The sheer number of drivers commuting over Highway 17 from Santa Cruz County to Santa Clara County for jobs, coupled with tourist and neighboring residents using the town as a summer cut-through for beach traffic, has many locals longing for the good old days of trains; specifically the one that ran from Los Gatos to Felton and into downtown Santa Cruz.

That rail ended in 1940, when the Southern Pacific Railroad abandoned the mountain line due to mudslides and wash-outs and—this is a quaint notion—competition from cars using Highway 17, then just opened.

When the trains did run, they passed through eight tunnels, according to railroad historian Derek Whaley in his book “Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains,” published in 2015.

“The tunnel portals are mostly intact, with the exception of the portal that’s closest to Los Gatos,” Whaley said. “That’s the Summit Tunnel at Wright’s Station, and it’s not doing too hot. They dynamited it in 1942. It was 15 years older than the other tunnels, so I suspect it wasn’t as structurally sound and it fell to pieces when they blew it up. If you go there today, there’s rubble all over the ground.”

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Whaley will discuss his book at an author’s forum at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11 at the New Museum Los Gatos, 106 E. Main St. General admission is $10, free to museum members.

Other tunnels were dynamited, too, although some were simply abandoned, one burned down and another became an atomic vault, Whaley said.

“In 1954, they made it into an atom bomb-safe fortress,” he said. “Apparently, Walt Disney kept early animation cells there.”

Whaley hypothesized that the atomic vault “is still fine” and said restoring train service through the mountains is theoretically feasible.

“There are a number of obstacles to restoring access,” he said. “The San Andreas Fault goes through the Summit Tunnel, so it could be damaged from earthquakes, and there was a natural gas leak that was dealt with in 1893, but the 1989 quake may have reactivated it.”

Moreover, following the railroad’s original right-of-way would mean rebuilding most of the tunnels.

“The tunnel in downtown Santa Cruz is still used by Roaring Camp Railroad,” Whaley pointed out.

Though exciting to imagine the possibilities for traffic solutions, Whaley’s talk will focus primarily on the history of the railroads in Los Gatos, which changed the town’s center from Main Street to Santa Cruz Avenue.

“Los Gatos became important because of the railroads,” Wahey said. “The railroads made it into a population and business center.”

Whaley expects to have copies of “Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains” for sale after his talk at the museum; it’s also available on Amazon.

Visit santacruztrains.com for more information.