If you've looked at any of the major news sites, they are talking about a very large fire near Santa Cruz, and one article I just read mentioned the Swanton area and the nearby town of Bonny Doon were under mandatory evacuation orders. Both are fairly close to Felton. Anyone heard if either of the railroads in the area are threatened yet?

Greg

They have put up a situational update on their web page and it sound like its close, but they are not affected:

"As reported in the media, there is a wild fire burning in southwest Santa Cruz County between the communities of Bonny Doon and Davenport. While there have been evacuations and no containment, the fire is not effecting us at Roaring Camp. From our location we cannot see or smell smoke and the fire is burning in a southwestern direction, away from us. Roaring Camp remains open for normal operations as does most of our neighboring attractions in Santa Cruz County. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our friends and neighbors who are effected by the wild fire."

Unfortunately, the Swanton Pacific Railroad may be threatened. This 19 inch railroad has three 1/3 scale pacifics from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Franscisco. http://sprr.calpoly.edu/ The fourth pacific of this class, which was never completed nor operated, is displayed in the lobby of the California State Railroad Museum.

Roaring Camp/Felton is about 12 miles east of Swanton.

This news from Edgar Carnegie of SPRR, who provided some images of the burn area so far:



TV reports say the prevailing winds are from the Northwest, so this fire seems to be marching away from the Swanton area. It could be quite a rough day for those in Santa Cruz, tomorrow, though.
O.