracks in Stockton Yard, Stockton Yard (MP 91.7), the north end of those tracks, where the speed limit falls to 10 mph, Charter Way (MP 92.7), where a connection to the BNSF Mormon Yard departs to the northeast and the line turns northwest, and Scotts (MP 93.1), where the line joins the ex-SP line just south of the flat crossings with the BNSF at the former location of Stockton Tower.