Ocean Shore Railroad

The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad had been built in the early 1860s to connect those two cities with trade and transportation. That’s where the population was concentrated on the Peninsula at that time. That left the coastal communities (which were mainly Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz) without a rail system on which to move their produce. The stagecoaches from San Mateo and Redwood City were limited to light freight movement to these communities, and marketing fresh vegetables from the coast was almost impossible.

In early 1900, the climate for construction of a railroad along the coast from San Francisco to Santa Cruz seemed right, and investors backed a project to build a two-line track. This was called the Ocean Shore Railway (later changed to Railroad). It had its main station at 12th and Mission streets with railroad yards at Army, Kansas and San Bruno streets. Grading was begun in 1905, followed Islais Creek (now under the Alemany Highway) south-west, then south to Junipero Serra Boulevard in "Colma” (Daly City now). From Junipero Serra it headed west through the Westlake area to the coast. Along the coast, the construction became quite difficult due to the cliffs and unstable ground. On April 17, 1906, disaster struck in the form of an 8.1 earthquake. Four-thousand feet of rails, along with engines, railroad cars and construction equipment, ended up in the ocean. It was a big loss for the Ocean Shore Railway and it was two years before this section of the coast rails was rebuilt. Investors pulled their funding out of the project, but the railroad continued laying track with the money available. The proposed two-track project was cut back to only one track, and the proposed electric train was scrapped. Coal-burning engines replaced the electric train.

After the initial construction of the railroad began, real estate developers began marketing the pristine coastside as a place to live and play. They could hear a real estate boom if anyone could. Free train excursions were planned by land companies. They advertised land free from taxes and saloons, land anyone could buy with only $10 down for a 25-by-50-foot parcel. Laguna Salada and its beach area (Sharp Park Golf Course) were advertised as having a beautiful, balmy climate only 25 minutes from San Francisco. They promised casinos, cafes, hotels, a promenade as well as bandstands to cater to the big city crowd (It never happened).

The tracks in the valleys (in Pacifica) were rapidly laid, but Montara Mountain presented a formidable problem. It was impossible to lay tracks across the mountain. The hilly terrain assured that construction would be costly and slow. It was decided to follow the narrow band of land to San Pedro Point, go through San Pedro Point with a tunnel, and then blast a roadbed 700 feet above the ocean along Devil’s Slide. This was tricky construction due to the unstable rock, but once across this barrier, the track construction went faster. Towns further down the coast — Montara, El Granada, Moss Beach, Princeton-by-the-Sea, etc. were hastily constructed. The real estate men encouraged this fast pace as they wanted to entice buyers down to the land that was to be developed. It was important to get buyers there who wanted to get in on the ground floor of the "sure-thing” real estate boom.

The construction of the tracks went smoothly until the rugged coastal cliffs and creek barriers by Tunitas Glen halted work. The tracks coming north from Santa Cruz had been laid as far as Swanton, but cut-throat competition from another railroad left no business for the Ocean Shore Railway. The 26-mile track from Swanton to Tunitas Glen remained unbuilt and passenger service had to be gapped with use of a Stanley Steamer bus. This took two hours and proved too inconvenient for the crowds inpatient to get to the pleasure centers of Santa Cruz. Other misfortunes continued to strike the railroad — labor strikes, rail washouts, landslides, boulders hitting the train, etc. Expenses mounted.

After the initial novelty of this new railroad, passenger excursions to the coastside dropped off to the point that little money was made by the railroad. Shipping of produce from these communities was brisk at first, but as automobiles and trucks became more available to ship produce, many times the trains ran empty.

By 1908-09, the railroad filed for bankruptcy. Reorganization and a name change to "Ocean Shore Railroad” helped for a few years, but by 1920, the railroad ceased operation. Much of the railroad’s roadbed right-of-way was acquired by the state and Highway 1 now covers most of the right-of-way of the Ocean Shore Railroad in San Mateo County. The era of the auto began.

To further explore the Ocean Shore Railroad read Arcadia’s Images of Rail — Ocean Shore Railroad by Chris Hunter, editor of the Pacifica Tribune.