Railroads: Dougherty Extension Railroad

The Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company’s mill had run out of timber. Since 1879, the company had been processing timber harvested from the headwaters of Zayante Creek 5.4 miles north of Felton. The opening of the South Pacific Coast Railroad through the same valley in May 1880 greatly accelerated the speed that the company could export its products to the Bay Area and beyond. Shortly after the railroad was completed, the company added a two-mile-long spur that began as a switchback and descended from the railroad grade to today’s East Zayante Road and then continued north to the mill at the confluence of Mountain Charlie Gulch and Zayante Creek. For six more years, the mill churned out millions of board feet of lumber and other timber products, then everything fell apart.

Mill worker families outside the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company mill at Dougherty's, circa 1890. [Courtesy WorthPoint – Colorized using MyHeritage]

In the afternoon of Sunday, August 8, 1886, the Zayante Creek mill burned to the ground. Although it led to an estimated loss of around $25,000 in value, the company quickly rebounded. Before the flames were even extinguished, mill superintendent James Dougherty had negotiated the sale of the nearby Saunders mill to serve as a replacement for the remaining season. But much of the standing timber around the mill burned in the inferno and the company decided against reopening for the 1887 season. While crews cut splitstuff and began to dismantle the mill, James and his brother, company president William P. Dougherty, began planning the company’s next move.

Boulder Creek yard with flume, circa 1887. [Courtesy San Lorenzo Valley Museum – Colorized using MyHeritage]

Throughout the 1880s, the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company had purchased thousands of acres of land along the San Lorenzo River north of Boulder Creek, as well as along feeder streams of Pescadero Creek. In 1885, the South Pacific Coast Railroad had finished the Felton & Pescadero Railroad to Boulder Creek, with plans to extend further north to Pescadero. South Pacific Coast ultimately abandoned that vision when it consolidated the line into the South Pacific Coast Railway in 1887 and leased the new railroad to the Southern Pacific Railroad, which rebranded the former line from Felton to Boulder Creek as the Felton Branch. The Dougherty brothers saw this as an opening. They decided that, in lieu of an official extension of the branch, they would build their own line north. Initially it would just go to the company’s proposed mill, but it would be extended further north as needed, perhaps one day cutting through the mountains to Pescadero Creek and beyond. In fact, the South Pacific Coast Railway insisted that the line be of a similar quality to ensure the fluid transfer of rolling stock from one line to the other. Also at this time, a fragment of the old San Lorenzo Flume & Transportation Company’s V-flume continued to run north from Boulder Creek. The lumber companies that still used it saw the Doughertys’ railroad as an upgrade and eagerly encouraged its extension to their properties.

Dougherty Extension tracks near Wildwood, circa 1911. Photo by Willard E. Worden. [Courtesy San Francisco Public Library – Colorized using MyHeritage]

Construction of the railroad began in the late winter of 1887. Like the Felton Branch, it was narrow-gauge and extended from a track on the eastern side of the Boulder Creek freight yard. The track proceeded north across the “Turkey Foot”—the confluence of Boulder Creek, the San Lorenzo River, and Bear Creek—and remained on the east side of the San Lorenzo River for the next two miles. Just beyond today’s Riverdale Boulevard, the route curved sharply to the west and crossed the County Road. This section required around eighty men, most Chinese, to drill and blast the chalk rock and stumps for the grade. Explosions were heard as far away as Santa Cruz. Another twenty men worked elsewhere, surveying, grading, and laying track. Bridges were built across several gulches and streams, the most notable of which was Two Bar Creek. The river crossing at around the two-mile point, a short, wooden Pratt truss bridge, became the subject of several romantic photographs in later years. The railroad reached Cunningham & Company’s newly-built mill in late March, prompting the start of the lumber season for the mill. The facility was located at today’s Lorenzo Lane, just south of Pleasant Way in San Lorenzo Park. After crossing the river twice more, the railroad reached the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company’s mill 1.6 miles to the north, at a site appropriately named “Dougherty’s,” in the vicinity of today’s Either Way and Teilh Drive. The railroad was operational to this point by the end of April and crews spent much of May transferring machinery from the Zayante mill and assembling it at the new site. Several spurs and sidings were installed around the mill, including a track that ran around the west side of the facility. It was on this track that the company placed the engine house for the company’s locomotive, the former Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad’s Felton, nicknamed the “Dinkey.”

Dougherty Extension train crossing the San Lorenzo River bridge at the former Cunningham & Company mill site, circa 1911. Photo by Willard E. Worden. [Courtesy San Francisco Public Library – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The railroad line extended beyond Dougherty’s from the very first year. Initially, about five miles of track was installed, probably ending around today’s McGaffigan Mill Road, which is thought to have been the site of a shingle mill and transloading station for the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company. This location remained the end-of-track for several years. However, as the surrounding forest was denuded of its old-growth redwoods, the track expanded north. The first extension in 1897 brought it north two miles, across the Saratoga Toll Road at a clearing that would later become Waterman Switch. The shingle mill and transloading center likely moved with it to this site. From here, the track was extended by about a half mile twice in 1898 and 1899. By the latter year, the railroad had reached its end-of-track on a bend in the San Lorenzo River in the shadow of Castle Rock Ridge. Here, the shingle mill was moved and operated for several more years through contractors. After two years of logging in this area, crews cut the track back to Waterman Switch, where a cable logging road was installed up the hillside and over the ridge to Waterman Creek, one of the origin streams of Pescadero Creek, where the company harvested timber through the late summer of 1902.

Santa Clara Mill & Lumber Company facility at Dougherty's, circa 1890. [Courtesy Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The legal status of the extension railroad has never been definitively determined. Unlike all other privately-operated railroads in Santa Cruz County, the Doughertys’ line catered to several independent firms in the manner of a common carrier. The closest equivalent was the Pajaro Valley Railroad, which was incorporated and legally distinct from the Western Beet Sugar Company that backed it. In the early years, local newspapers conflated the Doughertys’ line with the Felton Branch, called it an extension of that branch, or made it a branch or railroad in its own right. The Santa Cruz Surf in 1888, shortly after the line opened, called it “Dougherty’s Branch;” the next year, reporting on repairs to the line, the Surf said “Repairs on Dougherty’s railroad extension are nearly completed and the ‘branch’ will be ready for running trains this week.” Clearly the reporter knew that the railroad was not a true branch of the South Pacific Coast Railway, but the next year, the newspaper simply called it the “Dougherty’s branch railroad,” abandoning the distinction. The Santa Cruz Sentinel preferred an entirely different naming convention, calling it the “Northern Extension R.R.” in 1895 and “the Dougherty or North Extension railway” in 1910. And in 1903, when it was discovered that Southern Pacific surveyors were examining the line and its potential extension to Pescadero, it received yet another name: “Boulder Creek & Pescadero Railroad.” This idea that became so popular that the company’s locomotive had it written on the tender. The most common name that emerged, though, was the “Dougherty Extension Railroad,” first appearing in both the Sentinel and the Surf in 1890. This is the term that was used in the sale of the railroad’s right-of-way to the California Timber Company in May 1903, and it has been used since in property transactions relating to surviving sections of the right-of-way.

The Dinkey with Boulder Creek & Pescadero Railroad livery parked near Bear Creek Road, circa 1915. [Courtesy San Lorenzo Valley Museum – Colorized using MyHeritage]

All but one of the Dougherty Extension Railroad’s third-party customers had their stations along the southernmost three miles. The first was Ephraim Bradbury Morrell’s mill on Two Bar Creek about one mile north of Boulder Creek. The mill had been established in 1884 and Morrell was on the brink of shutting it down when the Doughertys entered the scene. Following Morrell’s death in 1903, his property was taken over by Homer Rider and Willard and Orrin McAbee. The partners operated as the McAbee Brothers Timber Company and finished harvesting Two Bar Creek in late 1905, shifting to China Grade and away from the Extension Railroad afterwards. The next was the aforementioned Cunningham & Company’s mill, established in early 1888. James Farnham Cunningham owned the general store in Boulder Creek and had been a resident of Felton since the 1870s, becoming invested in various industries. He ran his mill through the 1891 season and then sold it and the property to the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company. Although his mill was dismantled, its spurs and sidings remained and were likely reused by the F. A. Hihn Company in 1907 when it opened a lumber mill several miles up King’s Creek. That facility operated until the end of 1910.

The F. A. Hihn Company mill on Kings Creek, circa 1907. [Courtesy Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The railroad’s only third-party operator located north of Dougherty’s was the S. H. Chase Lumber Company’s mill on Feeder Creek. Stephen Hall Chase had been running mills in California since 1859. His company purchased this little section of forest from J. P. Peery in 1890 and ran a two-mile-long railroad spur across the San Lorenzo River and up the steep canyon to the new mill. The mill ran until about 1899 and afterwards Chase relocated to Laguna Creek near Davenport. According to historian Rick Hamman, where the spur broke off from the mainline was called “Sinnott Switch,” though this name does not appear in contemporary sources. The family of James B. and Mary Sinnott had moved to a property five miles north of Boulder Creek in July 1884. However, their property was not located on the railroad line. Instead, the switch may have been named after the conductor of the “Dinkey,” Nick Sinnott.

Boulder Creek workers standing in the freight yard, with the tracks to the Dougherty Extension Railroad at right, circa 1895. [Courtesy San Lorenzo Valley Museum – Colorized using MyHeritage]

Following the deaths of William and James Dougherty and the end of the company’s logging operations in the San Lorenzo Valley in 1902, the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company merged its Pescadero properties with those of the Big Basin Lumber Company and the Boulder Creek Lumber Company, both owned by Henry L. Middleton, to form the California Timber Company in April 1903. The new firm owned around 13,000 acres of timberland on Pescadero Creek and it immediately set to work finding an economical way of accessing that timber. The company built a new wagon road from Waterman Switch up the western hillside to the mill site on Waterman Creek. This road today follows the route from where State Route 9 separates from the Saratoga Toll Road and climbs to Waterman Gap. This road was a poor solution, though, and everybody in Boulder Creek was talking about extending the Dougherty Extension Railroad over Waterman Gap to the Pescadero forest and beyond. Indeed, the California Timber Company was not the only firm interested in an extension; in January 1903, Southern Pacific sent out surveyors to map both the existing railroad and a potential extension to Pescadero. And people in general wanted a railroad that could access the newly-opened California Redwood Park (Big Basin).

Workers clearing timber for the Waterman Creek mill of the California Timber Company, circa November 25, 1905. [Courtesy Derek R. Whaley – Colorized using MyHeritage]

Much changed over the next two years. The Ocean Shore Railway incorporated on May 16, 1905, and many locals speculated that the company planned to take over the Dougherty Extension Railroad and extend it to Pescadero. A month earlier, on April 12, Southern Pacific incorporated its own subsidiary, the Coast Line Railway, which included in its articles the plan to construct a 20-mile-long branch line from Pescadero to Boulder Creek, presumably creating a loop with the line also connecting Davenport and Pescadero. Southern Pacific survey teams spent March and April resurveying their 1903 report and found that the former Chase mill’s spur up Feeder Creek followed by a tunnel through the ridge to Big Basin and on to Pescadero Creek would result in the most even grade and the most cost-effective route. The California Timber Company acted, too, with plans to standard gauge the entire line announced in April, presumably in preparation for a Southern Pacific acquisition. Southern Pacific, though, was focusing its primary efforts on building a line from Santa Cruz to Davenport, where the company held the contract to deliver the machinery for the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company in 1906. The April 18, 1906, earthquake ensured that all of these plans fell to pieces.

The Dinkey and its crew north of Boulder Creek, circa 1890. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The earthquake did increase demand for timber products in San Francisco. Most of the mills on the Dougherty Extension Railroad had closed prior to 1906, but the California Timber Company and F. A. Hihn Company tried to compensate in volume. Activity along the line had reached a new high. Workers roamed the San Lorenzo Valley in search of wood that could be cut into splitstuff, such as fence posts, railroad ties, grape stakes, shingles, and shakes. So many of these had piled up along the extension line that the California Timber Company’s foreman estimated it would take more than 120 days of continuous shipping to remove all of it. Electrical lighting was installed at major landings along the line to enable crews to work day and night. The Sentinel article summarizing this progress named landings at Whitener’s and Keefe’s, two places hitherto unmentioned as stops in sources. The former referred to John D. Whitener, a local property investor who was noted in 1912 as the owner of a mill in Boulder Creek. The latter was named after Garrett Keefe, a mill worker with a property near Dougherty’s. His daughter, Mamie S. Keefe, served as the teacher at Dougherty’s School in 1906. Neither location is mentioned as a landing after July 1907.

The Dinkey and South Pacific Coast locomotive no. 23 at Boulder Creek, circa 1900 [Courtesy Phil Reader – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The Coast Line Railway never made it past Davenport and the Ocean Shore Railroad never reached Pescadero. The Mountain Echo reported a rumor in August 1907 that Southern Pacific still planned to construct a line to Pescadero, with a second extension to Congress Springs near Saratoga, both of which would require long and expensive tunnels. It also speculated that the line would be standard-gauged to at least King’s Creek. None of this came to pass. By 1910, the prospect of the Dougherty Extension Railroad being taken over by either firm seemed unlikely. Henry Middleton and his allies reluctantly began harvesting new timber tracts on Pescadero and Butano Creeks in June under the name Western Shore Lumber Company. They held out hope that Southern Pacific would see the potential profit and extend the Dougherty line. Again in February 1912, a rumor circulated that Southern Pacific planned to build a new line to Congress Springs via King’s Creek, with all of the right-of-way allegedly already acquired. Such a line could have reduced the distance between San Francisco and Santa Cruz by up to 10 miles and put all of the major population centers in the San Lorenzo Valley on a mainline. Even as late as February 1916, the Santa Cruz Evening News speculated that a new lumber combine planned to buy all the available timber tracts on Pescadero Creek, standard gauge the Dougherty Extension Railroad, and extend it to the headwaters of Pescadero Creek. Shifting global demands caused by World War I likely shelved these plans.

Motor car on the tracks at Wildwood, circa 1914. [Courtesy Derek R. Whaley – Colorized using MyHeritage]

An entirely different venture emerged along the line in April 1909. The American Real Estate Company, a San Francisco firm, was contracted by W. H. Booth to subdivide and sell his property located directly north of the Cunningham & Company’s former mill. The company hoped to build a seasonal village there named Wildwood, populated by Bay Area elite. And what better way to convey people two miles north of Boulder Creek than with a scenic railroad? Henry Middleton allowed the company to borrow the Dinkey and its crew to shuttle potential property owners to the site. A flatcar was refitted with bench seats, painted, and decorated to advertise the subdivision. And because this section of track had been constructed to the standards of the Southern Pacific, it was a smooth ride the whole way. Promotional excursions began running on May 19, 1909, and continued through the next five summers. In 1914, the Dinkey was replaced by a gas-powered motorcar that could hold eight passengers and the driver. Its speed and operational cost made it much cheaper to operate than the 40-year-old locomotive. Properties sold by the dozens, but with the increase in automobile travel and the cost of maintaining the railroad line, the owners decided not to continue its use after the 1914 season.

Campers and real estate speculators at Wildwood, circa 1913. [Courtesy Derek R. Whaley – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The end of promotional excursions loosely coincided with the end of logging operations on Pescadero Creek. The California Timber Company’s property was hit with a massive wildfire in September 1913 and much of its unharvested timber burned. This likely led the firm to abandon its mill and end operations in the area, though it may have been planning to close at the end of the season anyway. Earlier that year, in March, the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company sold its properties, including the Dougherty Extension Railroad, to the newly-formed Santa Cruz Mountain Land Company, run by San Mateo and San Francisco investors. The new owners allowed the logging and Wildwood trains to run through the 1913 and 1914 seasons, but all activity appears to have ceased afterwards. The track sat idle for around three years. On April 4, 1917, the rails were allegedly sold to H. Stroll for $700, with the condition that the land company had to remove them. It did not and Stroll sued in November 1918 for failure to fulfill the contract. The amount of the suit suggests that Stroll removed the rails himself at a cost of $5,000, from which he deducted the amount he paid for them. The suit continued into 1919 with the defendant claiming a demurrer. The result was that the Dougherty Extension Railroad was dismantled and its rails scrapped.

A section of surviving right-of-way near the junction Saratoga Toll Road and State Route 9, 2013. Photo by Derek Whaley. [Courtesy Derek R. Whaley]

A surprising amount of the Dougherty Extension Railroad’s right-of-way survives intact today. For the first two miles, the right-of-way mostly sits comfortably between State Route 9 and the river, where one may catch glimpses of it at times, although there are many homes now built atop the former right-of-way. At Wildwood, the route continues along River Road, eventually crossing through Camp Campbell and Camp Harmon. From Teilh Drive, it once again sits between Highway 9 and the river until reaching Fern Drive. The route crosses the river at roughly the same spot as the Fern Drive bridge, and the right-of-way continues north along the west bank from this point onward. Just before the start of the Saratoga Toll Road, traces of the right-of-way can be seen on either side of the road, with some original ties remaining in place. To the south from here, the right-of-way passes through a shallow cut and continues for roughly 0.5 miles within Castle Rock State Park before reaching private property. To the north, the route continues along the eastern side of the former toll road and has become overgrown and difficult to navigate, with an abundance of poison oak. The right-of-way suddenly vanishes just beyond a bend in the San Lorenzo River about 0.4 miles south of the confluence of Tin Can Creek.

Citations & Credits:

• Coast Line Railway Company. “Articles of Incorporation." April 12, 1905. California State Archives.
• Hamman. Rick. California Central Coast Railways, second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• History of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, California: Cradle of California’s History and Romance, Vol. II. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing, 1925.
• “Official Map of the County of Santa Cruz.” San Francisco, CA: Punnett Brothers, 1906.
• Redwood City Democrat. April 6, 1905. Page 3:7.
• Sanborn–Perris Map Company. “Boulder Creek, Santa Cruz Co., Cal.” June 1897.
• Santa Cruz Daily Sentinel, Evening Sentinel, and Morning Sentinel. 1886–1913.
• Santa Cruz Evening News. 1907–1916.
• Santa Cruz Surf. 1888–1903.

Railroads: Failed Saratoga and New Almaden Railroads

The Bay Area was in the midst of railroad fever in the 1880s, with the South Pacific Coast Railroad driving interest in other niche lines to various locales, and Southern Pacific exploring potentially profitable branch lines. Interest in a railroad to the New Almaden quicksilver mines south of San José was surprisingly late in coming, but once investors realized the wealth that could be gained by connecting the mines to San Francisco, interest skyrocketed. Two companies in succession were formed to build standard-gauge railroad lines between Mountain View and New Almaden. Curiously, their stories, written a year apart, were almost identical, with some of the cast of the first even returning for roles in the second.

Farmers building a fence along a road in Sunnyvale, circa 1890s. [Courtesy Michelle Jacobson Collection, California History Center – colorized using MyHeritage]

San Francisco & New Almaden Railroad (1884–1887)

Articles of incorporation for the first New Almaden railroad project were filed on March 19, 1884, for the San Francisco & New Almaden Railroad. While the final destination was intended to be the New Almaden mines, the start point for this line was set at San Francisco. This was a bit of a trick, though, as the first leg south would be by steamship across the bay. The company set its place of business as San José, suggesting a more southern outlook. It was capitalized at $500,000. The board of directors included N. Doyley, D.M. Carman, H.E. Bullock, S.B. Morey, and J.W. Dodge. Morey held the most shares at 2,000, with Carman a distant second at 958. At the first meeting of the directors on April 3, it was decided that the railroad run from Mountain View to Ravenwood (east Saratoga) to Lovelady’s (Campbell) and finally New Almaden. Today, that route would largely follow Pastoria Avenue south from the Union Pacific Railroad tracks to and down the length of Hollenbeck Avenue and Stelling Road and then closely follow UP’s Permanente Branch to Quito Road, after which the planned route to New Almaden is uncertain.

A woman standing outside Martin Murphy, Jr.'s "Bay View" home at Murphy's Station, circa 1880s. [Courtesy California History Center – colorized using MyHeritage]

The new railroad hired J.S. Antionello, known for building several East Coast railroads, to build the first ten miles of the line, construction for which began May 12. Antonelli hired 150 men for the job, who began the line just south of the Mountain View station on the Southern Pacific Railroad. On May 13, the directors met and elected D.M. Carman as president and Joseph A. Crawford as general superintendent, with R.L. Niggins and C.W. Quilty filling places left vacant by departing members of the initial board. A week after construction began, the San Jose Herald recounted that “two hundred men have been employed and all the trains that can be made available. The road will be completed to Saratoga and Quito road by the 10th of July, a distance of 12 or 15 miles, and this point is half-way from the place of commencement to the terminus. One week from to-day 100 more men will be put at this point and will work to meet the men starting at Mountain View. After the completion of this part of the road the balance will be finished on to Almaden as speedily as possible. This new railroad is meeting with much favor through the country which it runs and will open up a splendid territory in the western part of our valley.” Yet the promised boost never came.

The old Murphy's Station freight depot at Sunnyvale, circa 1910s. [Courtesy Sunnyvale Historical Society – colorized by MyHeritage]

Problems arose almost immediately. A complaint was filed by S.D. Hosmer and W.P. Paul on May 17, alleging that the railroad had encroached upon the narrow Hollenbeck Lane, which was heavily used by locals and would be too crowded if the railroad installed track along it. Other locals, such as the Sullivan family, also blocked access or asked for high prices for the right-of-way. Shortly afterwards, on May 28, all work on the railroad halted. Three miles of operable—though not operating—track had been installed between Murphy’s Station and Collins School (today’s Homestead Road). Crawford threatened lawsuits to condemn the properties, but this only made matters worse. A few days later, Carman stated, “The truth of the matter is, that the payment for land of such price as have been demanded for the right of way would bankrupt any company that was not backed by large capital. We simply couldn’t pay the rates that were asked, and we propose to rest quietly until the producers of the region through which the road is projected open their eyes to the true condition of affairs as affecting their own interests. The tools of the contractor’s large force of men are lying on the roadside, so that work can be resumed on very short notice, when the difference respecting the right of way shall have been adjusted.” But Carman was not being entirely honest. While it is true that the San Francisco & New Almaden Railroad was not backed by large investors, Carman, who also served as treasurer, was not helping the matter.

The first real sign of trouble came in June 1884, when contractor C.D. Rhodes sued Morey for failing to pay him is $236.83 consulting fees. To enforce his claim, he put a lien on the company’s office furniture and railroad ties. This action ensured that no further construction would occur on the railroad line until December 11, when the case was dismissed. By that date, internal politics were at a bursting point. In March 1885, Crawford asked the police to put out a warrant for the arrest of Carman. He revealed to the Oakland Tribune that Carman had orchestrated an internal coup on May 13, 1884, removing several of the original investors in favor of his friends, who together promised to finance the construction of the railroad. Crawford sided with Carman and was given a seat on the board. Over the next two weeks, six miles of track was graded and laid by Antionello’s crew before he asked for funds to pay his workers. Crawford as superintendent requested the money and Carman tried to remove Crawford from the board, demanding all of his shares before he would pay the workers. Crawford began a counter-coup to remove Carman and his cronies from the board. This is why work stopped—it was not due to property claims but because of the disfunction of the board.

Several lawsuits followed by Antionello and others, seeking compensation for work and land. Crawford then discovered that Carman had been stealing funds from the company. After several confrontations over the matter, Carman fled to Mexico, leading to the warrant for his arrest. Crawford paid Antionello out of pocket but calls to liquidate the company came at the same time. Carman, though, was not finished. Fighting accusations of embezzlement, he claimed he had only gone to Mexico to acquire more funds to finance the railroad. Nobody at the company believed him. At the annual stockholders’ meeting on March 23, Carman was ousted and J.H. Mahoney elected president. J.A. Crawford remained as general manager, with J.C. Winans secretary, and F.M. Smith and A.F. Shearer directors. The place of business moved to San Francisco and the directors promised to resume construction by June 1st. They never did.

Comparison map showing the routes of the Sa Francisco & New Almaden Railroad (left) and the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad (right), with the Southern Pacific Railroad's mainline and the location of Murphy's Station (top).

Saratoga & Almaden Railroad (1885–1886)

Four months after the collapse of its predecessor, on July 15, 1885, the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad was incorporated. Its proposed 20-mile-long standard-gauge route was from Murphy’s Station, just south of Mountain View, to Saratoga and then New Almaden. In other words, it followed almost precisely the route of the San Francisco & New Almaden Railroad. Its directors were not unique either. While the president was D.M. Pyle and the other newcomers included Lewis A. Sage, Peter Ball, and J.K. Carter, the final director was J.C. Winans, the former secretary of the earlier railroad, who became secretary and treasurer of the new line. Capital stock was set at $200,000, significantly less than the prior company, with the place of business registered as San Francisco. Henry A. Brainard, a veteran who designed the West Shore Railroad, was hired as engineer, with Jackson R. Myers hired as contractor for the grading and building of the line.

Saratoga & Almaden Railroad Company stock certificate, issued September 3, 1885. [WorthPoint]

Like the earlier railroad, the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad made several mistakes early on. The first of these was hiring J.A. Crawford to superintend the line. He promised in late August that a depot at Murphy’s Station would be built and cars running to Saratoga by the beginning of 1886. But he used brute force to build the line. In October, R. E. Collins, a property owner on the right-of-way, sued the railroad for $1,000 in damages for violently trespassing on his property on September 28, cutting down trees in his orchard. The court filed an injunction against the railroad pending trial. This injunction was resolved in early November.

Despite the legal difficulties, construction of the line continued through October. Five miles were graded by October 20, with track laying begun that day. Pyle optimistically stated that the railroad to Saratoga would be operational by December 1. On October 27, it was revealed that, while track laying had begun and a large amount of rail and ties had been delivered to Murphy’s Station on the Southern Pacific line, the railroad had not actually purchased all of the right-a-way that it had graded. Southern Pacific had granted space for a small yard and transfer station, as well as for the company to install a switch, but if the company did not pay for the right-of-way by an unspecified date, its franchise would be forfeited. By early November, all obstacles to building the first five miles were reportedly removed and construction resumed. A train turned onto the line at Murphy’s for the first time on December 2, hauling construction material to the end of the line to resume work. Work continued throughout December and early January, with around 200 Chinese workers grading and installing the line.

Completed route of the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad, northern end, 1886, surveyed by H. A. Brainard. [Courtesy San José Public Libraries]

In January 1886, J.B.J. Portal and J.F. Thompson, who owned vineyards along the west bank of Calabazas Creek, sued the railroad for damages to their property caused by the grading crews as well as the future damage the railroad may cause to their crops. The trial ran for three days, concluding on January 29. In the final decision, Judge Spencer and the jury ruled largely in favor of the property owners, leveling six judgments on the railroad, including for the properties themselves, physical and hypothetical damages sustained by the owners, and requirements to install fencing and cattleguards through said properties. The total cost was set at $3,271.50 between the two plaintiffs. Yet the railroad also won since the costs were reduced from what they had feared and the jury ruled that the route was a public necessity and should be built. The plaintiffs, dissatisfied with the result, filed a bill of exceptions against Judge Spencer for three failures to follow proper procedure, but this appeal seemed to go nowhere.

All these delays and legal costs put a damper on celebrations. More problematic for the company, though, was the announcement that the South Pacific Coast Railroad was going to build a branch line from Lovelady’s (Campbell) to New Almaden, undermining any need for the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad to exist. Construction on the branch began on February 13, 1886. Less than two weeks later, on February 26, Southern Pacific announced its own plans to build a branch line, incorporating it as the San Jose and Almaden Railroad. Despite this sudden change in fortunes, work briefly resumed on the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad in early February. Yet the disheartened company seems to have reduced its ultimate goal to Saratoga. Regardless, work halted permanently on February 21, 1886, due to a growing number of lawsuits.

Completed route of the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad, southern end, 1886, surveyed by H. A. Brainard. [Courtesy San José Public Libraries]

On March 2, Quong Lee Kee & Company of San Francisco, which had supplied the Chinese workers used to construct the line, filed a lien on the railroad’s right-of-way to the sum of $5,470.25 for labor and materials furnished, with an additional $500 lawsuit for damages due to the failure of the railroad to fulfill its contract. This failure was due to the fact that the railroad had not, in fact, secured all the necessary property needed to construct the line and therefore did not have the funds to pay for the workers it had hired to construct said line. Things only got worse from there. On March 5, Myers also filed a lien and suit for damages with interest for $11,969.40, and the Pacific Rolling Mill Company sued for $1,004.70 in overdue payment for spikes and bolts furnished to the railroad. Crawford, who had stayed loyal to both companies throughout their troubles, finally jumped ship on March 18. He sold his considerable interest in the company to Thomas H. Cordell, who represented the Pacific Improvement Company, a Southern Pacific subsidiary. On May 28, Cordell transferred his interest back to the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad with the agreement that the Pacific Improvement Company would take control of it shortly. Meanwhile, in June the South Pacific Coast Railroad completed its branch line to New Almaden.

Chinese migrants posing for the camera near Sunnyvale, 1890s. [Sunnyvale Historical Society and Museum Association – colorized using MyHeritage]

Although the truncation of the line and the previous lawsuits certainly put a strain on the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad, it was a suit by C.T. Ryland that ultimately killed the enterprise. Ryland had advanced money to the company in 1885 and had the iron rails of the railroad set as collateral. In April, the railroad lost the suit and Ryland was awarded $1,635.90, as well as $150 in counsel fees and costs. Since the railroad could not afford this fine, the judge ordered the sale of the collateral on June 3. The earnings from this alone did not satisfy the award and so another auction was held on October 18. In both cases, Ryland had the winning bid and effectively bought his own award in scrap metal.

In June, a lawsuit by the Pacific Rolling Mill Company began. This trial dragged into the defense the California Safe Deposit & Trust Company, which oversaw the railroad’s finances. The railroad lost the suit and a sheriff’s auction was called to sell the entirety of the 4.5 miles of laid track and roadbed that had been completed. The auction was held on November 10, where the property was purchased for $1,336 by Z. Burns. Most of the funds went to the plaintiff to cover their award and costs. Kwong Lee Kee & Company belatedly sued the company for $2,496.88 in unpaid wages in December, but this seems to have gone nowhere. Myers, who also held a lien on the company, sued shortly afterwards but it was too late—the company had almost nothing of value left. In a second auction held in May 1887 to satisfy the remaining amount owed to the Pacific Rolling Company, Thomas Moran of Oakland paid $1,482.86 for the liens against the company and, in return, received the railroad’s last item of value: approximately 600 tons of iron. Moran purportedly sold it as scrap for eight times the amount that he paid. As a final nail in the coffin, R.G. Bixbee acquired the railroad’s franchise in August and sold it for $5 to the Pacific Land Investment Company, a South Pacific Coast Railroad affiliate.

Sunnyvale Depot, circa 1911. [Courtesy Historical Society – colorized using MyHeritage]

Following the failure of the Saratoga & Almaden Railroad, Crawford partnered with William Farrington in April 1887 and proposed yet another railroad, this time from San José to Saratoga. Their prospectus was published in the San Jose Daily Mercury on May 5 and a committee was formed to investigate the proposal. Despite campaigning for it for several years and reportedly broad support by people living along the proposed line, no railroad was ever incorporated and the plan fizzled. Crawford’s untimely death at the age of 38 on July 12, 1890, put a damper on the project, though it never completely went out of mind of San Joseans and Saratogans. It would be another twelve years before the San Jose and Los Gatos Interurban Railway Company was founded and finally began the work to connect San José to Saratoga.

Citations & Credits:

• Various newspaper articles from the Daily Alta California, The Daily Examiner, The Daily Herald, The Los Gatos Weekly News, The Morning Call, The Morning Times, The Oakland Daily Times Oakland Tribune, Sacramento Daily Bee, The Sacramento Union, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Daily Mercury, San Jose Weekly News, and the Santa Cruz Daily Sentinel.

Stations: Molino

The Southern Pacific Railroad did not employ the most creative naming scheme on its Loma Prieta Branch. Three stations have Spanish names, three are descriptive, and one is named after a property owner. Molino was no exception: a Spanish name describing a place, specifically a mill. However, Molino lived two lives, once in the mid-1880s and again from 1911. In both cases, it was often called Molino Junction since it marked the place where a spur line broke off from the branch line, initially to access the shingle mill of the Pacific Improvement Company situated on a small rocky floodplain, later the site of the Loma Prieta Lumber Company’s main mill.

The only known photograph of Molino in its first iteration, showing the Loma Prieta Branch to the left and the shingle mill spur to the right, with no facilities other than a station sign, circa 1885. [Courtesy Timothy Hopkins Collection, Stanford University – colorized using MyHeritage]

The site of Molino was first reached by Loma Prieta Railroad construction crews around August 1883, making it the oldest station on the line. Crews divided their focus at Molino, with the main force of men working on the branch line and a smaller force grading a 320-foot-long spur across Aptos Creek to the shingle mill, located on the property of Timothy Hopkins. No railroad documentation of the station from this period survives, but supporting evidence strongly suggests that it was officially recognized by the Southern Pacific Railroad when it took direct control over the route in 1884. A single photograph taken about 1885 shows a large sign marking the station, but no other facilities.

The shingle mill on the Molino spur, 1884. [Courtesy California State Library – colorized using MyHeritage]

During its lifetime, the spur leading from Molino was in constant year-round use. The shingle mill was the largest such operation in the county’s history to date. Daily operations were overseen by Frank Simmons on behalf of the Loma Prieta Lumber Company. The facility ran day and night throughout 1885, which was unusual at the time, and it produced around fourteen million shingles that year. The mill was supported by a meandering narrow-gauge railroad that ran south, crisscrossing Aptos Creek several times until reaching the edge of the southern edge of Rancho Soquel Augmentation, near today’s steel bridge over the creek.

Everything changed for Molino following a disastrous fire at the Loma Prieta Lumber Company’s primary lumber mill further down the line at Monte Vista on May 13, 1885. Rather than rebuild, the company decided to relocate its mill south to the site of the shingle mill. Preparation of the site commenced in spring 1886 and work on a new dam across Aptos Creek began in August under the direction of Kinsman Brothers of San Francisco. New trackage were built from Molino to the mill site, and the equipment from the old mill was moved in the winter after the year’s lumber operations had ended. By the time the new mill opened in spring 1887, Molino had vanished as a recognized station, though nothing had actually changed at the station’s site. The switch remained and the sign likely survived for many more years, though it was gone by the late 1900s. The location never appeared on timetables or in station books during these years, though it was often included on maps, including those published by third parties.

Southern Pacific Railroad radii survey of the Loma Prieta Branch from Molino to Loma Prieta, circa 1908. [Courtesy California State Library]

The longevity of the name Molino proved itself when it was incorporated into the name of the Molino Timber Company in 1910. In June 1911, the station reappeared as a formal station and was finally included in official Southern Pacific documentation. Curiously, Molino was listed with a 156-foot-long spur, a feature not present in the area immediately around the switch. This suggests that the station may have expanded to encompass a larger area stretching as far as 0.25 miles to the south, where logging activity continued even as the Loma Prieta Lumber Company wound down operations at its Aptos Creek mill.

In the spring of 1901, German immigrant and Aptos farmer Lorenz Schilling and his son John took out a contract from Timothy Hopkins to cut timber along the tracks south of Molino. Although all of the surrounding area had been harvested seventeen years earlier, the trees lining the Loma Prieta Branch had been allowed to remain standing due to a dream by Southern Pacific’s investors that Loma Prieta would one day host a prosperous mountain resort. In hindsight and with the commercial potential of the Loma Prieta Branch reaching its end, it became clear to the railroad that any chance for a profitable tourism industry on the line had passed. As a result, the remaining trees were marked for felling.

Mules hauling wood at the Schillings' camp, circa 1903. [Courtesy Aptos History Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Schillings owned a pack of mules and used them to haul out splitstuff, which they cut where the trees fell. To support the operation, they built a workers’ camp beside the railroad tracks in a clearing south of Molino on the other side of a cut. It included a blacksmith shop, cabins, a cookhouse, a barn and hay store, and a supply shed. On the west side of the tracks across from the camp, Lorenz and John each built a cabin for himself and his family, where each lived for the next four years. Drinking water was provided from a pipeline extended from the village of Loma Prieta, with Spring Creek its ultimate source. The railroad built a short spur on the east side of the branch line into the camp so flatcars could be loaded without interrupting traffic continuing north. The operation at the Schillings’ camp ran through the summer of 1904. The spur track was left in place after the family closed shop.

Molino with dual-gauged tracks, circa 1915. [Composite of three photographs, courtesy Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, the Woods Mattingly Collections at the Aptos History Museum, and Santa Cruz Public Libraries – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Molino Timber Company converted the abandoned camp in late 1910 into a construction camp for making flatcars for its narrow-gauge railroad that ran along China Ridge. As a result, the location also served as the company’s southern end of track, though the standard-gauge tracks continued to Aptos. When the company was running at its peak in the mid-1910s, piles of splitstuff were stacked along either side of the tracks for nearly a mile north of the camp. This was never the intention, but market fluctuations and varying yields of splitstuff meant sometimes the supply far outstripped demand, leaving these stacks of unpurchased product waiting for a buyer. Molino Timber Company crews unloaded their freight and stacked it in such a way that it could be easily loaded onto a Southern Pacific flatcar whenever an order arrived. While this process led to double handling, it allowed the company to free up its small fleet of custom-made narrow-gauge flatcars quickly and avoided the need for a lumber yard, since most freight shipped out directly to customers via Southern Pacific.

Splitstuff stacked along the Loma Prieta Branch, circa 1915. [Courtesy Aptos History Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

Although the Molino Timber Company ceased working on China Ridge in late 1917 and went out of business completely at the end of 1919, Molino continued to be used by the Loma Prieta Lumber Company in its logging operations along Bridge Creek. It produced a mixture of lumber and splitstuff, which allowed the company to process felled timber more efficiently. To save money, the company acquired the narrow-gauge rolling stock of the Molino Timber Company, supplementing it with a second locomotive and more flatcars. This meant that the bridge over Aptos Creek at Molino had to be dual-gauged to allow the narrow-gauge trains to reach the mill, which the company rebuilt to support this new project. For five summers from 1917, lumber crews cut down every accessible redwood tree standing on either side of Bridge Creek and its tributaries. And then, sometime in the middle of the summer of 1921, the last tree was cut and fellers found themselves without anything to do. The lumber company was done with the Aptos Forest once and for all, and all that was left was to clean up.

A mule team beside piles of splitstuff at the former Schillings' camp, circa 1919. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In an abstract way, Molino became the most important station on the Loma Prieta Branch after 1921. There was no point in continuing along the branch line to Loma Prieta, and the tracks beyond had been abandoned years earlier. The extremely limited traffic that ran on the line—mostly a rail speeder car operated by the property’s caretaker—only stopped at the mill site, accessible on the spur that split off at Molino. In 1925, Southern Pacific announced the end of all official service to the line, effective January 31, 1926. The Loma Prieta Lumber Company used this opportunity to remove the last of the uncut timber, lumber, and splitstuff from the mill property, as well as the usable machinery and other equipment still stored there. Molino was abandoned at the same time as the rest of the branch on February 19, 1928. The station’s site is still accessible today and can be found where the Loma Prieta Grade Trail separates from the Aptos Creek Fire Road within The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. The site of the Shillings’ camp and its spur is now the Porter Family Picnic Area.

Citations & Credits:

• Gilbert, M. E., ed. Santa Cruz County: A Faithful Reproduction in Print and Photography: Climate, Capabilities and Beauties. San Francisco: H. S. Crocker Company, 1896.
• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Interstate Commerce Commission. Finance Docket No. 6615 "Abandonment of Branch Line by Southern Pacific." January 20, 1928.
• Powell, Ronald G. The Reign of the Lumber Barons: Part Two of the History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation. Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, 2021.
• Powell, Ronald G. The Shadow of Loma Prieta: Part Three of the History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation. Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, 2022.
• Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Miscellaneous records. 1887–1930.
• Various articles from the Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and Watsonville Pajaronian. 1883–1912.

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.