Railroad: Southern Pacific's Pajaro Branch

Santa Cruz County had much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day, November 30, 1871. Following years of debate, investment, and disappointment, the county was finally connected to the rest of the United States via rail. On November 27, the Southern Pacific Railroad completed the Pajaro Branch—a 17.2-mile standard-gauge line from Gilroy to a tiny village across the Pajaro River from Watsonville. While not technically within the county, the station at Pajaro was eagerly embraced by the residents of Watsonville and beyond. All life within the Pajaro Valley came to revolve around the railroad and its many benefits. Farmers and ranchers abandoned landings and ports in favor of the station. Lumber companies stopped hauling laden wagons through the mountains or to the coast, opting instead for the ease of a flatcar. And travelers, tired of long trips over dusty roads in cramped stagecoaches, embraced the efficient wonder of a passenger coach. As the track continued south to Castroville and Salinas, the branch line became the mainline and eventually the Coast Division of a grand transcontinental railroad that linked San Francisco to Los Angeles and destinations in the East.

Southern Pacific No. 2534 approaching Watsonville Junction, circa late 1940s. [Courtesy Yesteryear Depot – colorized using MyHeritage]

The extension of the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad from San Jose to Gilroy via its subsidiary, the Santa Clara & Pajaro Valley Railroad, was completed two years earlier, on April 8, 1869. The idea of this new terminal motivated the hearts and minds of Santa Cruz County residents, prompting them to incorporate their own railroad in June 1867to complete the connection to Watsonville: the California Coast Railroad. At the time, this seemed like a prudent course of action since the planned Southern Pacific Railroad, which the Gilroy line would form a part, intended to continue south through San Juan Bautista and then over the mountains into the San Joaquín Valley. County residents felt that, to ensure a railroad would reach the Pajaro Valley, local action was necessary, if only to entice Southern Pacific to turn west. Fortunately for local pocketbooks, Southern Pacific showed its hand in January 1870 when it incorporated the subsidiary California Southern Railroad to build a railroad between Gilroy and Salinas. The only question remaining was: when would construction begin?

Official survey map for the Southern Pacific Railroad south of San José, later incorporated as the Santa Clara & Pajaro Valley Railroad, surveyed by T. J. Arnold and drawn by G. F. Allardy, 1868. [Courtesy Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History, San José State University]

Not immediately, as it became clear. On October 12, 1870, Southern Pacific reincorporated, absorbing the San Francisco & San Jose, Santa Clara & Pajaro Valley, and California Southern Railroads in the process. The company was now under the direct control of the Central Pacific Railroad’s Big Four: Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker. This sudden change convinced locals that the railroad had changed its mind and would take a different route south. Frederick A. Hihn and others once again incorporated an alternative line in April 1871 with plans to connect Santa Cruz with San José, this time via a narrow-gauge route along Soquel Creek. A the same time, General William S. Rosecrans and E. N. Robinson began surveying for a narrow-gauge railroad that would run the entire length of the coast from San Francsico to Los Angeles, passing through Santa Cruz County on the way. Meanwhile, in June, Pajaro Valley residents began a subscription drive to convince Southern Pacific to build a branch line to Watsonville. Regardless of the motivating factor, on July 17 Southern Pacific held a ground-breaking ceremony at a point two miles south of Gilroy, thereby marking the start of construction of a branch line to Watsonville and Castroville. The railroad’s intention was to complete the 25-mile-long line within ninety days, but the route would not be so easily made.

Henry Miller's private farm at Nema on the line of the Southern Pacific, circa 1890. [Courtesy Gilroy Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

For its first 3.8 miles—from its starting point at a place called Carnadero to a settlement at the junction of the Gilroy, San Juan, and Pajaro Valley roads called Sargent’s—Southern Pacific encountered few obstacles. Most of the area was relatively flat ranchland owned by Miller & Lux and James P. Sargent, with only Uvas Creek and Tar Creek requiring short bridges. Beyond Sargent, the right-of-way required its first cut through a short hill, followed by further cuts as it began winding its way for 1.9 miles through a narrow valley created by the northern extent of the Pajaro River. More small bridges and culverts were needed here, though the gently sloping eastern edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains made the task relatively routine. At the southern end of the valley, the track turned decisively west toward the Monterey Bay, interrupted by the 4.8-mile-long problem of Pajaro Gap.

Sargent's Station on the Southern Pacific, circa 1885. [Courtesy Gilroy Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

The northern side of the gap was owned primarily by Sargent and Nathaniel Chittenden, and their property line on Pescadero Creek marked the southern boundary between Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties. The terrain remained hilly, with Sargent Creek and Pescadero Creek both requiring more substantial bridges, though nothing remarkable. West of Pescadero Creek, the right-of-way followed a narrow shelf cut out of the hillside for a short distance before the route opened into a small basin occupied by Chittenden’s ranch. Small bridges and culverts allowed the railroad to reach the other side of the basin with little difficulty. However, deciding how to proceed through the narrowest part of the gap forced Southern Pacific to make its biggest and most consequential decision: whether or not to cross the Pajaro River in the gap.

The original bridge over the Pajaro River, 1910. [Courtesy McCarthy Collection, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley – colorized using MyHeritage]

Nearly all surveying efforts prior to 1871 had focused on a route that would take a railroad through Pajaro Gap along the north side of the Pajaro River, thereby allowing it to enter Watsonville directly. In fact, Railroad School east of Watsonville was named after the fact that it was located on the right-of-way of a proposed railroad. On paper, however, this route was not ideal. The rugged farming road that would later become State Route 129 barely existed at this time and the space between the southern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the river was perilously narrow along two sections. Nonetheless, the people of Watsonville expected the railroad to connect to Watsonville directly before crossing the river and they even attempted to bribe the railroad to do so in case it was wavering in its commitment. Unperturbed, Southern Pacific decided against the northern route and went south instead, forever depriving Watsonville its place on the main trunk of the Coast Division.

The Pajaro River bridge following the April 18, 1906 earthquake, with temporary support trestlework on its southern end and a collapse pier. [Courtesy Charles Derleth Collection, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley – colorized using MyHeritage]

The bridge required to cross the Pajaro River west of Chittenden was substantial. At 432 feet in length and 50 feet high, it included a short trestle approach from the east and four 87.5-foot-long Howe truss sections chained together atop concrete piers. It was likely the most monumental structure erected in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties at the time. The bridge would latter suffer greatly from its placement near the San Andreas Fault when the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake rocked it off its foundations by more than three feet. Crews quickly secured the bridge with a hastily-erected trestle but other damage along the route meant the line was out of service for a week after the temblor. It seems likely that further repairs were made over the next few months to ensure the piers remained stable and the abutments on either side of the river were secure.

A butcher's wagon going up Carpentaria Road in Aromas, circa 1900. [Courtesy Albert and Alzora Snyder Collection, Monterey County Free Libraries – colorized using MyHeritage]

After a final turn around the granite-rich hill that would one day host the Graniterock quarry, the Pajaro Branch made its entry into the Pajaro Valley, or rather a smaller vale through which the Pajaro River meanders between steep banks before curving sharply north upon encountering an insurmountable sandstone wall. The railroad passed through here for 1.5 miles, yet the wall could not be bypassed in the manner of the river, and this proved to be quite the obstacle for Southern Pacific. In their eagerness to avoid the steep hillsides north of the river, surveyors had misreported the severity of the obstacle. At 0.4 miles thick, including necessary approaches, this sandstone leg of the Gabilan Range could only be overcome with a cut or tunnel. While the railroad crews attempted the former, the results were mixed and a sort of tunnel was eventually settled upon out of obligation more than desire. By the 1890s, crews were able to widen and reinforce the cut sufficiently to avoid the need for a tunnel, but even today piles of sand collect on the rails whenever a storm strikes or there is inactivity on the line for more than a few days.

The Sand Cut between Aromas and Vega on the Southern Pacific line, 1909. [From the Neil Vodden Collection, courtesy Jack Hanson – colorized using MyHeritage]

The final 4.8 miles between the west side of the Sand Cut and the community of Pajaro imposed no obstacles—not even a creek or gully—to Southern Pacific crews. In fact, the track only turned once along this stretch to gently wrap around another foot of the Gabilans. At Pajaro, the right-of-way initially ran until stopping just short of Salinas Road, roughly paralleling today’s Railroad Avenue. However, June 1872, construction crews began building a new track south along the east side of Salinas Road to extend the line to Castroville, Salinas, and ultimately Los Angeles. Despite initial annoyance that the route bypassed them, the people of Watsonville celebrated the arrival of the railroad to Pajaro since it gave them a direct connection to San Francisco and beyond. Further celebrations were in order in May 1876, when the Santa Cruz Railroad was completed to Pajaro. In 1882, this line was taken over by Southern Pacific and standard-gauged shortly afterwards, unifying the Pajaro yard and allowing the fluid flow of traffic from Santa Cruz and Watsonville to the Southern Pacific mainline.

The Thompson Road grade crossing near Vega, September 1, 1927. [Courtesy California State Archives – colorized using MyHeritage]

A total of twelve registered stations popped up along this 17.2 miles of track between 1871 and 1949. Over half existed from the beginning, including Carnadero, Nema, Miller’s, Sargent’s, Chittenden’s, Sand Cut, Vega, and Pajaro. All of these catered to surrounding rural communities, with three named after landowners and two after Mexican ranchos. Later, four additional stations were added: Corporal, Betabel, Newria, and Logan. These primarily reflected new industries that arose in the years after the railroad’s construction. Three stations later experienced name changes, as well, with Sand Cut becoming Aromas, Vega becoming Eaton, and Pajaro becoming Watsonville Junction. All of the stations in this section are now formally abandoned except for Carnadero, Sargent, Logan, and Watsonville Junction, the latter two of which remain active freight yards, though no passenger service currently caters to either location.

Marvin Maynard outside Tres Pinos depot, July 31, 1949. Photo by Wilbur C. Whittaker. [Courtesy Jim Vail – colorized using MyHeritage]

Although the Watsonville Branch began life as an offshoot of the Southern Pacific Railroad, it briefly became the mainline. The completion of the track to Tres Pinos south of Hollister in August 1873 marked an unexpected end to the railroad’s original plans. That same month, construction of the line south from Pajaro reached Soledad and Southern Pacific decided that a mainline passing through the Salinas Valley was much more profitable and sustainable than one continuing up the nearly uninhabited San Benito Valley. As a result, the Tres Pinos line became a branch and the Soledad line, passing through Pajaro, became the new mainline. This new status only lasted two years. Around June 1875, another route through the San Joaquin Valley—one that would eventually become the second transcontinental railroad—stole the title of mainline from its coastal kin. The former mainline became the trunk of the Northern Division and, on July 1, 1892, the Coast Division.

A Coast Daylight crossing the new Pajaro River Bridge, circa 1941. [Courtesy Gilroy Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

Unlike most of the other railroads in and around Santa Cruz County, this 17.2-mile section of the Southern Pacific was built at the standard gauge from the start, so it never underwent the kind of reengineering the other lines endured. In fact, most of its changes were relatively minor and cosmetic. Automatic Block Signaling (ABS) was adopted across the entire section sometime before 1907, allowing for a more efficient and safer flow of traffic along the lines. This was supplemented in 1959 with the addition of centralized traffic control (CTC)—a remote operated system that helps control traffic over single track sections—between Corporal and Logan. Around the same time that ABS was adopted, nearly all bridges were converted into fills with culverts, or extremely short steel-reinforced concrete spans. An exception to this is the bridge over Pescadero Creek, which remains a traditional timber trestle. A more notable exception is the long bridge over the Pajaro River. Following its initial construction in 1871 and its substantial repair in 1906 after the earthquake, the bridge remained in place for another 35 years. In August 1940, Southern Pacific finally decided that a new bridge was needed. Work began in November with an entirely new structure erected directly to the west of the old bridge. It was composed of a single 450-foot-long prefabricated American Bridge Company open-deck plate girder span mounted atop two concrete piers. The bridge was completed in late March 1941 and shortly afterwards the older bridge was removed, though its piers still stand in the river today beside its still-functioning replacement.

Southern Pacific track and siding through Chittenden, circa 1921. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

There was only one other substantial change to the line. In the late 1920s, Southern Pacific was hoping to double-track the entire section from Gilroy to Watsonville Junction, with plans to also extend the long siding in Chittenden to 100 carlengths. Concrete abutments capable of supporting three bridges were erected on either side of State Route 129 in Chittenden for this purpose. Only two bridges were actually installed, both 80-foot-long open deck plate girder spans, and only the southern bridge was ever put into service, though both remain in place today. Double tracking never actually reached Chittenden. The section from Watsonville Junction to Logan was finished in October 1929, while the section from Gilroy to Sargent was finished on December 26, 1930, but between these points, the right-of-way remains a single track. The cost of installing a second track through Pajaro Gap and especially across the Pajaro River in the midst of the Great Depression ended any hope for this project’s completion.

A Del Monte—Southern Pacific No. 2454—leaving Watsonville Junction, circa 1930s. Photo by Fred Stoes. [Courtesy Yesteryear Depot – colorized using MyHeritage]

Passenger service along the Coast Division mainline suffered greatly from the increased use of private automobiles in the first half of the twentieth century. By 1951, most regular passenger trains had stopped calling at stations between Gilroy and Watsonville Junction. Further consolidations led to Southern Pacific merging two neighboring divisions into the Western–Coast Division on April 26, 1964, though this became the Western Division six months later. The next year in May, the Coast Mail made its last run, followed in May 1971 by the Coast Daylight and Del Monte, when Amtrak took over national passenger services. Changes across its lines convinced the railroad to rebrand in 1969 as the Southern Pacific Transportation Company. Further reductions in service and contractions across the industry led the Western Division to absorb other adjacent divisions in April 1987 to become the Western Region. This remained the name for the section at the time the Union Pacific Railroad took full control of Southern Pacific’s operations in 1998. Under its new owners, the section became the Salinas Subdivision, part of Union Pacific’s Roseville Service Unit.

An Amtrak Coast Starlight passing through Corporal, December 1979. Photo by Drew Jacksich. [Courtesy Drew Jacksich and Flickr]

Freight service along the former Southern Pacific Coast Division has not ceased since the line first opened in 1871, and local freight industries at Logan, Watsonville Junction, and Watsonville suggest that it will remain active for the foreseeable future. In addition, larger freight movements passing along the line, though not stopping, are constant. Restoring passenger service to this section has been a more difficult goal that has faced endless setbacks since the 1970s. The Coast Starlight succeeded the Coast Daylight and the Starlight in 1971 and runs regularly between Seattle and Los Angeles along this section, but does not stop. However plans to extend Caltrain service south of Gilroy to Watsonville Junction, Castroville, and Salinas have not materialized. Only time will tell if full, regular commuter passenger service will resume along this section of railroad, but the trackage remains active and under the ownership of Union Pacific.

Citations & Credits:

• Bender, Henry E., Jr., “SP San Jose to Watsonville Junction” [SP70/73]. December 2017.
• California Coast Railroad Company, “Articles of Association." June 15, 1867. Courtesy California State Archives.
• Daggett, Stuart. Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific. New York: Ronald Press Company, 1922.
• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. SSanta Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Signor, John R. Southern Pacific’s Coast Line. Wilton, CA: Signature Press, 1994.
• Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Miscellaneous corporate documents. 1892–1996.
• Surface Transportation Board. Finance Docket No. 32760—Decision No. 44. August 6, 1996.
• Union Pacific Railroad Company. Roseville Service Unit—Salinas Subdivision Gilroy OGN/Phase 4/ Book 52. April 13, 1998.
• Various articles from The Daily Examiner, The Independent, The Pajaronian, The San Luis Obispo Tribune, Santa Cruz Evening News, and the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Stations: Farley

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Claus Spreckels was a prominent individual within Santa Cruz County throughout his life. By 1871, he was already becoming the sugar king, importing 125 tons of raw sugar per day from Hawaii, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, and isolated areas of California to his refinery in San Francisco. But in 1872, he became interested in refining sugar from beets to maintain his thriving empire. He turned to Santa Cruz County and settled his eyes upon roughly 1,000 acres of Rancho Aptos.

Stereograph of the Aptos Hotel, late 1870s, by C. W. J. Johnson. [California State Library – colorized using DeOldify]

Rancho Aptos had been a Mexican land grant given to a member of the Castro family, Rafael de Jesús Castro, in 1833. Castro continued to hold most of the land for the next forty years, primarily using the sprawling marine terrace to raise cattle. However, he also built a 500-foot-long pier near the mouth of Aptos Creek around 1850, from which he shipped lumber, flour, and cattle hide. This was extended another 500 feet in 1867 by Titus Hale, allowing larger ships to dock at the pier. Hale used the pier during these years to ship cords of oak to San Francisco, where it was used to heat homes during the winter. Castro finally relinquished ownership of most of his property in 1872, when his wife, María Soledad Cota, abandoned him. Spreckels swooped in and bought it for $80,000.

Lithograph of Claus Spreckels, ca 1875. [Public domain]

In the grand scheme of his enterprises, Spreckels’ operations in the Aptos area were minor, although not insignificant. There were signs that the region was primed for beet growing and Spreckels needed to experiment before expanding his operations. However, Santa Cruz County was exceptionally isolated, with only a few rugged mountain roads and steamships providing ways out. To the south, however, the Southern Pacific Railroad had opened a new route to San Francisco the previous year. To make shipping goods easier, Spreckels joined with Frederick A. Hihn to finance and support the construction of the Santa Cruz Railroad, which passed through his property on its way to Pajaro in 1875. Meanwhile, Spreckels began planting beets while closely observing the activities of the nearby California Beet Sugar Company, based out of Soquel. Spreckels' precise relationship, if any, with this firm is unclear, and it is unknown if he ever produced a commercial crop at his Aptos property. Nonetheless, he saw the potential of Aptos as a tourist destination and continued to invest in the area.

Engraving of the Aptos Hotel complex, late 1870s. By W. W. Elliott & Company. [University of California, Santa Cruz, Legacy Digital Collections]

On May 22, 1875, Spreckels opened the luxurious Aptos Hotel above the cliffs between the railroad tracks and the Monterey Bay south of Aptos. The Santa Cruz Sentinel of March 27, 1875, says of the hotel complex:

Railroads: Southern Pacific Branch Lines and Divisions

The Southern Pacific Railroad Company became the sole provider for railroad service in Santa Cruz County in 1887 (although the Ocean Shore Railroad, San Juan Pacific Railway, and Pajaro Valley Consolidated Railroad all attempted to rival their dominance briefly). To manage its railroad lines, routes were divided into divisions, subdivisions, and branches. Several such lines emerged over the years, most of which began life as independent companies, but when the Southern Pacific became the Union Pacific Railroad in 1996, only the Santa Cruz Branch and the Monterey Branch remained under company control, and both only briefly.

Coast Div ision employee timetable No. 147 cover, dated March 30, 1940. This was the last published timetable that included the San Jose & Santa Cruz Branch through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Watsonville Branch (1871 – 1874)
The very first Southern Pacific branch line, predating the creation of any divisions or subdivisions, was built continuously from 1871 to 1874 from Gilroy to Salinas. In the beginning, it was a route meant to link the Santa Clara Valley’s railroad lines with the agricultural lands of the Salinas Valley while also conveniently passing through Watsonville and near Monterey. But early plans to go through Watsonville were quickly replaced with a route through Pajaro to the south. In the end, the only portion of Santa Cruz County reached by this branch was the tiny settlement of Chittenden.

As early as April 1872, it was common knowledge that the originally-planned Southern Pacific route to the San Joaquin Valley via Hollister would not be economically viable and that the coastal route through Salinas would likely become the main line. Neither proved true, however, as Southern Pacific instead chose a line down the center of the San Joaquin Valley as its main line. When this happened, the Watsonville Branch became the trunk of the Northern Division and the original trunk through Hollister became the Tres Pinos Branch.

Northern Division (1874 – 1897)
When Southern Pacific began building railroad lines in Southern California in the early 1870s, it had a problem: these lines were disconnected from the lines in Central and Northern California. Thus, the first solution to this problem was the creation of the Northern Division, Southern Division, and Colorado Division. At some point around 1888, a portion of the Northern Division split off to become the first Coast Division, which included the Monterey Bay trackage. However, this early version of the Coast Division was later reimagined. Within the Monterey Bay area, three branches fell under the jurisdiction of the Northern Division.

1889 Southern Pacific Coast Division timetable.

Santa Cruz Branch (1888 – 2012)
Beginning life as the Santa Cruz Railroad between Pajaro and Santa Cruz, this line was consolidated with the Loma Prieta Railroad on June 3, 1884 to form the Pajaro & Santa Cruz Railroad. On May 4, 1888, Southern Pacific absorbed the subsidiary railroad and it became the Santa Cruz Line. In 1892, it was renamed the Pajaro & Santa Cruz Branch and retained this name until 1912, when Pajaro was renamed Watsonville Junction. Rather than use a long and clunky term for the branch line, Southern Pacific instead decided to simply call it the Santa Cruz Branch, although this name was sometimes confusingly applied to the route through the mountains as well. The line had several unofficial names over the years including the Watsonville & Santa Cruz Branch, the Pajaro Branch, and the Watsonville Junction & Santa Cruz Branch, and all combinations thereof. None of these were used in an official capacity by the railroad but appeared in newspaper timetables and other media.

The line gained over eight miles of trackage in November 1940 when the Santa Clara & Santa Cruz Branch closed and the Santa Cruz Branch annexed the southern portion between Santa Cruz and Olympia. It retained this additional trackage until October 12, 1985, when Roaring Camp Railroads purchased the section for use as a private tourist train line. When this happened, the Santa Cruz Branch annexed the Davenport Branch, adding eleven new miles to its length. Technically, the line ceased to be a branch line on May 17, 2012, when the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission took control of the route from Union Pacific, making it once more an independent railroad. The entire route is currently undergoing review for rehabilitation as a passenger and freight line, while a pedestrian/bike trail will soon be installed primarily along the western edge of the right-of-way

Loma Prieta Branch (1888 – 1930)
As soon as the Loma Prieta Railroad between Aptos and Monte Vista was completed in the summer of 1884, the company was consolidated into the Pajaro & Santa Cruz Railroad subsidiary of Southern Pacific. In 1888, the company extended the right-of-way three miles to the second Monte Vista and the foot of Five Finger Falls along Aptos Creek and, after this was completed, the company was absorbed into Southern Pacific and became the Loma Prieta Line, renamed the Loma Prieta Branch in 1892. For the next twenty years, the line was in irregular use, serviced primarily by extras or by Loma Prieta Lumber Company locomotives. The three miles of trackage added in 1887-1888 were destroyed by a landslide in 1899 and the trackage was soon afterwards cut back to just six miles, ending just beyond the rapidly declining town of Loma Prieta. Other operations in the area, however, ensured that operations continued in some capacity until the end of 1921. Southern Pacific waited until November 30, 1927 to petition for the abandonment of the route, which was granted in early 1928. It disappears off station books the next year, but continued to be referenced by employee timetables until 1930.

Monterey Branch (1888 – 2003)
The narrow-gauge Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad between Monterey and Salinas was taken over at auction in December 1879 and early the following year became the Monterey Railroad, a Southern Pacific subsidiary. Southern Pacific standard-gauged the route almost immediately and redrew the right-of-way between Castroville and Monterey. The line was extended to Lake Majella south of Pacific Grove through the Monterey Extension Railroad between January and May 1888, but on May 14, both companies were absorbed by Southern Pacific and became the Monterey Line. From 1888 until 1892, the line included all of the mainline trackage between San José and Pacific Grove. It was even briefly renamed the San Jose & Pacific Grove Branch in 1892 before the route was cut back to Castroville in 1895 and became the Castroville & Pacific Grove Branch. It finally was named the Monterey Branch in June 1907 and has remained under that name ever since.

The Monterey Branch was popular due to the presence of the Hotel Del Monte, which opened on June 3, 1880 and continued to operate as a hotel until just after the start of World War II. The Monterey Express (later Del Monte Limited, Del Monte Express, and finally just Del Monte) began running along the line at this time as a regular named passenger train. During much of its history, the branch was nicknamed the Del Monte Branch to both reflect the popularity of the hotel and the renaming of Castroville's station to Del Monte Junction. The last run of the Del Monte was on April 30, 1971, after which all passenger service to Monterey ended. The tracks between the quarry at Seaside and Lake Majella were abandoned in early 1979 following approval by the Interstate Commerce Commission on December 29, 1978.

Three years after Southern Pacific's merger with Union Pacific in 1996, the Monterey Branch was formally abandoned and the branch cut off at Castroville. While the trackage remains in place all the way to Monterey (often under paved bicycle/hiking paths), it currently is unable to be used. Strictly speaking, the track no longer constitutes a branch line since the sixteen-mile route was purchased by the Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC) in 2003 for $9.3. Plans are in place to rehabilitate the line for passenger and freight use, but nothing has been done yet.

Santa Cruz Division (1887 – 1897)
The portion of the original South Pacific Coast Railway route between the Bay Area and Santa Cruz changed names several times over the years. When it was first leased by Southern Pacific on July 1, 1887, all of the narrow-gauge trackage became known as the South Pacific Coast Railroad Division. This proved to be a rather short-lived entity. On July 1, 1892, it was replaced by the Santa Cruz Division, but this proved equally short-lived. Also, in a rather comedic twist, it only included two narrow-gauge branches within the county—the other trackage within the county remained a part of the Northern Division while the division as a whole retained oversight of most of the former South Pacific Coast trackage. In 1897, the entire route was demoted, at least in station books, to a subdivision.

Narrow Gauge Subdivision (1897 – 1907)
The Narrow Gauge Subdivision was created to handle the remaining narrow-gauge trackage of the former South Pacific Coast Railroad, essentially taking over the duty from the Santa Cruz Division. Although some trackage was standard-gauged beginning in 1895, the entire line was not converted until 1909. Only one new narrow-gauge branch was added to the trackage around the Monterey Bay during this time, and it was soon abandoned. The subdivision included:

College Park & Santa Cruz Branch (1887 – 1940)
The narrow-gauge railroad route through the Santa Cruz Mountains may have begun as a main trunk line of an enterprising railroad, but from 1887 it was demoted to simply a branch line, albeit a significant one. From 1892, the route was named the San Jose and Santa Cruz (Narrow Gauge) Branch on employee timetables, while station books called the route the Narrow-Gauge Subdivision. It was also alternatively called the Mountain Division, the Los Gatos-Santa Cruz Branch, and the Santa Cruz Cut-off in newspapers, although none of these were official names.

The standard-gauging of the line that began in 1895 and was completed in 1909 prompted a change in status for the trunk of the former South Pacific Coast line. The route became the Santa Clara & Santa Cruz Branch. A slight realignment in its northern terminus led the name to change to the College Park & Santa Cruz Branch in 1912, a name that stuck for most of the rest of its existence. At some point during the height of the Great Depression, the route was changed one last time to the San Jose & Santa Cruz Branch.

The disastrous winter storm of February 26, 1940 heavily damaged this line which led Southern Pacific to file for abandonment on March 25. During this time, the route was referred to frequently as the Los Gatos-Olympia Branch, although this was strictly an informal term referring to the section undergoing debate. Formal abandonment was approved November 7 with the surviving ends of the line divided between a new Los Gatos Branch on the northern end and the Santa Cruz Branch on the southern, which annexed the trackage to Olympia. This latter section was briefly informally called the Santa Cruz-Olympia Branch.

Boulder Creek Branch (1887 – 1934)
The Felton & Pescadero Railroad between Felton and Boulder Creek was consolidated into the South Pacific Coast Railway on May 23, 1887, which was leased to Southern Pacific a month later. Southern Pacific continued to use the Felton & Pescadero branding for several years but timetables renamed it the Felton Branch. It continued to operate under this title until 1912, when the name switched to Boulder Creek Branch. Following the collapse of the lumber industry and difficult years after the stock market crash in 1929, Southern Pacific petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission for abandonment on August 30, 1933. The petition was approved on November 14 and the line abandoned on January 26, 1934.

Old Felton Branch (1907 – 1909)
This three-mile line began life as the northern portion of the Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad's right-of-way. When South Pacific Coast acquired the line on January 1, 1880, the portion between Felton Junction (across the river from Big Trees) and downtown Felton was reduced to a long spur with its own stations. Soon after the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, the spur was upgraded to the Old Felton Branch, a name that referenced its northern terminus and attempted to avoid confusion with the Felton Branch. The branch only last two years, though, after which it was abandoned and the northernmost mile converted into a standard-gauge spur of the Felton Branch.

Interior page from Coast Division employee timetable No. 147 (March 30, 1940) showing various routes within Santa Cruz County.

Coast Division (1892 – 1964)
A massive reorganization of Southern Pacific occurred on July 1, 1892, and the original Coast Division was impacted quite heavily. Besides the Santa Cruz Division, an enlarged Coast Division was created that covered all of the former Northern Division trackage between San Francisco and Santa Barbara, excepting the narrow-gauge track formerly belonging to the South Pacific Coast Railroad. The Santa Cruz Division and Coast Division began appearing on the same timetables on September 3, 1896, until the former was absorbed into the latter on September 27, 1897. Throughout the system, subdivisions were created to handle specific areas within each division.

San Francisco Subdivision (1892 – 1987)
Following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, all of the unconverted trackage of the former South Pacific Coast Railroad was standard-gauged and the entire subdivision rendered moot. The tracks along the west San Francisco Bay, expanded with the addition of the Narrow Gauge Subdivision in 1907 and the Los Altos Branch in 1908, formed the San Francisco Subdivision. In 1912, the name was lengthened to the San Francisco & Watsonville Junction Subdivision, but the longer title was truncated back to the original in 1930. The subdivision continued to exist until 1987, although all of the Santa Cruz and Monterey County trackage eventually became associated with other subdivisions except for the period 1985 to 1987.

Newell Creek Branch (1908 – 1920)
The shortest branch line in Santa Cruz County, the one-mile route to the California Timber Company mill on Newell Creek was installed by Southern Pacific in 1905. After the San Francisco Earthquake, the line to the mill was standard-gauged and the railroad upgraded its status to the Newell Creek Branch around October 1908. All of the trackage north of the mill continued to be narrow-gauge and was privately owned by the lumber company. The mill shut down in 1913 but the branch remained in station books until 1920, when it was formally abandoned.

Davenport Branch (1917 – 1985)
This line began life as the Coast Line Railroad, but as early as July 1907 local newspapers called it the Davenport Branch and on August 24, 1917, the name change became official when Southern Pacific absorbed its subsidiary. Regularly-scheduled passenger service along the line ended on July 21, 1932, although excursion trains continued through the 1950s. The line was annexed to the Santa Cruz Branch around 1985 after the Santa Cruz to Olympia trackage was sold to Roaring Camp Railroads. As a part of the Santa Cruz Branch, it was sold to the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission in 2012.

Los Gatos Branch (1940 – 1959)
The northern three miles of the former College Park & Santa Cruz Branch survived for nineteen years as the Los Gatos Branch until the people of Los Gatos requested that Southern Pacific abandon its route through downtown. On June 16, 1958, the petition was filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission and abandonment was approved on December 30. Formal service ended on January 23, 1959 and the final run happened on January 25, which concluded with a spike-pulling ceremony overseen by Coast Division superintendent R. A. Miller. The right-of-way was quickly converted into parking lots by the town of Los Gatos.

Vasona Branch (1959 – 1964)
When the mountain route was officially abandoned in November 1940, the Los Altos Branch was renamed the Vasona Branch and the name Mayfield Cut-Off went into disuse since it no longer cut off the route between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. When the Los Gatos Branch was abandoned in 1959, the stop at Vasona Junction became the commuter terminal for Los Gatos area passengers. Low patronage at the station and plans to cut the Vasona Branch between Simla and Alta Mesa to make room for Foothill Expressway in 1962 led to a petition to abandon the station on March 21. But the Interstate Commerce Commission provided a brief reprieve on October 25, 1963 when it disallowed Southern Pacific from ending service between the points, in effect also delaying construction of the expressway. After another petition to the ICC, abandonment was approved and the last run along the branch occurred on January 27, 1964. The portion of the track south of Foothill Expressway continues to exist today as a freight line ending at the Lehigh Permanente quarry to the west of Cupertino. Discussions to rehabilitate this line and even extend it to the outskirts of Los Gatos have been discussed for over two decades but no progress has been made.

Salinas Subdivision (c. 1936 – 1985)
At some point in the mid-1930s, the San Francisco Subdivision was divided and the Monterey Branch became a part of the new Salinas Subdivision. This route included all the trackage from Watsonville Junction up the Salinas Valley to San Luis Obispo, at which point the Guadalupe Subdivision continued to Santa Barbara. In 1964, the subdivision was extended north to San Jose and both the Santa Cruz and Davenport Branches became a part of it. In 1985, the Salinas Subdivision was dissolved and all Monterey Bay branches once more became a part of the San Francisco Subdivision.

Gilroy Subdivision (c. 1946 – 1964)
In 1942, a new Gilroy Subdivision appeared to handle traffic between San Jose and Watsonville Junction and it included the Santa Cruz and Davenport Branches. The subdivision was dissolved in 1964 and both branches were annexed to the Salinas Subdivision.

Later Divisions (1964 – 1996)
In its later years, Southern Pacific shifted their focus along the Central Coast to freight, which led to smaller timetables and fewer passenger schedules. In 1964, the Coast Division became the Western Division and annexed several neighboring divisions in the process. In 1985, the division system was abandoned and Santa Cruz County fell into the Northern Region and, in 1987, the Western Region. It remained within that region until Union Pacific took over in 1996. Within the Western Region, local trackage fell under the authority of the Coast District, a spiritual successor to the Coast Division.

A page from the first Western Division employee timetable, April 26, 1964.

Citations & Credits:

• Bender, Henry. Various valuation summaries for relevant branches and stations. 2014-2019.
• Harrison, Greg. Abandoned Rails. 2019.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.

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 this 669-foot-long gulch and both were—and the latter remains—popular subjects for photographers.

Stereograph of Camp Capitola with the original Sequel Creek bridge in the background, c. 1885. Photo by Carleton Watkins. [California State Library]

The first bridge was constructed by Tom Carter under contract for the Santa Cruz Railroad in summer 1874. The narrow-gauge structure was a fairly standard design for a longer span. More than half of the length, from Depot Hill to Soquel Creek, was composed of a simple redwood open-deck trestle. A similar, albeit much shorter, span connected the other bank of Soquel Creek to the west bank over Wharf Road. Over the creek itself, a roughly 200-foot-long redwood double-intersecting Warren truss ensured trains travelled safely and securely over the creek. Redwood piers were installed on either side of the span to ensure that the span remained aloft.

Camp Capitola with the Soquel Creek bridge in the distance, 1875. [Covello & Covello]

This bridge underwent a heavy remodeling or replacement in 1883-1884 to convert it for use by standard-gauge trains after the Southern Pacific Railroad purchased the Santa Cruz Railroad in 1882. Whether these changes were highly visible is unknown, but Southern Pacific did at this time relocate Soquel station from the western end of the bridge to Depot Hill, changing its name to Capitola in the process. At some point in the 1890s, the truss span was also enclosed, probably to protect it from the corrosive sea spray and other elements.

Railroad bridge over Soquel Creek with train approaching covered truss span, c. 1890s. [Santa Cruz MAH]

The second or third bridge over Soquel Creek—the current structure—was built in a number of waves as the community beneath the bridge transitioned from a seasonal resort to a year-round town. The oldest sections of this bridge closely resembled the original bridge, including a 335-foot-long redwood trestle from Depot Hill and a 100-foot-long trestle extending to the west bank. Over the creek itself, the old wooden truss was replaced with a 150-foot-long open-deck, wrought iron, truncated, upside-down curved chord Pratt truss span that was unique among the bridges along the Central Coast. To support this truss, two large concrete piers were installed on either side of the creek. This truss was not original to Soquel Creek—Southern Pacific had repurposed it from elsewhere in its system and sawed off portions on each end resulting in its unique design.

Colorized photograph of the Soquel Creek bridge, c. 1910. [Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History]

At some point, probably in the 1930s, the trestle span over Capitola Avenue was bisected to allow for the insertion of a 120-foot-long prefabricated open-deck steel plate girder span, which was supported by heavily-reinforced trestlework on either side. This allowed automobiles to more comfortably pass under the bridge and into Camp Capitola.

A Southern Pacific train passing over the Soquel Creek bridge, c. 1930. [Phil Reader]

In 1971, the original plate girder span over Capitola Avenue was replaced with a three-part concrete ballast deck span, which better protects cars passing underneath from train debris. On the opposite side of the bridge, over Wharf Road, a similar 60-foot-long concrete ballast deck span was installed to provide better clearance for cars and a safer passage beneath the bridge. This latter span replaced the wood abutment originally found on the west side of the bridge and also replaced the majority of the trestlework from the truss.

The bridge still standing high above Soquel Creek, 2012. [Madeline Horn]

 The current bridge is, unfortunately, no longer fit to support fully-laden railroads operating at branch line speeds and is not designed nor upgradable for use as a pedestrian corridor. As such, it will undoubtedly undergo a partial replacement within the coming years. An engineering evaluation and rehabilitation report from 2012 estimated a cost of roughly $1.2 million to rehabilitate and rebuild the bridge for regular use, although the structure will have to be replaced within 20-30 years regardless.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
Eastern end: 36.974˚N, 121.953˚W
Western end: 26.973˚N, 121.954˚W

Use of the bridge by pedestrians is not advised and technically illegal, although dozens of people cross the bridge on foot each day. The bridge, as well as the rest of the right-of-way, was purchased by Santa Cruz County in 2012 and is under the jurisdiction of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.

Citations & Credits:

• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• MacGregor, Bruce, and Richard Truesdale. A Centennial: South Pacific Coast. Boulder, CO: Pruett Publishing, 1982.
• Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. "Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line: Alignment and Bridge Evaluation & Repair / Rehabilitation or Replacement Recommendation Report." Compiled by Patterson & Associates, August 12, 2012.

Freight Stops: Castroville Freight Yard

Castroville has had a long relationship with the Southern Pacific Railroad, which first passed through the town in 1871. However, it was only after the Monterey Branch was built out from the town in 1880 that Castroville became a minor freight hub for the area. From 1880 until the breaking of the Monterey Branch in 1999, numerous freight patrons popped up along the tracks at Castroville to use the abundant siding space and spurs available there.

One of the earliest patrons at Castroville was W. A Anderson, who maintained a long grain warehouse with a 40-ton capacity alongside the tracks in 1892. Platforms flanked either side of the building, the western side of which ran along a Southern Pacific siding. To the south, the Loma Prieta Lumber Company kept a mid-sized lumber yard that ran alongside the same siding. Whether the lumber here was drawn from local reserves or brought in from Santa Cruz County is not known. It had a total capacity of 275,000 board feet but the yard's full dimensions are not known. The northern end of Anderson's warehouse began at the end of Walsh Street, while the Loma Prieta yard began at the end of Monterey Street and probably ended just before Blackie Road.

Sanborn Insurance map showing the yard layout of Castroville freight patrons, 1913. [UCSC Digital Collections]

By 1910, Anderson's warehouse has been taken over by Oscar Perry Silliman with little modification, while a new business just to the south replaced the Loma Prieta lumber yard. That operation was the Foothill Apple Growers Packing House Company, which kept an even longer warehouse than Silliman's that was similarly arranged with platforms on either side for loading purposes. Foothill was founded in 1908 specifically to cater to new apple orchards planted in the Salinas Valley. By 1913, the tracks had been realigned somewhat. Silliman's now sat at the end of a spur, at the end of which was a new grain mill with a large, sprawling platform. Further to the south, Foothill's main structure had been rotated 90˚ and now maintained only a short platform at the western short end of its packing house. Why these changes occurred and their precise arrangement in relation to the freight yard is not entirely understood. Both businesses continued into the 1920s, although when they ultimately closed is not known.

Monterey Bay Packing Company label.

No information is currently available to this historian regarding the period 1913-1973, unfortunately. Further research must be conducted for this time. However, a SPIN sheet for Castroville in 1973 reveals a somewhat active freight scene at Castroville. A total of five registered patrons can be found at Castroville in this time along six spurs and sidings. The only businesses on the east side of the tracks was Castroville Marketing Group, although the site had recently been vacated by Veg-A-Mix. Just down the tracks, a vacant line ran behind a cold storage facility that would later be reopened. On the west side of the tracks, most of the businesses were found along a track that became the head of the Monterey Branch, running along Del Monte Avenue. A southbound-exiting spur near the junction of Highway 183 catered to Eugene Boggiatto and the D'Arrigo Brothers. The Boggiato Packing Company was founded in 1960 in Castroville, which probably marks the date this location went into use, and it specialised in artichokes, although it grew many other products on its extensive family farm. Although the company no longer uses the tracks, it remains in business as the Boggiatto Produce Company. D'Arrigo was founded by Stefano and Andrea D'Arrigo, who specialised in shipping fresh vegetables across the United States. Their brand, Andy Boy, was trademarked in 1927 and they opened warehouses across California. Andy Boy still exists today but no longer operates in Castroville. Just south of Blackie Street, a spur crossed Del Monte Avenue and Blackie to cater to the Monterey Bay Packing Company. Little is known of this company except it began operations in the late 1930s and continued in operation until at least 1985. It specialised in vegetables other than artichokes. Across Blackie, the California Artichoke Company controlled a long spur that crossed Del Monte and terminated just before Wood Street. This was probably the height of freight patronage at Castroville. All of these were local agricultural firms using the station to ship out its goods.

1960 United Convention in Chicago, with Andrea D'Arrigo (far left), Stefano, and other D'Arrigos. [Andy Boy]

By the turn of the century, Castroville had declined considerably. The Monterey Branch was spiked and the Union Pacific had taken over the line. Nonetheless, a few customers remained. D'Arrigo Brothers continued to operate their facility, the last on the old Monterey Branch tracks in 1998. They would finally sell the location in 2006 to the Coastal Cooling Company, although by that time the tracks had been spiked and could no longer be used for export. To the east, A & S Metals operated along a forked spur. Central Cold Storage, meanwhile, maintained a long platform behind their plant. Lastly, Sims-LMC Recyclers sat at the end of a broken spur, registered by the railroad as a customer but unable to actually use its track. With this one exception, all these spurs still exist at Castroville today, although most have since been repurposed

Today, a number of patrons still own existing spurs, although it is unlikely many of them use this resource for exporting stock—aerial photograph evidence shows no signs that the tracks are currently in use. At the southern end of the yard, Coast American Cooling sits alongside a 270 meter spur that also breaks to the north with a 110 meter spur to cater to ABC Supply Company, both located off Commercial Parkway. Coast American Cooling is on the site of A & S Metals. A long extant spur also runs behind Randazzo Enterprises and Central Cold Storage, the latter of which at least was a railroad customer formerly although its current usage history is unknown. It is currently owned by VPS Companies and Inn Foods. All other tracks in the area are now gone. The remnants of a third track can still be clearly seen crossing Blackie Road.

Official Railroad Information:
For the sake of this article, the only accessible railroad information is a 1973 SPINs chart, a 1998 Union Pacific freight yard assessment, and a summary of stations at Castroville from c. 1970 found in an abandoned railroad warehouse. More information will undoubtedly bring light to much missing data regarding this freight yard.

Citations & Credits:

• Boggiatto Produce, Inc. "Company History." 2016.
• "Company History". Andy Boy Brand, 2017.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps, 1892, 1910, 1913. UCSC Digital Library. University of California, Santa Cruz.
• Southern Pacific Railroad. "Watsonville Zone 9, Sheet 1". 1973. Courtesy George Pepper.
• Union Pacific Railroad. "Roseville Service Unit, Salinas Subdivision, Castroville, CA." 1998. Courtesy George Pepper.

Cannery Row: Custom House Packing Corporation

Fire at the Custom House Packing Corporation cannery,
October 1953. Photograph by Lee Blaisdell.
[Monterey Public Library]

Timing was poor for the Custom House Packing Corporation when it opened its doors in April 1929, only months ahead of Black Tuesday and the start of the Great Depression. Nonetheless, this packing house endured the trials and tribulations of the 1930s and remained in business well after the end of World War II. Investors Brayton Wilbur, Thomas Frank, and Carmel Martin established Custom House was experimental in its outlook. They adopted a new steam processing system that removed excess oil and produced "firm, wholesome, well-shrunk sardines, with a perfect vacuum and positively no after taste." Their premium products included Cal-Rey, Custom, and Feature brands, and most goods were packaged in the normal oval tins with the fish preserved in tomato or mustard sauce. Custom House also utilised new reduction techniques to maximize profits from its fish products.

From the very beginning, the cannery owned a warehouse across Ocean View Avenue which was connected to the packing house via an elevated conveyor. The two-story structure had access to a private northward-exiting Southern Pacific Railroad spur that ran along a platform behind the warehouse. From this spur, goods could be shipped out directly from the cannery. Nothing remains of this loading area since the current structure mostly dates to 1971 and afterwards, although there is a new patio deck on the rear of the building that closely matches the original arrangement and may sit atop its foundation.

The corporation lasted until November 1952 when the depletion of the sardine stocks forced the company to close its doors. Machinery was dismantled and sold to canneries in Africa and Peru. Then, on October  24, 1953, a fire swept through the abandoned complex and destroyed it. This was the first major fire on Cannery Row since the 1930s, but it would not be the last. The warehouse across Ocean View Avenue survived with only some minor damage. For almost two decades, it sat abandoned until the architectural firm of Wurster, Bernardi, and Emmons purchased and renovated the structure in 1971. The original two-story structure was modified to three stories and converted to commercial use. A walkway was installed at the same time to the structure across Hoffman Avenue. Although the current structure is built on the foundation of the original warehouse and may incorporate some remaining artifacts, the majority of the building is newer in design.

Street Address, Geo-Coordinates & Current Status:
625 Cannery Row
36.615˚N, 121.900˚ W

Today, the renovated cannery is the site of the northern half of Shake Plaza, a commercial complex that includes shops such as Ambrosia India Café and Om Rhythms. The upstairs levels are the former site of the Culinary Institute of Monterey but are currently vacant.

Google Streetview image of the current Shake Plaza complex atop the Custom House warehouse site. [Google]

Citations & Credits:

• Architectural Resources Group and Architects, Planners & Conservators, Inc. "San Carlos Park". Primary Record. State of California – The Resources Agency. Department of Parks and Recreation. In Final Cannery Row Cultural Resources Survey Report Document, Monterey, CA, 2001.

Curiosities: Roller Coasters at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

There have been many narrow-gauge, broad-gauge, and miniature railroads, as well as numerous horsecars, streetcars, and cable-hoisted car systems around the Monterey Bay, but only in one place can be gravity trains be found: the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Gravity trains, or more commonly roller coasters, have been a constant at the Boardwalk since 1908, a year after the current amusement park opened its doors. 

L.A. Thompson Scenic
Railway, 1908.
[SC Beach Boardwalk]

L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway: 1908 – 1923
The first roller coaster at the seaside amusement park was an L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway. Opening in July 1, 1908, for $35,000 on the current site of the Giant Dipper, this simple wooden roller coaster featured a series of rises and troughs that headed out toward the San Lorenzo River before taking a wide loop and returning to the top of the launch platform via a steam hoist. The coaster track ran 1,050 feet (the longest in the United States in 1908), took four minutes to ride, and included dual tracks so two trains could run simultaneously side-by-side. The coaster cars could hold up to 30 people and ran at a break-neck speed of 25 mph (the street speed limit was 10 mpg). Since there were no guide rails, an engineer/brakeman stood on the back of the car in case of emergency. When it first opened, a single ride cost 5¢ for children and 10¢ for adults.

L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway at the Boardwalk, c. 1908. [Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History]

The Boardwalk as viewed from the Pleasure Pier, with the Scenic Railway at right, c. 1920. [Santa Cruz Public Libraries]

Ticket (possibly from the Boardwalk) for the L.A. Thompson
Scenic Railway, showcasing the cars, c. 1910.

LaMarcus Adna Thompson was one of the world's first roller coaster salesmen, claiming to have invented the concept in 1884 after visiting a coal mine that charged for gravity-powered rides on coal cars. His first roller coaster, "The Switchback", was built at Coney Island, and he soon built two more, a second at Coney Island and one at Playland in San Francisco. The Santa Cruz coaster was his fourth and it was built at a time before the Boardwalk extended beyond the skating rink (later the Fun House). Although the Looff Carousel would be built between the rink and the coaster in 1911, it was still a number of years before deck construction stretched beyond the site of the coaster, and nothing notable moved in beside it during most of these years. Ageing poorly compared to other roller coasters in the Bay Area, the Scenic Railway shut down after the summer season of 1923 and demolished in January 1924 to make room for a much more famous ride.

Giant Dipper while under construction, 1924.
[Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk]

Giant Dipper: 1924 – Present
Replacing the Scenic Railway on May 17, 1924, was the bold and beautiful Giant Dipper. Constructed over 47 days using a kit designed by architect Frederick Church, the Giant Dipper quickly became the most popular attraction at the Boardwalk and along the Central Coast. To fund the project, manufacturer and financier Arthur Looff founded the Santa Cruz Coaster Company, which owned the coaster (and leased the space) for the next thirty years. The coaster cost $50,000, and used 327,000 board feet of lumber, 743,000 nails, 24,000 bolts, and 63,000 pounds of steel track to build. A ride takes 1:52 minutes and features a short dark tunnel before climbing 70 feet up, promptly dropping that distance at a numbing 46 mph, and then circling twice over rises and troughs before returning to the entry kiosk. The full length of the track is 2,640 feet. The only mechanised part of the route is the first climb, after which gravity and momentum control the ride. In 1924, a ticket for this coaster cost 15¢ per ride. Tickets today cost $7.00.

The original Giant Dipper train cars, c. 1940. [Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk]

Wilt Chamberlain riding the Giant Dipper, 1968.
[Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk]

Over the nearly 100 years since the ride first opened, there have been only three fatalities, all caused by recklessness on the part of the rider. In September 1924, a rider stood up and fell over the front of the train, prompting the addition of safety belts. Additional fatalities occurred in 1940 and 1970, the former prompting the replacement of the old, open-style cars. The coaster is now on its third car design, initially using open cars (a replica of which can be seen at Coasters Bar outside Boardwalk Bowl), more space-aged, bubble cars were installed in the mid-1940s. These were replaced in 1984 with Victorian-style cars that have been repainted numerous times but remain in place today.

In June 1933, Arthur Looff sold the coaster to the Santa Cruz Seaside Company, parent company of the Boardwalk. The Seaside Company, in turn, created the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper Company to operate the roller coaster, and this subsidiary remained in place into the early 1980s. The Giant Dipper is undoubtedly one of the most popular roller coasters in the world, hosting well over 60 million riders since it first opened. It is also the fifth oldest roller coaster in the United States and the only Frederick Church-designed coaster to remain in continuous use, its siblings at Belmont Park in San Diego and Playland Park in New York having been shut down for periods of time since they first opened. The Giant Dipper is a registered as a National Historic Landmark as well as a California State Historic Landmark, and it has won numerous awards over the decades and featured in several films and television shows. An HD video of a ride can be found here.

The Giant Dipper today in profile, showing the large drop at right. [Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk]

Wild Mouse: 1958 – 1976

The Wild Mouse at the Boardwalk, c. 1960s. [Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk]

Perhaps the most forgotten and least known roller coaster at the Boardwalk is the Wild Mouse. Built in 1958 by Norris House to cater to the young teenagers emerging out of the early baby boom after World War II, this ambitious roller coaster featured sharp, unbanked turns that make one's neck kink. The Wild Mouse was based on a German design perfected by J. W. "Patty" Conklin and was certainly not unique to the Boardwalk—dozens popped up at amusement parks worldwide—but it was one of the first such rides built in the United States. The largely wooden coaster featured three large, jerky switchbacks followed by a number of sudden drops before it returned back to the loading area. Unlike with other coasters, the cars, built by Buchwald Gebrüder, only seated two people, one sitting in the lap of the other, and the cars resembled popular sports cars of the period.

The Wild Mouse overlooking the San Lorenzo River mouth and main beach, c. 1950s. [Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk]

The Wild Mouse loading area at the end of the Boardwalk, 1964. [Schrempp Family Photos]

Deteriorating prematurely at only eighteen, the Wild Mouse was finally dismantled in 1976 during upgrading of the river side of the park. It its place was built, among smaller rides, Loggers' Revenge water-based log flume ride.

Jet Star: 1972 – 1991

The Jet Star in 1972, before the cars had been repainted and renamed.
[Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk]

Joining the Giant Dipper and Wild Mouse was the Jet Star, a West German Schwarzkopf-constructed, kit-built steel behemoth that was the first truly modern-style roller coaster at the Boardwalk. Originally sold to the Boardwalk as "Ripper" (many cars in early promotional photographs still have this name), this roller coaster occupied the upper deck of a new structure that replaced the old Fun House in 1972. Operated by computer, the roller coaster rode used small, four person cars running on 1,765 feet of steel rails that criss-crossed a number of times before descending back to the loading station. Gravity was exploited to the extreme for this coaster, with the cars streamlined for maximum speed and the initial 44-foot drop delayed to build up momentum. Unlike the Dipper, up to six cars could run on this track simultaneously, adding to the sense of eminent doom. A total of eight cars were made for the ride, although they never all operated at the same time. In the nineteen years this coaster operated, two different car designs were used. The original, space-age designs were retired by the late 1970s and were replaced with more aerodynamic fiberglass molds.

Jet Star coaster crew posing for a team photo, 1984. [Dante's Page]

Before the invention of crazy inverted roller coasters that quickly came to populate other Bay Area amusement parks, the Jet Star was one of the most thrilling experiences on the West Coast. The ride began to rust in key places and the Seaside Company decided to upgrade rather than renovate. They sold the ride to Thrill-Vill USA in Salem, Oregon, which closed in 2007. The ride was dismantled permanently in 2010.

Hurricane banking down
a curve, c. 2000.

The Hurricane: 1992 – 2012
The Italian-made, kit-based Hurricane roller coaster replaced the Jet Star in the spring of 1992. In many ways, it was the same sort of roller coaster as its predecessor, only bolder with more turns, giving credit to its windstorm-type name. There was much more space in the Hurricane than its predecessor, with trains of three cars able to hold a total of 12 passengers. The ride began immediately with a climb to the top and then the train picked up momentum as it mostly circled downward in a funnel, although there were occasional drops of up to 30 feet. Overall, the coaster ran at roughly the same speed as the Jet Star and used less track, only 1,430 feet, but it remained a popular ride throughout its time at the Boardwalk. The Hurricane last operated on September 3, 2012, and was sold to Western Playland in New Mexico for around $500,000. An HD video of a ride on the coaster can be found here.

The Hurricane at twilight, c. 2010. [California Coaster Kings]

The Undertow: 2013 – Present
In many ways, the current Undertow roller coaster is a spiritual successor of the Wild Mouse, adopting some of its strange, jerky ways while using other newer techniques. More literally, it is the successor of the Hurricane and Jet Star since it occupies the same space above the bumper cars ride that has been in place since 1972.  Built by Maurer Söhne for $5.5 million as another kit-based German roller coaster, the Undertow remains the only spinning coaster in California. The ride features seven four-passenger cars that rotate on a central axel while the coaster moves, and different weight ratios between passengers accentuates the rotation differently. The coaster itself involves a climb 50 feet up and then gravity takes the ride the remainder of the way, although there are numerous rotation platforms that add an unexpected twist to the normal steel-pipe coaster style. Mimicking the Wild Mouse, there are also a number of hard, unbanked turns along the ride, although many of the other turns are adequately banked. Overall, there are 1,410 feet of track, which makes Undertow the shortest adult coaster at the Boardwalk in history, but the ride does achieve faster speeds than both of its predecessors. An HD video of a ride on the coaster can be found here.

The Undertow in action with a car riding at a 45˚ angle, 2014. [California Coaster Kings]

Orient Express: 1998 – 1999

The original Boardwalk kitty coaster, the Orient Express was purchased in 1998 as a part of an overall redevelopment of the lower riverside section of the park. It was built by Wisdom Rides and was originally a travelling fairground coaster. Its single train could host up to 14 passengers and the track ran for 280 feet. The track's deepest drop was 8 feet and the ride reached speeds of 10 mph. In 2000, the ride was sold to Palace Playland in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, possibly due to complaints over its name and theme. It featured a Chinese dragon-style front and an Oriental themed loading kiosk.

The Orient Express coaster as it now resides at Palace Playland in Maine, 2010. [Coaster Gallery]

Sea Serpent: 2000 – Present

Perhaps the least-inspired and most obviously kit-built roller coaster at the Boardwalk is the family-oriented Sea Serpent, manufactured by Miler Coaster Company. This small coaster hosts a single 12-passenger train that rises to a height of 18 feet before dropping 13 feet along a 350-foot steel track. Usually, the ride is looped twice before detraining the passengers. It never breaks speeds of 10 mph, although the drop with the speed does give sufficient G-force for a brief thrill. The Sea Serpent was purchased in 2000 to replace the Orient Express and it has remained in place ever since.

The Sea Serpent train climbing the first ride after the initial drop, c. 2014. [CoasterFreak80 on Theme Park Review]

Citations & Credits:

• Canfield, Victor. "Wild Mouse Rides: Early History in North America." Roller Coaster and Other Ride Patents, 2015.
• Beal, Chandra Moira and Richad A. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: The Early Years—Never a Dull Moment. 
• Staab, Donaven. Boardwalk Fun Facts Memories. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
• "Remembering the Jet Star". Dante's Page, 2009.
• Various articles. UltimateRollerCoaster.com.