SOUTH PACIFIC COAST RAILWAY
=============================
SPC - San Lorenzo River Bridge 1880's Image, South Pacific Coast Big Trees Trestle Order No. BTSPCBI As if from an airplane, this 1880's view of the 826 ft. wooden trestle across the San Lorenzo River and through the Big Trees Grove is stunning in the main. This image is made from a scan of the original glass plate print. -------------------- SPC 4-4-0 #1 Big Trees Image, South Pacific Coast #1 Big Trees, 1886 Order No. SPCBT01I Photo, South Pacific Coast #1 Big Trees, 1886 Order No. SPCBT01P Of all the famous narrow gauge shots in the public domain today, perhaps the one that says South Pacific Coast more so than any other is this pristine view. Stopped on the long 826 ft. San Lorenzo River Trestle we find number "1" and its five car train bound for Santa Cruz. Note how everyone is posing as there were long exposures in those days. Everyone knows the photographer is out there at the edge of the clearing, trying to get it all in. The fireman is in the gangway with the engineer next to him at the cab window. The baggageman is in the doorway. People can be seen all along the train leaning out the windows. See the well dressed gentleman on the vestibule of the parlor car "Santa Cruz." How about the conductor (Probably Daisy Hollenbeck) way back in the train. Yes! This truly was narrow gauge railroading, South Pacific Coast style!!! -------------------- SPC 4-4-0 #5 Photo, South Pacific Coast #5 Santa Cruz 1902 Order No. SPC05P In this great shot the crew of the afternoon passenger over the Santa Cruz Mountains waits to depart for San Jose California and beyond. Left to right: Conductor Daisy Hollenbeck, Engineer Fred Reynolds, Baggageman Brick Roy and an unnamed fireman. -------------------- SPC 4-4-0 #6 Image, South Pacific Coast #6, Boulder Creek Order No. SPCBC001I Photo, South Pacific Coast #6, Boulder Creek Order No. SPCBC001P "Once upon a time in the West!" By Andrews of Santa Cruz, Cal. It is a typical 1895 afternoon in the little mountain town of Boulder Creek, California. South Pacific Coast narrow-gauge 4-4-0 locomotive #6 and its two-car train is about to leave for Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Felton, Rincon and Santa Cruz. But first, all must have their photo taken for posterity! In the locomotive cab, engineer Bill Dow. Station agent Joseph Aram, below the tender, rests the Wells Fargo & Co. box against his foot. Baggageman Brick Roy stands in the doorway of the combine. Conductor Daisy Hollenbeck leans against the depot platform. -------------------- SPC 2-8-0 #13 Image, South Pacific Coast 3-ft. 2-8-0 #13 Order No. SPC13I Image, South Pacific Coast 3-ft. 2-8-0 #13 11" X 17" Order No. SPC13NI This new print, made from the 1935 5" X 7" copy negative of the first generation glass plate image is a "keeper!" that someone would buy it and display it in their home. It is another one of those classic images from a time when "things was diff'rent!" Here, South Pacific Coast 2-8-0 narrow gauge locomotive #13 poses in early splender with all the railroad boys that made the Boulder Creek turn-of- the-century mountain branch so famous. They are, left to right: Joe Aram (station agent), Mr. Wiley, Charlie Glass (fireman and later engineer), Mr. Larsen (car repairman); in the cab gangway, Fred Reynolds (fireman, and later, engineer); in cab window, Bill Dow (senior engineer); on the running board, Charlie Chase (local lumbermill operator), Sam McKean (brakeman); on piston, Henry Amaya (conductor). -------------------- SPC 4-4-0 #16 Photo, South Pacific Coast #16 at Santa Cruz Order No. SPC16P Bonanza Kings James Fair and James Flood financed a great adventure called the South Pacific Coast Railway back during the turn-of-the-century. It was to run from the silver mines of Colorado to the Pacific Ocean. By 1880 when the 80 mile narrow gauge line was first opened from Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay to Oakland and ferry connections to San Francisco, plans had changed. Still this brave little railroad did its job and brought much commerce and tourism to an otherwise isolated area.
Shown here was engine #16 about to move onto the turntable at Santa Cruz after moving out of its stall in the enginehouse. -------------------- SPC 4-4-0 #16 "View A" Image, South Pacific Coast 4-4-0 #16/Pass Order No. SPC16AP It is a foggy, overcast day down in the Santa Cruz Yards as the Oakland bound South Pacific Coast passenger train is about to leave. Note no Union Depot which suggests it is previous to 1893. -------------------- SPC 4-4-0 #16 on Roosevelt train at Big Trees Image, South Pacific Coast 4-4-0 #16/T.Roosevelt train Order No. SPC16RI Image, South Pacific Coast 4-4-0 #16/T. Roosevelt May 11, 1903: The crew poses in front of South Pacific Coast Loco #16 on a very special train and day at Big Trees. Presdident Theodore Roosevelt has come on this special train to see the Big Trees and to have one named after him. -------------------- SPC 4-6-0 #20 Image, South Pacific Coast 4-6-0 N.G. Loco #20 Order No. SPC20I Image, South Pacific Coast 4-6-0 N.G. Loco #20 11" x 17" Order No. SPC20NI Said to be the largest of all the South Pacific Coast locomotives, 4-6-0 #20 poses at the end of the turntable in Boulder Creek, California. Built: 1887 Cylinders: 16" X 20" Drivers: 48" Boiler Pressure: 130 lbs. Weight: 72,505 lbs. -------------------- SPC 4-6-0 #23 "View A" Photo, South Pacific Coast 4-6-0 #23, 1905 Order No. SPC23AP South Pacific Coast narrow gauge 4-6-0 locomotive #23 poses with company crew members and other employees in the Santa Cruz, California railroad yard. Note the three-rail track for both Southern Pacific broad gauge and SPC narrow gauge. -------------------- SPC - Los Gatos Image, S.P.C. Ry. Los Gatos, California, 1900 Order No. SPCLOS-GI Though this image has flaws, it stands as an excellent record of what life was like around 1900 down at the Los Gatos, California depot when the South Pacific Coast narrow gauge train arrived from Santa Cruz.
Click here to
return to the section on
RAILROADS OF CALIFORNIA & THE WEST
Click here to return to Master Database page.
