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Curiosities: Monterey Bay Area Static Locomotives
Throughout its history, the Southern Pacific Railroad maintained thousands of steam locomotives. But when steam was fazed out in the mid-1950s, most of the locomotives went to scrap, the cost of...
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Maps: Vasona to Cats Canyon
The 4.5 miles of South Pacific Coast and Southern Pacific Railroad trackage that once ran from Vasona, near modern-day California State Route 85, to the top of Cats Canyon, now the James J. Lenihan...
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Bridges: Lower Los Gatos Creek
A photograph showing the bridge acrossLos Gatos Creek with the Los GatosManufacturing Company at the end, c. 1900.Photo by Alice Hare. [San Jose Public Library]When the South Pacific Coast Railroad...
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Stations: Rock Quarry Spur & Lyndon
It is a curious thing when a railroad passes near to a town but builds no stop for it. It is an omen that the town has declined in importance or that, because of its bypassing, it will decline. In the...
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Stations: Alma
A mile south of Lexington at the confluence of Conoyer (Soda Springs) Creek into Los Gatos Creek and at fork where the old San José-Santa Cruz Highway split with the toll road to Glenwood once sat the...
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Stations: Oil City & Aldercroft
People cruise down California State Route 17 every day, speeding over Moody Gulch without a second thought. Over a century earlier, in 1879 and 1880, dozens of Chinese construction workers for the...
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Stations: Forest Grove & Eva
Los Gatos Creek near Eva, c. 1907. Photo byFrank Herman Mattern. [Greg De Santis]As the route of the South Pacific Coast Railroad ventured up Los Gatos Creek toward Wright, the railroad sought venues...
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Stations: Call of the Wild
The meadows and forested areas along upper Los Gatos Creek were considered by many to be some of the most picturesque lands in all of California. The fact that the South Pacific Coast Railroad decided...
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Curiosities: Proposed Routes Out of the San Lorenzo Valley
Lumber companies, residents, and railroad firms operating within the San Lorenzo Valley were never very content with the limited extent of their railroads. As early as November 8, 1876, a company was...
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Bridges: Upper Los Gatos Creek
The five miles of trackage between Lexington and the Summit Tunnel at Wright was some of the most rugged terrain the South Pacific Coast Railroad encountered on their ascent into the Santa Cruz...
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Stations: Wright
Of all the inevitabilities that the South Pacific Coast Railroad faced on its descend up Los Gatos Creek, one was that the right-of-way would have to pass through the land of Reverend James Richard...
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Picnic Stops: Sunset Park
Of the series of picnic stops developed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Sunset Park, located just north of Wright, was probably the most popular and infamous. Despite...
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Tunnels: Summit (Tunnel 2)
Legends whisper about it. Ghosts haunt it. Gas leaks from it. And rumor plagues it. Nothing ever constructed in the Santa Cruz Mountains received as much fame and infamy as the South Pacific Coast...
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Maps: Lyndon to Summit Tunnel
The scenic ride along Los Gatos Creek between the southern end of Cats Canyon and the western portal of the Summit Tunnel (Tunnel #2) lacked none for aesthetic beauty. For 5.2 miles, the South Pacific...
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Railroads: Early Monterey Bay Railroad Companies
Much like the railroads that attempted to reach San Francisco along the Central Coast, numerous railroads were founded from 1868 to 1907 to link the Monterey Bay to San Benito County and the Central...
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Curiosities: Feasibility Studies to Restore the Mountain Route
On February 7, 1938, regularly-scheduled passenger service between Santa Cruz and Watsonville along the Southern Pacific Railroad Company’s Santa Cruz Branch was discontinued. Twice-daily passenger...
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People: Thomas L. and Weltha A. Bell
Santa Cruz County did not simply develop because of the railroad. It was the effort of individual people who helped turn a small, isolated county on the northern fringe of the Monterey Bay into a...
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Bridges: Soquel Creek
Bridges are an essential part of any railroad and nowhere in Santa Cruz County is there a bridge more iconic than the Soquel Creek bridge that towers over Capitola Village. Two bridges have spanned...
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Curiosities: Big Trees
For such a popular tourist resort, Big Trees in Felton—now known as Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park—is one of the least understood places in the county. The history of the site begins in February...
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Railroads: Ocean Shore Railway & Railroad Companies
Official Ocean Shore Railroad map, c. 1910s.The years prior to the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 were bonanza years for railroads along the Central Coast. Numerous plans were taking shape to...
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