Brackney Flag-Stop

Location of Brackney station and region (Courtesy Duncan Nanney)

It is common knowledge that the narrow pair bridges along CA State Route 9 between Felton and Ben Lomond are two of the most despised heavily-trafficked bridges in the county. What many do not know, however, is that the small community located there, Brackney, was once the site of a Southern Pacific Railroad flag-stop.

The area was named after Alonzo L. Brackney, a Pennsylvanian farmer who settled in the region at some point prior to 1889. He had built a small ranch on the river's jetty and transcripts available in the UC Santa Cruz Digital Collection note that Brackney purchased the entire jetty on May 18, 1889, from Frederick A. Hihn. This purchase was later confirmed on January 1, 1898, in official court records. The location of this ranch provided a crucial link between the Zayante Rancho (Felton) and the land being developed in Glen Arbor. Brackney's land was to encompass the entirety of the river jetty all the way to the Southern Pacific Railroad's right-of-way which ran along an embankment on the eastern hillside. During this period, the small flag-stop  was probably constructed to cater to Brackney's family and workers. Curiously, the location of Brackney was named "San Lorenzo" during this period, suggesting the hopeful establishment of a township in the area that never came to be.

The sharp turn at Brackney before heading around the bend toward Glen Arbor. A guard rail was apparently needed for trains that were not calling at Brackney. (Courtesy The Valley Press)

Brackney never developed into anything more than a waypoint between Felton and Ben Lomond. A pair of bridges over the river was built in December 1897, according to the Mountain Echo, though the original bridges were placed at a much lower elevation in relation to the river. The current bridges were probably built in the 1930s, though the date boxes on the bridge were never filled in. The flag-stop itself didn't begin appearing on railroad timetables until this Southern Pacific Railroad began releasing more detailed internal timetables in the late 1910s or early 1920s. Of those timetables accessible to this author, the earliest mention of Brackney was on an August 19, 1923, timetable that placed Brackney 74.3 miles south of San Francisco via the Mayfield Cut-off. It also placed it 5.4 miles south of Boulder Creek and 0.4 miles north of Bonny Brae.

A small shelter was established there similar in design to others along the route, namely those at Filbert and Newell Junction. As can be seen in the image above, the curve at Brackney was significant and required a guard rail for trains not calling at the flag-stop. The area was also much more barren than it is today, with a large field to the right of the tracks where today that area is completely overgrown. Telephone wires also followed the tracks on the river side, as can be seen above, and a cattle grate can also be seen on either side of the tracks, suggesting there were some domesticated animals in the area.

The junction where once stood Brackney flag-stop. The right-of-way continues to the left down the service road. The shelter once was just beyond the gate on the left. The right-of-way continues directly behind the photographer.

Brackney went out of disuse following the closure of the Boulder Creek Branch in 1934 and the flag-stop was undoubtedly demolished. Today, the site of the flag-stop sits at the top of Brackney Road at a spilt in the road where a Santa Cruz Water District service road leads east away from the main road. A small clearing where the shelter once stood still remains, but little else does. This service road is the right-of-way and continued virtually undisturbed all the way to the Christmas Tree farm near Bonny Brae. Indeed, the top part of Brackney Road from this intersection to another service road gate located about 1/6 mile west constitutes a paved and repurposed portion of the right-of-way. It mostly follows a large hedge before the road turns toward State Route 9. From this other service gate, the right-of-way continues unobstructed until one reaches a private property built on the right-of-way near Glen Arbor. Unfortunately, all right-of-ways north of Glen Arbor are obscured by modern constructs, thus emphasizing the importance of those surviving passages in the Brackney area.

Citations:

• Clark, Donald Thomas, Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographic Dictionary (Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008).