After burning to the ground in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex wildfire, attempts to restore a historic railroad in Santa Cruz County have failed — and it will be shuttered for good.
The decision, made by Cal Poly, has been met with anger and frustration by a group of volunteers who have been fighting to get the century-old steam trains on the Swanton Pacific Ranch Railroad chugging again.
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The Swanton Pacific Railroad, Davenport, California
Yelp / Matt J.
In the early 1980s, the president of Orchard Supply Hardware, a train buff and former railroad worker named Albert B. Smith, started buying up historic miniature steam trains that originally ran at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. With the help of volunteers, Smith got the locomotives moving again on a 1.3-mile track on his ranch a few miles north of Davenport, near the ocean in Santa Cruz County. The construction of the track involved rebuilding a bridge destroyed in a 1982 flood and repurposing part of the short-lived San Francisco to Santa Cruz passenger line.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Carl Nolte once described the attraction as “one of the most unusual small railroads anywhere.” On the one-third sized miniature track ran four steam locomotives from the 1915 fair, eight passenger cars and one diesel engine.
Upon his death in 1993, Smith, who never married, willed the railroad, trains and surrounding ranch to his alma mater Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo on the condition that it remain intact. As a 2011 Cal Poly planning document stated, “He wanted the property to remain as open space, the railroad to be maintained intact and available to the public.”
On Aug. 18, 2020, the CZU wildfire — which destroyed nearly 1,500 buildings in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties — severely damaged the railroad, locomotives and ranch. Smith’s home and numerous buildings were razed, alongside several barns and the car shop on the ranch. Three historic steam trains and all passenger cars suffered extensive damage, though two locomotives were spared as they were off-site undergoing maintenance, Cal Poly reported at the time.
Swanton Pacific Railroad, Davenport, California
Yelp / Matt J.
The historic 1914 locomotive, prior to the 2020 CZU wildfire.
Yelp / Matt J.
Yelp / Matt J.
Just days later, while the train tracks were still smoldering, plans were already being made to rebuild the site and get the trains running. A crowd-sourced recovery fund was set up by the university to pay for the restoration efforts, garnering nearly $50,000 in donations.
But any hopes of the railroad being returned to its former glory were steamrolled in a letter sent to the Swanton Railroad Society from a Cal Poly administrator last week. The letter announced that the trains will not run again on Smith’s old ranch and instead be dispersed to new owners throughout the state, such as the California State Railroad Museum.
“We no longer believe the university is the best steward of these unique artifacts of railroad history,” wrote Dr. Andrew Thulin, dean of Cal Poly’s School of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. “I recognize this is not the outcome for the railroad you had hoped for.”
Thulin added that cost to get the railroad and get the trains running again would be $10 million, and that the university will instead use the land for educational purposes. “I know your passion for the railroad runs deep … I want to reiterate that this was a very difficult decision,” he wrote.
A longtime volunteer who had been working to get the steam trains back on their tracks was stunned by the news. “I can just picture Al rolling over in his grave knowing that information,” Molly Engelman of the Swanton Pacific Railroad Society told NBC News. “It very much goes against what Al Smith wanted.”
In a Facebook post dated Nov. 18, Engelmen claimed that prior to sending the letter, the university had installed locks keeping the volunteers out of the the railroad building, storage containers and cabooses. “Our board members and volunteers were not notified and do not know the reasoning for this abrupt change,” Engelman wrote.
Members of the Swanton Pacific Railroad Society group on Facebook shared their shock at the decision, and what they see as a betrayal of Smith’s desires. “It does NOT seem to be in keeping with what Al would have wanted,” wrote Steve Reinhard. “I feel it’s an excuse for the university to get rid of the railroad and use the property for another purpose,” wrote another member, Geoffrey Gibbons.
In a statement shared with SFGATE, Cal Poly claimed that Smith did not believe the railroad would always run on his 3,200-acre ranch in Davenport.
“Al Smith knew that it was possible the university may not be the best steward of the railroad assets in the long-term; so, he explicitly outlined potential future recipients,” the statement read. “Though invaluable from a historical perspective, the railroad does not fit within the strategic intent of the ranch … Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to transfer the railroad.”
The university’s own 2011 document outlining the school’s plans for the site, however, described the railroad as a “living operational memorial to Albert B. Smith who donated his ranch and railroad to Cal Poly. It brings together Al Smith’s life long interest in the railroad and in the students of Cal Poly.”
