South Pacific Coast Railroad

The South Pacific Coast Railroad was a 3 ft  (914 mm) narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad also included a branch line from Campbell, California to the New Almaden, California Quicksilver mines. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founded by local strawberry growers as a way to get their crops to market in San Francisco and provide an alternative to the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1876, James Graham Fair, a Comstock Lode silver baron, bought the line. He extended the line into the Santa Cruz Mountains in order to capture the significant lumber traffic coming out of the redwood forests.

In 1887, the line was acquired by the Southern Pacific and 1906 the gauge was standardized. Some of the line's narrow gauge engines (nos. 9, 23, and 26) were eventually acquired by another narrow gauge railroad, the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company. Others ran on the former Carson and Colorado Railroad. In later years, the segment running between San Jose and Santa Cruz was used by SP's "Suntan Special" which came down the San Francisco Peninsula and took passengers right to the beach and boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Service was disrupted by the 1906 Earthquake. The tracks through the Santa Cruz Mountains suffered major damage during a storm in the winter of 1940, and the line was abandoned the same year. 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. Of the four abandoned tunnels, the longest, at 6,200 feet, ran from Wrights Station to Burns Creak near Laurel, crossing underneath Summit Rd. The second longest tunnel, at about a mile long, went from Laurel to Glenwood, crossing underneath the present location of HWY 17. The third tunnel, about 900 feet long, went from Clems, under a ridge, to Mountain Charlie gulch. The shortest of the abandoned tunnels is in Zyante. It is currently being used as a records storage facility by Iron Mountain.

The bridge across San Leandro Bay was damaged in the 1906 earthquake and then abandoned. The isolated track in Alameda could then only be used for local service. It was electrified in 1911 and operated as part of the SP's East Bay Electric Lines until 1941.

Ferry service

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.

Name	Number	Builder	Launch	Tonnage	Length	Beam	Depth	Horsepower	Crew
Newark		Collyer	18 April 1877	1783	268'	42'	12.8'	1200	30
		rebuilt	1903	2197	268'	42'	18.8'	1200	18
	130118	rebuilt	1923	2254	268'	42'	18.8'	1400	18
Bay City	3068	Collyer	18 May 1878	1283	230'	36.8'	13.6'	800	13
Garden City	85592	Collyer	20 June 1879	1080	208'	37'	13.6'	625	19

Newark

Southern Pacific transferred Newark to their Oakland pier for runs to San Francisco. Newark suffered minor flooding when rammed in fog by the Southern Pacific ferry Oakland on 7 December 1908. Newark was disabled by a mid-bay engine failure on 9 November 1920, and drifted more than an hour before being towed ashore by tugs. Newark was taken into the Southern Pacific shipyard in 1923 and rebuilt into the largest all-passenger ferry on San Francisco Bay.

The rebuilt ferry was named Sacramento when launched in January 1924. She went into service on 9 February 1924 with a speed of 14.5 knots and completely filled the San Francisco Ferry Building slip. She was rated to carry 4,000 passengers, but only had seating for 1,900. After the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1936 and 1937, Southern Pacific passenger ferry service was reduced to a single route between San Francisco and the Oakland Pier in 1939. Sacramento became the standby boat when the ferries assigned to that route needed repair. As the other ferries wore out during World War II, Sacramento became one of two boats in active service until suffering a major mechanical failure on 28 November 1954. The ferry was stripped of machinery and towed to Southern California to be a moored fishing platform near Redondo Beach, California where she sank during a storm on 1 December 1964.

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.

Garden City

Garden City was built with a narrow-gauge track on the main deck to carry freight cars to San Francisco; but she could also carry passengers as a relief ferry when either of the other two ferries needed repairs. Southern Pacific used Garden City as a relief boat for their auto ferry run on the old "creek route". Garden City stayed on the "creek route" as a passenger ferry when auto ferry service was shifted to the Oakland pier.

Garden City attempted an eastbound bay crossing during a full gale on Christmas morning, 1921. After steaming into the wind for 90 minutes on what was normally an 18-minute trip, the ferry found its destination slip was occupied by the ferry Edward T. Jeffery seeking shelter from the storm. The other ferry vacated the slip, but Garden City was unable to maneuver in the wind, and started drifting when its rudder broke while attempting to return to San Francisco. A rescue tug arrived and took the ferry in tow, but the tow line parted, and the ferry drifted into the Key system pier. The pier was seriously damaged and the ferry passengers were drenched by waves breaking 20 feet high as they crawled to safety. Southern Pacific retired Garden City the following year; but traffic remained so heavy through the 1920s that the boat was repeatedly pulled out of retirement for temporary service when other boats needed repair. After her last run in 1929, the old ferry was moored as a fishing resort in Eckley, California.

Surviving 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 trains and the Altamont Commuter Express.
• 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 2006) of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority as far as Campbell, California.
• The western end of the Santa Cruz mountain crossing, from Felton, California to Santa Cruz, California is now the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway, primarily a tourist operation but also carries lumber.

See also

• Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources
• Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company
• Old Santa Cruz, CA Railroad Tunnels
• South Pacific Coast Railroad [1]

References

• Ford, Robert S. (1977). Red Trains in the East Bay. Interurbans Publications. ISBN 0-916374-27-0. 
• MacGregor, Bruce A. (1968). South Pacific Coast. Howell-North Books. 
• Turner, George (1974). Slim Rails through the Sand (3rd edition). Trans-Anglo Books. ISBN 0-87046-016-1.