Pacific Coast Railway  The Pacific Coast Railway was a narrow gauge railway on the Central Coast of California. The original 10-mile (16 km) link from San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach and Port Harford was later built southward to Santa Maria and Los Olivos, with branches to Sisquoc and Guadalupe. The Santa Maria Valley of the central California coast was isolated by the Santa Lucia Range to the north and the Santa Inez Range to the south. "El Camino Real" traversed the difficult La Cuesta pass to reach San Francisco via the Salinas Valley or San Marcos pass to reach Los Angeles via Santa Barbara. The People's Wharf was built at Port Harford in 1869 to transfer freight and passengers from Pacific Coast Steamships "Mohongo", "Orizaba" and "Gypsy" operating between San Francisco and San Diego. Goodall, Nelson and Perkins steamships "Ventura" and "Constantine" began weekly service to Port Harford in 1873; and Ah Louis built a horse-powered, narrow gauge tramway in 1873 to transport passengers and freight between Port Harford and a wagon road at Avila Beach. In 1876, Pacific Coast Steamship Company replaced the tram with the narrow gauge steam-powered San Luis Obispo & Santa Maria Valley Railroad to San Luis Obispo. Operations began with ten boxcars and one coach pulled by a and a built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. San Luis Obispo rail yard warehouses became a commercial center for inbound merchandise and outgoing shipments of hay, grain, dairy products, sheep and cattle. The rail line was extended from San Luis Obispo to Arroyo Grande in 1881 and to Santa Maria in 1882. Grant Locomotive Works built another and two locomotives to pull a fleet of 120 new flatcars. A new wharf at Port Harford was wide with tracks extending the full length. Oregon Improvement Company obtained controlling interest in the Pacific Coast Steamship Company in late 1882, reorganized the railroad as the Pacific Coast Railway, and extended the line to Los Alamos. The next project was to replace the heavy grade of the original tramway alignment with a deep rock cut and long fill. The line was then extended to Los Olivos in 1887. A fire in 1892 destroyed the San Luis Obispo car shops, grain warehouse, loaded freight cars, half of the railroad's passenger cars and all the cabooses while heavily damaging the station and freight warehouse.