Ellicott on the Southern Pacific line, 1914. (USGS) |
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A double-header cruising southeast near Ellicott, April 25, 1949. (Wilbur Whittaker Collection) |
Though regularly-scheduled passenger service along the line had ended in 1938, Ellicott was still an active freight station at the time World War II started in late 1941. When it was finally abandoned as a stop is not presently known by this author, though the last mention of the station in newspapers is in 1973. The location of the stop was just north of the junction of San Andreas Road and Buena Vista Drive near Freedom.
Citations:
- Clark, Donald. Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary. Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2007.
Ellicott is still shown on the Coast Division Timetable # 178 of September 27, 1959 with a
ReplyDeletesiding capacity of 12 cars. The next Coast Division Timetable I have is # 185 for April 28, 1963.
Ellicott is no longer listed in this timetable.
That picture: baggage car and day coaches are a strange mix.
ReplyDeleteThe 'return' of the Suntan Special was at an odd time, especially since the direct route was abandoned for no real reason (although, those tunnels were a problem due to earthquakes and maybe pockets of explosive gas. Plans for the reservoir thirteen years out, might have even been voiced.)
Does "regularly-scheduled passenger service" not include the Suntan because it only raced along the branch without stopping at smaller platforms? I'm guessing that this might be the case; 1959 was the actual end of service, I think. Was the resurrected Suntan a regular train, or another excursion train?
Suntans Specials were "specials", which means they were not regularly-scheduled, though during the summers you could say they were "regularly-scheduled", just not in the technical sense. It only stopped at Watsonville, Aptos, Capitola, Casino, Santa Cruz, and, on request, Big Trees (North Gate). It also only ran on Sundays. Other excursion trains ran year-round.
DeleteThe explosive gases weren't a problem after 1893 when the gas leak was bricked in and then concreted over. Slides were always a problem, though, and were what really ended the line. Well, that and sinks, washouts, etc.
hello. i saw a framed small poster for sale that said "return of the suntan special" kind of cool, wish i had bought it. i cant find it on google. have you seen anything like that? do you think its rare? thanks
ReplyDelete