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 completed and Parts 1-3 are done, leaving me with just the individual station articles for Part 4 left to write. You can check my progress below (completed chapters in bold, completed since the last update in bold green, and partially completed in Italics):
Acknowledgments
General Introduction and Methodology
PART 1: Southern Pacific’s Watsonville Branch
Part 1 Introduction
1–Carnadero
2–Nema
3–Miller
4–Corporal
5–Sargent
6–Betabel
7–Newria
8–Chittenden
9–Logan
10–Aromas
11–Sand Cut
12–Vega
13–Watsonville Junction
PART 2: The Santa Cruz Railroad
Part 2 Introduction
1–Watsonville
2–Nuga
3–Ellicott
4–Cristo
5–Manresa
6–Leonard
7–Farley
8–Aptos
9–New Brighton
10–Capitola
11–Soquel
12–Opal
13–Del Mar
14–Twin Lakes
15–Seabright
16–Casino
17–Santa Cruz
PART 3: The Loma Prieta Railroad
Part 3 Introduction
1–Ready
2–Molino
3–Loma Prieta
4–Spring Creek
5–Monte Vista (I)
6–Monte Vista (II)
PART 4: The Ocean Shore Railway and Coast Line Railroad
Part 4 Introduction
1–California Street (CL)
2–Garfield Avenue (OS) / Younglove Avenue (CL)
3–Orby (CL)
4–Rapetti (OS)
5–Wilder (OS) / Dairy Buildings (CL)
6–Wilder (CL)
7–Parsons Beach (OS)
8–Scaroni (OS) / Gordola (CL)
9–Enright (OS) / Majors (CL)
10–Lagos (OS) / Laguna Creek (CL)
11–Yellow Bank (OS) / Yellowbank Dairy (CL)
12–Liddell (OS) / Liddell (CL)
13–Davenport (OS) / Lower Crossing Davenport (CL)
14–Davenport (CL) / Bluegum (OS)
15–Davenport Landing (OS)
16–Scott (OS)
17–Scott Junction (OS)
18–Folger (OS)
19–Swanton (OS)
Appendix 1: Stations by Mile Marker
Appendix 2: Station Name Changes
Appendix 3: Timeline of Events
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
For those paying close attention, you may notice that Part 4 went from 21 articles to 19. This was the result of two different things. While writing the Santa Cruz article at the end of Part 3, it became clear that the Ocean Shore Railway’s ticket office and shelter above the Southern Pacific yard could seamlessly be integrated into the article in a way that worked. I decided to adopt this approach, thereby eliminating the need for a separate article for it in Part 4. That being said, I did have to integrate a bit about the Ocean Shore maintenance yard and the Gharkey Street office into the introduction for Part 4, but that also works well and makes sense. The other lost article was decided just this week when I determined that Garfield Avenue and Younglove Avenue really catered to the same crowd and existed for the same reason, so should be combined. I may do the same thing with Orby and Rapetti, and probably with Scott and Scott Junction, especially since Scott Junction is already explained in the Part 4 introduction. So don’t be surprised if Part 4 falls from 21 to 19 to 17 chapters. I don’t think it will get smaller than that, though.
One headache I still haven’t come to terms with is what to do about the parallel Ocean Shore and Davenport Branch stations. There are a total of 9 of them, possibly 10 if I combine Orby and Rapetti, and that’s a nuisance because my current header format is designed for just one railroad’s information, not two, so how to make room for two without messing everything up is proving difficult. I have created a special template for railroad tunnels that allows for two different GPS locations and mile markers, so perhaps something similar will work for the parallel Ocean Shore / Davenport Branch articles. It’s a work in progress for sure.
Looking ahead, there is still much to do. The remaining 16 articles sound like a lot but some won’t take very long to write due to a lack of information or a relatively small subject area. Places like Parson’s Beach and Scott catered to small farms, while Folger was a failed townsite. Others have overlapping interest areas, such as the multiple Davenport locations, so those will be more of a task of balancing the focus areas of each article. It’s a bit of a shame that Davenport Landing is the third and final Davenport-area article since that’s really where the story of Davenport begins, but its placement can’t really be helped. The appendices at the end of the list are relatively easy to do, and things like the acknowledgments, bibliography, and index can’t really be done until most of the rest of the book is formatted. I may end up dropping the glossary—the glossary included in the current edition of Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains is a bit overly academic and I’ve tried to restrain myself this time around from using words that require that level of definition, but we’ll see. The thing I’m really not looking forward to is creating the maps—I’ve already done several attempts and none of them have quite worked for me, so it’ll be interesting to see what I finally settle upon. At some point, I will have to just choose a style regardless of my issues with it.
I think that’s all for now. By the next update, expected in early October, the book should be nearly complete and in the final stages of editing. Fingers crossed! In the mean time, feel free to reach out to me with any questions, comments, etc. I am, as always, contactable at author@santacruztrains.com. Cheers!