The South Pacific Coast Railroad

The South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPC) was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founded by local strawberry growers as a way to get their crops to market in San Francisco and provide an alternative to the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1876, James Graham Fair, a Comstock Lode silver baron, bought the line and extended it into the Santa Cruz Mountains to capture the significant lumber traffic coming out of the redwoodforests. The narrow-gauge line was originally laid with 52-pound-per-yard (26 kg/m) railon 8-foot (2.44 m) redwood ties; and was later acquired by the Southern Pacific and converted to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge.