Ocean Shore Railroad
Once past the Laguna-Delaware transition curve, Delaware Avenue follows the route of the Ocean Shore Railroad, which existed from 1905 to 1920. The railroad terminated in Santa Cruz at a depot up the hill to the south of the Southern Pacific RR Union Depot (now Depot Park), and just to the north of the 1877 Lynch house.
- Santa Cruz Trains has an article that includes an annotated detail from the 1906 Lawrence aerial photo showing part of the eastern end of the rail line where it deviated from today's Delaware Avenue.
- The 1906 photo annotation is by Peter Nurkse, from his article "Notes on the 1906 Aerial Panorama of Santa Cruz by George Lawrence", online in the SCPL Local History Articles. Peter's annotation is very helpful in following the tracks, but I have one quibble: I don't think the structure labeled "depot" was actually the Ocean Shore depot (although it may well have had some connection to the railroad). The rails entered a cut before reaching that building (precluding location of a platform there), continued beneath Bay Street (at the "underpass" annotation) and on to the line's terminus where the depot was located (as noted above).
- The San Vicente Lumber Company built a mill adjacent to the rail line, near the man-made dam that created what remains today as Antonelli Pond. The railroad brought logs to the mill from timber-cutting operations in the Swanton area.
- Just past where Delaware Avenue ends at the Seymour Center entry road and parking lot is a short trail with interpretive signage about the Ocean Shore RR.
- The Last Whistle (1974 book) is a history of the Ocean Shore RR.