Passenger Trains > Street Running Fun in Santa Cruz, CA

The Santa Cruz Big Trees & Pacific is now in the third week of its summer season
with trains running daily between Felton and Santa Cruz, up from the weekend-only
spring schedule. 

While most of the riders are on board to see the Redwoods the trains take to the 
streets of Santa Cruz along two stretches that make for some interesting operations.

Best known are the runs on Beach St. on the Boardwalk where the trains head down the 
one-way street with little or no clearance for vehicles when a train is present.
Yesterday's 4 pm departure out of Santa Cruz--a ten car train-- is seen in three views
hitting the street with all the cars wisely playing it safe.  The locals know this,
tourists not so much.

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A little less well known are the six blocks of street running on Chestnut Street
where the old SP line heads through a residential neighborhood.

Yesterday's 2 pm run out of Felton is seen about ten minutes out of its arrival on
the Boardwalk heading down the center of Chestnut.  Active wig wags still do their
thing at Lincoln(pictured) and Walnut Streets.

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CF7 #2600 waits on its departure back to Felton from a spot just east of the old SP
location of Casino on the Boardwalk.  We're a long way from Cleburne, TX.

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Nice coverage.  I hope this railroad can keep running in spite of efforts to stop it.  BSB 

I hope they have a successful season.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/22 11:08 by goldcoast.

That is pretty good size consist.
 

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

Very nice group of images!
GK

Enjoyed the scenes.
DItchlights not required with all that street running?

Fizzboy7 Wrote:
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> Enjoyed the scenes.
> DItchlights not required with all that street
> running?

They don't exceed 20 MPH.  49CFR229.125(d).

Looks like real fun to me.  Thanks for posting your excellent photo series.
ALLEN

Looks like you picked a great day to be in SC.

Where did the old coach and combine come from?

wzd Wrote:
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> Where did the old coach and combine come from?

I did some research a while back and it looks like both were
built for the Boston & Maine and later worked for the Wolfeboro
Railroad.  Don't know their builder or build dates.

First photo below shows the combine on Thursday.  Second shot
shows it back in 2005 when it was commonly used in mixed train
service--one of the last such operations in the country.

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Thanks for the information - Interesting.
 

Love the photos! I forgot about the run on Chestnut street, need to chase that stretch some day. My favorite memory of our Senior ditch day to Santa Cruz was watching some SP Cadillacs pull their train towards Davenport while we were playing beach volleyball at the Boardwalk. Man, those were the good old days!

Glad to see there are still trains in Santa Cruz, hope they never stop running.

Nathan

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