The April 25 and 26 motorcar excursion on the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line is drawing near and the sand dune at Bonny Doon had to be cleared and soil fouling the agricultural crossing had to be removed before the event. This past Saturday two members from Motorcar Operators West, Dave and Dwight, and the Santa Cruz & Monterey Bay’s general manager, Jeffrey Weeks, performed the work. Pamela and I were heading to Davenport for breakfast that morning and we noticed the equipment on the ROW. After having a good breakfast at the Roadhouse in Davenport we dropped by the jobsite to check on progress.

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Everyone got to run the tracked loader except me.














Pamela and Dwight discussed their favorite food recipes while beach goers walked off the ballast. The ballast is seriously undermined here.








Due to time constraints only enough sand was cleared to allow the motorcars to pass. Complete removal of the sand will be done at a later date.












The job was done when the sand was level with the rails extending out three feet past the rails on each side.




After clearing a path through the sand dune they headed towards Davenport to clear soil that had fouled an agricultural crossing.




Beach goers waited for the tracked loader to clear the crossing so they could make their way back to their cars parked along Highway 1. One of them showed off her powers of telekinesis as she levitated a ball in the air.




All the agricultural crossings on the ROW heading back to Santa Cruz were fouled with soil and the workers addressed each one on their way back to Santa Cruz.





Unfortunately we did not have time to stay any longer since we had to get home to work on our home. On our journey back through the West Side of Santa Cruz we stopped at Kelly’s Bakery for our favorite treat, their strawberry shortcake. We highly recommend it if you are passing through.