Santa Cruz Patch re-posted a story yesterday, from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, about the County's final acquisition of the Branch Rail Line from Watsonville to Davenport. This is the same route originally built at narrow-gauge (like the steam-powered train at Roaring Camp) by the locally-owned Santa Cruz Railroad, opening in 1875. The SCR went bankrupt in the 1880s, and Southern Pacific bought its assets. Over the next 20 years, SP converted the line to its current standard-gauge size. Now the story has come full circle - the line is locally-owned once more.
Read more about the early history here. (Also, be sure to check out the YouTube videos that take you on a ride for the entire 32-mile length of the line.)
