Skip to content

trains

Full wrap cover for Santa Cruz Trains Sourcebook: The Dream of Steam, 1854–1873

Sourcing Santa Cruz’s Railroad History

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

Holiday Lighting Along Main Street, Watsonville, 1920s [Santa Cruz Public Libraries]
Holiday Lighting along Main Street, Watsonville, 1920s [Courtesy Santa Cruz Public Libraries – colorized using MyHeritage]

Out of Isolation and Into the World Beyond

For the past four years, I have been working on editing and publishing Ronald G. Powell’s mostly lost manuscripts into The History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation trilogy. Throughout the course of doing this, I did not forget about my first passion: Santa Cruz Trains. Indeed, editing Parts 2 and 3 reminded me of what I had set aside to finish Powell’s work, but it also gave me inspiration to move beyond what I had originally… Read More »Out of Isolation and Into the World Beyond

San Vicente scene from the One-Way Trail, 1919 [UCSC]

Troubles With Trains

Balance is always difficult for a researcher because they always want to research. For me, it occupies my career and free time, albeit with difference focuses. I have said before that I have split interests, but now they are a trio. Professionally, I am a general historian of the history of Auckland, New Zealand—specifically the North Shore and Rodney areas of North Auckland. Academically, I am a medieval and early modern European historian, with a… Read More »Troubles With Trains

Two Trilogies to Rule Them All, Part 2

Last week I discussed my progress with Ronald G. Powell’s The History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation trilogy of books. They are all on track with the first coming out this month and the others planned to release next year (fingers crossed!). However, Santa Cruz Trains remains my core focus both online and mentally, and the Powell books are partially being done in order to make future Santa Cruz Trains books better all around, since they… Read More »Two Trilogies to Rule Them All, Part 2

Two Trilogies to Rule Them All, Part 1

It has been a very strange year and I think this is something everyone on Earth can agree on. For me personally, I went from making quite a lot of progress on several projects to being stuck at home and then redeployed to Auckland Emergency Management for two separate lockdowns (the second redeployment was only two weeks, fortunately). Despite having some extra time at home during all of this, I actually made much less progress… Read More »Two Trilogies to Rule Them All, Part 1