John Harford Wharf and a horse-drawn gravity railroad began in 1873, followed by the organization of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company in 1876 and the Pacific Coast Railway in 1882. Through the vision and enterprise of the narrow gauge railroad, trade and settlement expanded on the California central coast between Avila, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, Santa Maria, Orcutt, Los Alamos, and Los Olivos. Ah Louis, supervisor of his Chinese labor crew, built the roadbed and laid the rail.