South Pacific Coast Railroad

"Views on the South Pacific Coast Railroad" featuring locations in Santa Cruz County (1882)

SPC was incorporated in 1876 to purchase the unfinished Santa Clara Valley Company railroad at Dumbarton Point. Dumbarton Point was then a landing to transfer agricultural produce from the Santa Clara Valley onto sailboats for transport to San Francisco. Railway shops were built in Newark and a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge line to San Jose was completed in 1876. The SPC ferry Newark offered connecting service from Newark to San Francisco in 1877. In 1878 the SPC was extended from San Jose to Los Gatos; and the subsidiary Bay and Coast Railroad completed a line of trestles and fill along the eastern edge of San Francisco Bay from Newark to Alameda. The ferry connection to San Francisco shifted to Alameda as SPC ferrys Bay City and Garden City increased the frequency and reliability of connecting service.[2]

Two years and eight tunnels were required to extend the SPC through the Santa Cruz Mountains from Los Gatos to California's third busiest seaport at Santa Cruz in 1880. SPC leased the San Lorenzo Flume and Transportation Company to acquire their subsidiary Santa Cruz and Felton Railroad as a route through the city to Santa Cruz municipal pier. The big lumber transport flume was replaced by a 7 miles (11 km) logging branch in 1883. In 1886 another branch line was built to the New Almaden mercury mine; and the SPC main line was extended from Alameda to Oakland. Additional horsedrawn branch lines served Centerville (now Fremont) and Agnews State Hospital. Commuter trains fed the San Francisco ferries from east bay communities, two daily trains served Santa Cruz, and four daily locals served the logging branch to Boulder Creek. Excursion trains ran from the ferries to resorts of the south bay and Santa Cruz Mountains. Freight trains carried redwood lumber, mercury, sacked lime, gunpowder from the California Powder Works, and local agricultural produce.[2]

By 1887 SPC was a major California transportation concern; and Southern Pacific paid six million dollars to merge it into their California transportation system. An 1893 winter storm caused a landslide in the Santa Cruz Mountains requiring major reconstruction to restore service. The Alameda ferry terminal burned in 1902 and was replaced with the modern terminal which survived until ferry service was discontinued by the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in 1939. The 3 ft (914 mm) gauge line had 23 locomotives, 85 passenger cars and 500 freight cars before the conversion to standard gauge began. The transition to standard gauge was interrupted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The line through the Santa Cruz Mountains suffered major damage including a lateral slip of 5 feet (1.5 m) in the tunnel where it crossed the San Andreas fault. The bridge across San Leandro Bay was damaged and abandoned. Conversion to standard gauge was completed in 1909.[2] 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge locomotives numbered 9, 23, and 26 were eventually acquired by the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company.[3] Other SPC 3 ft (914 mm) gauge equipment was sold to the Carson and Colorado Railway,[4] the White Pass and Yukon Route, the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad, the Pacific Coast Railway, the Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company, and the Northwestern Pacific Railroad.[2]

The track in Alameda could only be used for local service after being isolated by the 1906 earthquake. It was electrified in 1911 and operated as part of the SP's East Bay Electric Lines until 1941. The remaining line from San Jose to San Leandro Bay became part of the Southern Pacific coast division main line; but the southern end of the system from San Jose to Santa Cruz had become a branch line by 1915 useful only to lighter locomotives, but requiring two or three of them to move trains over the grade. Beginning in 1927, it was used by SP's "Suntan Special" excursion trains which came down the San Francisco Peninsula every summer Sunday and took passengers right to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.[5] The Boulder Creek branch was dismantled in 1934 after a few years of service by a McKeen railmotor.[2] The tracks through the Santa Cruz Mountains suffered major damage during a storm in February 1940. The last train ran on 26 February 1940 and the line was officially abandoned on 4 June 1940.[6] Four tunnels survived until abandonment. The longest, at 6,200 feet (1,900 m), ran from Wrights Station to Burns Creak near Laurel, crossing underneath Summit Road. The second longest tunnel, at about one mile (1.6 km) long, went from Laurel to Glenwood, crossing underneath the present location of California State Route 17. The third tunnel, about 900 feet (270 m) long, went from Clems, under a ridge, to Mountain Charlie gulch. The shortest of the abandoned tunnels is in Zayante. It is currently being used as a records storage facility by Iron Mountain. Under contract to Southern Pacific, the F.A. Christie railroad salvage firm removed the track and trestles and, when this was completed in April 1942, dynamited the tunnels. Although a long-persistent rumor holds that destruction of the tunnels was motivated by post-Pearl Harbor fears of a Japanese invasion of the US West Coast, the decision to dynamite them predated the Pearl Harbor attack and was made solely for business reasons.[7] The line from San Jose to Los Gatos remained in freight service after the last commuter train ran in 1955.[2] The Santa Cruz depot was used for SP's surviving coastal line from Watsonville Junction until the building was sold the 1970s and converted to a restaurant.[6]

The first ferry terminal was built on Dumbarton Point in 1876. The Alameda terminal opened on 20 March 1878 for a shorter ferry ride to San Francisco. With two ferries, the company offered hourly trips between Alameda and San Francisco beginning in July 1878. These three side-wheel passenger ferries with vertical beam engines saw service on other routes under Southern Pacific ownership.[8]

Bay City

Bay City operating under Southern Pacific ownership.

Bay City stayed on the Alameda route under Southern Pacific ownership, and survived collision with the lumber schooner Tampico on a foggy day in 1906. She lost a rudder and had several lifeboats smashed on 5 April 1911 when misunderstood signals caused collision with the Southern Pacific ferry Berkeley. On 8 July 1912, Bay City lost power when the engine main shaft broke, and drifted in the mid-bay until a tug arrived to tow her ashore. Southern Pacific ferry Melrose collided with Bay City in a dense patch of fog on 26 January 1913. Bay City was repaired after each mishap; and stayed in trans-bay service until dismantled for scrap in 1929.[12]

Trackage

• The north-south line from Oakland, California to San Jose, California is operated by the Union Pacific Railroad. Between Newark, California and San Jose it is used by Amtrak's Capitol Corridor and Coast Starlight trains and the Altamont Corridor Express.
• The Dumbarton Cutoff connecting Niles and Newark is immediately south of the SPC branch line from Newark to Fremont Amtrak station in the Centerville District.
• The line running southwest from San Jose towards the Santa Cruz mountains still exists as far as Vasona Junction, and is operated by the Union Pacific Railroad. The right of way is shared with a light rail line (opened 2005) of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority as far as Campbell, California.
• The western end of the Santa Cruz mountain crossing, from Olympia, California to Santa Cruz, California is now the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway, primarily a tourist operation but also carries lumber.

Stations

• Agnew Depot was used by the Southern Pacific and was purchased by the California Central Model Railroad Club in 1963.
• San Jose Diridon station is located on the site of the former South Pacific Coast San Jose station.

• Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company
• Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources

• Ford, Robert S. (1977). Red Trains in the East Bay. Interurbans Publications. ISBN 0-916374-27-0.
• Shaw, Frederick (1949). Oil lamps and iron ponies: A chronicle of the narrow gauges. Bay Books.
• MacGregor, Bruce A. (1968). South Pacific Coast. Howell-North Books.
• MacGregor, Bruce A. (1975). Narrow Gauge Portrait South Pacific Coast. Glenwood Publishers.
• MacGregor, Bruce A. & Trousdale, Richard (1982). South Pacific Coast A Centennial. Pruett Publishing Co.
• Turner, George (1974). Slim Rails through the Sand (3rd edition). Trans-Anglo Books. ISBN 0-87046-016-1.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to South Pacific Coast Railroad.

• Old Santa Cruz, CA Railroad Tunnels
• South Pacific Coast Railroad