The North American Railcar Operators Association plans an excursion the weekend of May 4 and 5 on the the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railway.

Railroad motorcars are those short, specialized track inspection vehicles like the vehicle shown below. Railroads have since replaced them with hybrid road-rail vehicles for this kind of work — those trucks that can operate on the road but also have flanged steel wheels that drop down for railroad operation. A lot of those old motorcars have been purchased for private use, and groups of these private railcar owners take their mini locomotives around the country on excursions like the one planned for Santa Cruz County.

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Over 100 people participated in a memorial bicycle ride honoring Santa Cruz police detectives Elizabeth Butler and Butch Baker on Sunday morning.

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Thousands pay their respects to slain Santa Cruz police officers Elizabeth Butler and Butch Baker.

I said I wasn’t gonna do a photobomb, but that’s what I ended up with.

The partner of one of the slain Santa Cruz police detectives, Elizabeth Butler, is a bus driver for Santa Cruz Metro. SCPD and the Metro staff work closely together, and the Metro drivers who I know have been deeply affected by the slaying.

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Santa Cruz Metro Transit District (“METRO”) will have several buses on standby Thursday morning to transport people to the HP Pavilion in San Jose for the memorial service to honor Santa Cruz detectives Elizabeth Butler and Butch Baker.

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