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Station: Thompson
In the Rancho Bolsa Nuevo y Moro Cojo alongside the Old Salinas River south of Moss Landing due west of Castroville once sat the little stop for the Thompson family along the Pajaro Valley Railroad....
View ArticleStations: Warnock
The history of the Warnock family of Salinas is a little-known story. The family immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1868 and eventually moved to the Salinas Valley, certainly before 1879....
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Stations: Ranch
Daguerreotype of John Rogers Cooper, 1851.[Bancroft Library]The lower Salinas Valley served as a rich source of sugar beets for Claus Spreckels' sugar refineries both in Watsonville and outside...
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Stations: Struve
1913-1914 US Geological Survey map showing Struve.Like many of the sugar beet-farming families along the Pajaro Valley Consolidated Railroad, the Struves were actually residents of Santa Cruz County...
View ArticleStation: Mack
Along the southern edge of Rancho Bolsa del Potrero y Morocojo (or La Sagrada Familia) once sat the simply-named Mack Station of the Pajaro Valley Railroad. This location is named after Charles...
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Stations: Vasona Junction
A SP train approaching the wye at Vasona Junction, 1940s[Los Gatos Public Library]Within the grand scheme of the Southern Pacific Railroad's operations, there was nothing noteworthy about Vasona when...
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Railroads: Early Coast Railroad Companies
There have been a total of eight known attempts to construct a railroad between San Francisco and Santa Cruz along the coast. What is remarkable is that none of them succeeded, and only two ever even...
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Stations: Parr's Spur, Bermingham and Bulwer
Portrait of Jonathan Parr [Los Gatos Library]At the northern end of Vasona Reservoir along today's University Avenue once sat the short-lived Parr's Spur Track. This stop first appeared in Southern...
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Freight Stops: Standard Oil Spur
YOU CAN HELP!If you have information about the Standard Oil Company in Los Gatos,leave a comment below or email author@santacruztrains.com.A classic steam locomotive passing the Standard Oilfacility in...
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Freight Stop: Los Gatos Lumber Patrons
Railroading in the Santa Cruz Mountains was always dominated by the lumber trade. From 1875 until 1922, the lumber industry commanded every single local railroad branch line. But even after the route...
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Freight Stop: Sacred Heart Novitiate Winery
Novitiate Winery main structure, c. 1900. [John Baggerly]Perhaps an unlikely patron of the Los Gatos freight yard was the Sacred Heart Novitiate Winery that for over a century has overlooked Los Gatos....
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Railroads: Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company Railroad
The Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company in Davenport, first opened in 1905 and was initially serviced by the Ocean Shore Railroad, although the Coast Line Railroad, a Southern Pacific subsidiary,...
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Freight Stops: Los Gatos Canning Company & Hunts Cannery
South Pacific Coast boxcars sitting on the spur awaiting pickup at the LosGatos Canning Company, c. 1900. [John Baggerly]For most of its existence, the Silicon Valley was known better for its crops...
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Freight Stops: Los Gatos Manufacturing Company Spur
Los Gatos Manufacturing Company with trestle,c. 1900. Photo by Alice Lola Hare. [Clyde Arbuckle]Los Gatos would have been little more than a picnic stop had it not been for the economic development...
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Los Gatos Freight Yard
Los Gatos sat at a unique position along the South Pacific Coast Railroad's original line. It marked the southern extent of the non-mountainous portion of the railroad's primary route. It also was...
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Stations: Los Gatos
Los Gatos was not always the gem of the foothills. It began in 1840 as Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos (corner of the cats), a reference to the high number of bobcats and cougars that often descended...
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Picnic Stops: Grove Park
Throughout the sixty years that the railroad route over the Santa Cruz Mountains existed, picnic stops of all shapes and sizes were in high demand. When the South Pacific Coast Railroad reached the...
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Quarterly Bulletin – Vol. 2: No. 4 (Oct-Dec 2017)
Santa Cruz Trains Quarterly BulletinVol. 2: No. 3 – July-September 2017(Also available as a downloadable PDF)Feature Article:One Last Ride on the Del MonteBy Duncan Nanney April 30, 1971 was a day like...
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Tunnels: Cats Canyon
As the South Pacific Coast Railroad began its journey up Los Gatos Creek toward Santa Cruz in early February 1878, it encountered two areas in Cats Canyon that could not be overcome except through...
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Sights: Cats Canyon
There were many scenic and picturesque locales along the South Pacific Coast Railroad's route to Santa Cruz, and one of the most heavily photographed was Cats Canyon. Cats Canyon is a roughly 1.5-mile...
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