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| Southern Pacific brochure, circa 1930s - Author's Personal Collection |
In 1887 Southern Pacific took over the mountain route to Santa
Cruz. In June 1930, the special excursion train from San Jose to the Santa Cruz
beach and boardwalk was christened the 'Sun Tan Special'. Eventually these special excursion trains also departed
from San Francisco and Oakland.
The trip from San Francisco sped "down the Peninsula,
through the beautiful suburban towns of Burlingame and San Mateo to Palo Alto,
where you pass the palm-lined entrance to Stanford University. Then through
vast fruit orchards to Sunnyvale, with the mammoth domed hangar of the
Sunnyvale Air Base* to your left, past Santa Clara University and through San
Jose, thriving center of the Santa Clara Valley."
"Leaving San Jose you soon reach Los Gatos (Spanish for ‘The Cats’), where you meet the San Lorenzo River and follow it through a magnificent canyon into the heart of the Coast Range, winding and climbing. Suddenly you’re in the Big Trees – groves of Giant Redwoods that stand so close to the tracks you can almost reach out and touch them … through Felton and Big Trees (the main big tree grove) to gay Santa Cruz, famous resort city at the north end of Monterey Bay. Here are friendly hotels, the Casino, a wide, sunny beach and hilarious amusement zone."
The mountain route was abandoned by Southern Pacific in 1940
after a landslide blocked the tracks and the railroad felt the cost to repair
the track was too expensive. The 'Sun Tan Special' continued to operate via Southern
Pacific’s other route south from San Jose through Gilroy. Some specials also continued
to take weekend picnickers to Big Trees Grove from Santa Cruz via San Lorenzo
Canyon. The last regular 'Sun Tan Special' ran in 1959.
* In 1931 the large hangar was constructed and the air base was renamed NAS Moffett Field after Rear Admiral William A. Moffett.
Sources: "Its Just a Short Trip to Santa Cruz Through the Giant Redwoods," Southern Pacific Railroad brochure, circa 1930s; “Curiosities: the Sun Tan Special,” Santa Cruz Trains website at www.santacruztrains.com/2019/09/curiosities-sun-tan-special.html?m=0
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