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Re: (rshsdepot) Santa Cruz, CA

Sad the depot is gone...does this article say anywhere if the sand trains
Davenport to Salinas will be discontinued and tracks torn up? Also it didn't
say how the tourist line to Felton relates to this plan....ooh boy all that
car parking is a thrill!

By the way this is the line, the original narrow gauge line from Alameda
Mole to Santa Cruz that the SP abandoned in 1940's. South Pacific Coast RR
began 1878 (Alameda to Newark)...1880 saw it completed to Santa Cruz, after
the tunnel was built in the mountains (a mile and an eighth long). You can
still see the north side entrance at Wright's Station. there was a second
tunnel at Glenwood. I think they grow mushrooms in it now...Standard gauged
and reopened 1909 after an earthquake  did major damage in 1906. Some small
tunnels were bypassed in new ROW. (There was also a broad gauge line from
Campbell to Los Gatos and  broad and narrow gauge (3 Ft.) trains pulled by
same engine, passenger trains used this strange dual (actually three rail)
route, with trains running Campbell to Wright's Station  beginning
1903-04...It is unclear how broad gauged cars went through the mountains on
the narrow gauge, there were diagonal connecting coupling bars between
narrow and wide gauge cars and they extended far over one side.

The SP took over 1887. These names were used for the various portions
preceding SP takeover: Santa Cruz & Felton; Bay & Coast; Oakland Township
(this was a branch  commuter line into Oakland-1881) ; San Francisco &
Colorado River (I have no reason why, it had originally been intended to
link up with the D&RG, that must be why); Felton & Pescadero; Almaden Branch
RR (this portion as freight was still used until late 70's)...

The Roaring Camp RR (began 1958) in Felton bought the remaining 9 mile route
Felton to Santa Cruz from SP late 1980's and renamed it Santa Cruz, Big
Trees and pacific....The SP had stopped using the line in 1982.
 He also was negotiating once to buy the Davenport to Watsonville line
(quite a bridge west of the boardwalk and roller coaster in Santa Cruz)

Santa Cruz's was a really great little station-I have slides of it
somewhere!

The exact date the SP abandoned this line I don't know-anyone know?  Much of
the route south of Los Gatos is today, along with towns of Alma and
Lexington, under the Lexington Reservoir

Paul
- -----Original Message-----
From: James Dent <james.dent_@_itochu.com>
To: RSHS List <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
Date: Thursday, March 22, 2001 1:44 PM
Subject: (rshsdepot) San Jose, CA


>
>Published Thursday, March 22, 2001, in the San Jose (CA) Mercury News
>
>First look tonight at depot park plan
>ENVISIONED AS LINKING BEACH, DOWNTOWN
>BY DAVID L. BECK
>Mercury News
>
>The public gets its first look tonight at plans to turn a barren railway
>corridor into an 8.5-acre park and museum site that could help tie together
>downtown Santa Cruz and the beach.
>
>The misshapen property includes an old railroad freight building, as well
as
>Lighthouse Liquors, which will be torn down. The city is still negotiating
>for a final piece of land owned by Santa Cruz Feed & Grain at Center and
>Washington streets.
>
>The package has been put together over several years with help from
>transportation officials and a 1998 public facilities ballot measure. The
>park would include a soccer field, a transit center and the city's Museum
of
>Natural History. There would be play areas and parking for bikes and cars.
>
>Other plans are already afoot to expand the park and link it in a more
>formal way with the nearby Neary Lagoon park.
>
>``I think it'll be a really unique link between the beach, the
neighborhoods
>and downtown,'' said Cynthia Mathews, a former city council member and a
>member of the Depot Site Task Force, which has spent the last year helping
>shape the project.
>
>The task force included people representing environmentalists, bicycle
>riders and the community, in addition to city council members.
>
>Did things go smoothly? ``The different interests'' have ``a number of
>points of view that are strongly held,'' said Andrew Schiffrin, who chaired
>the task force. ``That was the council's intention, that they work
>cooperatively. And I think that's happening more and more.''
>
>The project began with a grant of $2 million from the Santa Cruz Regional
>Transportation Commission to acquire four acres for what was then conceived
>as a new railroad depot, with parking and space for other transportation
>needs. Since then the commission has abandoned its hopes of reinstituting
>passenger rail service, at least for now. The facility will be built so a
>rail link could be added in the future, said Linda Wilshusen, executive
>director of the transportation commission.
>
>Of the two rail lines that pass through the park site, one is owned by
Union
>Pacific and connects Davenport with Pajaro Junction, usually carrying loads
>from the Lone Star cement plant in Davenport. The other is owned by Santa
>Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific, an excursion line that runs tourist trains
from
>Felton to the boardwalk. The commission hopes to acquire the Union Pacific
>line.
>
>An additional $1 million came from Measure G funds earmarked for sports
>facilities -- a phrase that was understood from the beginning to mean a
>soccer field, said Carol Scurich, recreation superintendent in the Santa
>Cruz Parks and Recreation Department.
>
>The city put up the money to buy the Lighthouse Liquors site and the Feed &
>Grain site. Feed & Grain owner Michael Williams has been guaranteed the
>right to continue his horse-drawn carriage rides from somewhere in the new
>park.
>
>The Museum of Natural History has been squeezed into a former library in
the
>Seabright area since 1954. With the city providing the land, the museum
will
>raise an estimated $10 million to $12 million for a 35,000-square-foot
>building in the new park, said Susan Bertken, the Museum Association's
>representative on the task force.
>
>``We've got lots of artifacts that are stored,'' she said. ``We've got
>classes that are bursting out at the seams, and a very active events and
>programs committee that is planning for the expansion -- for, you know,
what
>can we do that's bigger and better?''
>
>The park will include space for nearly 250 cars. That's a significant
>mitigating factor if the city goes ahead with its plan to strip Beach
Street
>of 91 parking spaces for a bikeway.
>
>On the other hand, ``There'd be a whole lot more room for bikes'' in the
>park ``if they'd have fewer parking spaces for cars,'' said task force
>member Vicki Winters, who questioned the need for parking now that
passenger
>rail service is no longer part of the mix.
>
>``If the intention is to get people to switch to bikes, you need to look at
>it in the larger context for the whole city,'' she said. ``Maybe there's a
>better solution.''
>
>The former depot was home to different bars and restaurants -- among them
>the Gandy Dancer and El Palomar -- until it burned to the ground in the
>mid-1990s. The remaining building on the site, the blue-painted freight
>building now used by a women's flower cooperative, will be moved nearer the
>tracks.
>
>The addition of the Feed & Grain property will probably mean closing part
of
>Washington Street. The city has already renamed the street that runs into
>the wharf Pacific Avenue, in hopes that tourists will be able to follow
>downtown's main street all the way to the beach.
>
>Construction costs for the park -- not including the museum -- are
estimated
>at $5 million to $6 million.
>
>``Moving the freight building is going to be expensive,'' said Schiffrin.
>``Paths, landscaping -- it's just incredible how the costs add up.'' The
>city hopes for some state money.
>
>Scurich said the earliest work could begin is spring 2002.
>
>``This year we're hoping to have a plan done,'' said Schiffrin. ``Then
comes
>the environmental review. Our goal is to get the plan completed over the
>next several months. The task force is not supposed to have a long-term
>life.''
>
>

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