El Dorado Narrow Gauge The Diamond & Caldor Railway by Mallory Hope Ferrell

$300.00

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Hard Cover with Dust Jacket

159 pages

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prelude To Greatness Page 8

1. Before the Gold Rush Page 12

2. Slim Rails to Dogtown Page 24

3. Logging the High Sierra Page 48

4. Ride the Diamond & Caldor Page 64

5. Link & Pins, the Equipment Page 120

Roster of Locomotives Page 128

Roster of Cars Page 137

Epilogue Page 156

Index and Bibliography Page 158

MAPS

Diamond & Caldor and Connecting Railroads Page 58

Rodwell Track Plan Page 84

Coles Track Plan Page 91

Diamond Springs Yards Page 134

DUST JACKET INTRODUCTION:

ALL TOO OFTEN, when we think of California's narrow-gauge logging railroads, famous names such as the Westside and Mich-Cal come to mind. Yet the Diamond & Caldor Railway, the "El Dorado Narrow Gauge," while close by, is not as well known. Author Mal Ferrell puts it best when he states that here was a railroad, "narrow gauge, Shay powered, link and-pin couplers, three-way stub switches ... all this right under our noses while we sped through Placerville on Highway 50, only a few miles away. Somehow the D&C escaped the attention of all but the most knowledgeable of the rail-fan fraternity."

The Diamond & Caldor Railway, a wholly owned subsidiary of the California Door Co. (hence the name "Cal-Dor"), was incorporated as a common carrier in 1902. Because of the terrain and reasons of economy, three-foot gauge was chosen for the new road. The D&C left its connection with the Southern Pacific at Diamond Springs and meandered for about 35 miles into the El Dorado National Forest. The line included a total of 63 trestles of wood construction, with the exception of a steel span over the Cosumnes River. The first locomotive was a used Baldwin saddle tanker, followed by a succession of new Shay-geared locomotives ranging from small two-truckers to larger oil-fired three-truck machines.

In its first years of operation, the D&C turned a tidy profit. Passenger traffic through the sparsely populated area was modest ... a ticket from Diamond Springs to Caldor cost just two dollars. In 1923 a disastrous fire destroyed the mill at Caldor, shutting down the operation. A new mill was constructed at Diamond Springs in 1924 and, during this time, the track was refurbished and new equipment purchased in the form of "skeleton" type log cars and a new Shay, Number Ten.

The stock market crash of 1929, which signaled the Great Depression, caused the California Door Company to close its Diamond Springs operation. It was not until 1935 that the D&C was started once more. The little road continued through the war years and the post-war building boom; however, during the D&C's "Golden Anniversary" in 1952, a directive received from the California State Safety Commission said, in effect, that link-and-pin couplers were considered unsafe. Rather than convert, the company decided to abandon rail operations in 1953.

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