Palmer Gulch: Railroad Author John Schmale to Adventurer John Vonderlin
Author John Schmale to Adventurer John Vonderlin
Email John Schmale: outwest@sonic.net
Email John Vonderlin: benloudman@sbcglobal.net
Hi John,
It is nice to hear from you.
It has been about 30 years since I have been to Palmer Gulch. I am sure that a lot has changed since then. My friend and I walked into the beach there. Many trestle bents were still in place though the had fallen to the ground.
The Palmer Gulch trestle was built in 1909 and that is the year all construction halted. I have somewhere a newspaper article describing, and I was also told by Ocean Shore RR engineer Adolph Seigel. that the construction company building the Ocean Shore Railway tried to cut down a bluff and fill the right of way just north of San Gregorio by use of Hydraulic monitors from the gold mining days. It proved too hard to contain the debris so they gave up on the idea. The tracks were to run very close to the ocean and to use cut and fill construction. I have enclosed three photos of the Palmer Gulch trestle. One shows Lorin Silleman standing on trestle taking a photo. I think the year is 1938. Notice the sagging. The second one is the original that Stanger used in his book. It is Palmer Gulch.
I am certain that there were no other trestles on the Northern Division. The shot looking up shows the sag in the center. I am sure that much of the grade put in by the Ocean Shore RR has fallen away. This last shot
gives one an idea of how high from the surf the bed of the trestle was.
Regards,
John Schmale
John & Kristina Schmale’s most recent book is called “Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad, ” published by Arcadia. For more info, please click here