Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Coast is in the final stretch now and I am hoping to have principal writing done by the end of July. This will give me three months to format the book, source photographs, draw maps, edit, and prepare the book for publication by November 1. That is my goal and it is beginning to seem achievable. As of the end of June 2026, all introductory chapters are… Read More »Ocean Shore vs. Southern Pacific: Fight!
Greetings all. It has been three months since my last update and I thought it was time for another one. I have been working hard researching and writing Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Coast, almost to the exclusion of all other projects. I’ve cut back my monthly (once weekly!) blog posts to only quarterly. I have set aside working on Ernest Otto’s Our Old Santa Cruz… books. And I have delayed further research and… Read More »To Live Oak and the North Coast!
Happy New Year everyone! This is Derek R. Whaley, your friendly neighborhood author and editor. 2025 was a busy year for me with two book releases, another 12 detailed blog posts on SantaCruzTrains.com, and 365 Instagram posts showcasing Santa Cruz train history, not counting my other pursuits and my day job. One thing that has suffered, though, is my goal of publishing Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Coast in time for Christmas… Read More »The Santa Cruz Coast or Bust!
Santa Cruz Trains did not begin as a brand, but as a single book: Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. When I first started my research on the topic in 2012, I had no idea that it would become a book until around mid-2013, and I didn’t actually begin working on it until April 2014. In many ways, I viewed the book as a natural expansion of Bruce MacGregor and Rick Hamman’s… Read More »Re-envisioning Santa Cruz Trains
History is a difficult thing to write because it requires so many sources! If only there were a helpful book that had all the sources gathered together in one place. Well, now there is! I introduce for your reading and research pleasure, Santa Cruz Trains Sourcebook: The Dream of Steam, 1854–1873, available TODAY from Amazon.com. In this little treasure are over 500 newspaper articles relating to the pre-history of railroads in Santa Cruz County, from… Read More »Sourcing Santa Cruz’s Railroad History
![Cliffside Grain Silo at 17th Avenue, ca 1935 [UCSC]](https://zayantepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Cliffside-Grain-Silo-at-17th-Avenue-ca-1935-UCSC-930x543.jpg)
![A Southern Pacific train at Mayfield Station, ca 1886 [Mountain View Public Library]](https://zayantepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/A-Southern-Pacific-train-at-Mayfield-Station-ca-1886-Mountain-View-Public-Library-930x617.jpg)
