Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific

The line originates as the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow‑gauge Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad, constructed in 1875 to move timber from the Santa Cruz Mountains to Monterey Bay. In 1880 the South Pacific Coast Railroad extended its narrow‑gauge network to Felton, absorbing the Santa Cruz & Felton and completing a route to Santa Cruz; Southern Pacific purchased the South Pacific Coast in 1887 and began converting the track to standard gauge, a process that continued for more than a decade. Washouts in 1940 eliminated most of the line, leaving only the Santa Cruz‑Olympia segment in service, and further washouts in 1981 closed the remaining Eblis‑to‑Olympia section until Norman Clark acquired the right‑of‑way that year. Clark’s death from pneumonia occurred shortly before the first tourist train ran from Felton to Rincon in 1985, after which the full Felton‑to‑Santa Cruz route reopened; his daughter Melani Jolley‑Clark now manages the operation. Limited freight service resumed in August 1990, and on 30 April 2021 the railroad assumed freight duties on a short segment of the Santa Cruz Branch between Watsonville and Pajaro. A threatened abandonment in January 2022 was rejected by voters in the June 2022 primary, when Measure D to rail‑bank the Santa Cruz Branch failed overwhelmingly.