Part 1 of this series told the story of aspiring railroad barons James “Slippery Jim” Fair and Alfred “Hog” Davis, who founded the South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPCRR) in 1876 to create an extensive rail network throughout the Bay Area and beyond. After the tracks reached Los Gatos in 1878, it didn’t take long for the company to begin construction of an extension to Santa Cruz.
The monumental undertaking involved hundreds of indentured Chinese laborers who risked their lives for very little pay to cut and clear the redwoods, dig and blast long narrow tunnels, and erect tall wooden trestles.
There were very few safety precautions. More than 60 workers lost their lives, many in methane gas tunnel explosions. The Chinese became so superstitious about the tunnels that crews from the New Almaden Quicksilver mines were recruited to finish the job.
The mountain route was completed in 1880. It was the most expensive narrow gauge railroad of the era, and a marvel of 19th century engineering. Passenger trains carried throngs of tourists to mountain resorts and coastal beaches faster and more comfortably than stagecoaches. Freight from Santa Cruz, timber from redwood forests, and fruit from mountain orchards were transported to sawmills and canneries more quickly and less expensively than by horse-drawn wagons. Remote mountain towns such as Wrights and Glenwood thrived, and Los Gatos quickly grew into a prominent transportation hub.
Although they faced widespread racism, some of the former Chinese laborers remained in Los Gatos in a makeshift Chinatown between the depot and the creek. Several were hired as cooks or servants in private homes. One man named Sing Lee established a successful laundry on what was then called Front Street (now Montebello Way). Boys often visited to buy Chinese fireworks or to watch the laundry workers fill their cheeks with water and spray the clothing to be ironed.
SPCRR was sold to Southern Pacific, and the founders went their separate ways. “Slippery Jim” Fair was elected to the US Senate in 1881. When he passed away in 1894, his daughters used part of their inheritance to build a luxury hotel in San Francisco which they named The Fairmont in his honor.
The railroad was a huge success. But ever since the first shovelful of dirt was removed, Mother Nature was relentless in her battle against the mountain route. Travel was interrupted for two years after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake caused a six-foot lateral shift in the San Andreas fault directly under the tracks.
With multiple mudslides, fires, cave-ins and floods, she finally prevailed. After several major repair and rebuilding projects, the company finally determined that the line was just too expensive to maintain, and it was permanently closed in 1940.
Sadly, there’s no chance to rebuild the mountain railroad to alleviate cut-through beach traffic. The right-of-way has been abandoned, the tunnels have collapsed or been dynamited, and our train depot is now Town Plaza Park. You’ll have to take the historic Roaring Camp Railroad to experience what it might have been like to ride the long lost mountain trains.
The railroad was an important part of daily life in Los Gatos for over eighty years. But by the middle of the 20th century, trains had given way to automobiles. Many were saddened when all rail service to Los Gatos was discontinued in 1959.
Alan Feinberg is a local historian and founder of the LOST Gatos Project www.lostgatos.com. His mission is to generate enthusiasm among Los Gatos residents for remembering and preserving our town’s unique character and historic treasures before they’re lost forever. For more Los Gatos history, download the free mobile app Discover LOST Gatos and take a self-guided walking tour through our historic downtown.
Absolutely enjoyed this article. I run the tree company Agri-con and am very familiar with the town and the mountains of the Los Gatos area. It’s always great to hear and see the life of those who had established this city to make it what it is today. Thank you for sharing. Walter