The Diamond and Caldor Railway was a

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law (legal system), civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier ...

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

railroad operating in

El Dorado County, California El Dorado County (; ''El Dorado'', Spanish for "The Golden ne), officially the County of El Dorado, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 191,185. The county seat is Placerville. Th ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The 34-mile railroad was primarily a logging railroad but also operated some passenger service.

History

The railroad was built by the California Door Company which was founded in 1884 in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. The company bought 30,000 acres of wooded land in

El Dorado El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...

county in 1899 as a source of timber for their plant. They initially used oxen to haul felled trees to their sawmill on the

Cosumnes River The Cosumnes River is a river in northern California in the United States. It rises on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and flows approximately into the Central Valley, emptying into the Mokelumne River in the Sacramento-San Joaquin De ...

. In 1901 they experimented with steam tractors for log haulage, but this was unsuccessful. In 1902, a steam-powered sawmill was constructed at

Caldor, California Caldor (previously Dogtown) was a company town in El Dorado County, California. Caldor was linked to Diamond Springs by the Diamond and Caldor Railway. The community was named for the California Door Company, which owned and operated the tow ...

and a planning mill 36 miles away at Diamond Springs on the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete most of the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North Americ ...

. In late 1903, the company began construction of a narrow-gauge railroad to connect the two mills. The railroad was formally incorporated on 9 February 1904, and opened in 1905. It ran along the North Fork of the Cosumnes River. Operations continued until abandonment on April 10, 1953. The railroad primarily operated with

Shay locomotive The Shay locomotive is a geared steam locomotive that originated and was primarily used in North America. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a ''geared st ...

s. The remaining Shays, with the exception of #4, were scrapped in 1953. Engine #4 was displayed at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds for several years and is now in the process of being restored by the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation. Until a fire destroyed the mill at Caldor in 1923, the line hauled rough-cut lumber from Caldor to the sash and door factory in Diamond Springs. After the company built a modern electric mill at Diamond Springs, the railroad hauled uncut logs from the woods to the new mill. Because the Diamond and Caldor was a common carrier, it had to comply with

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

regulations. The railroad failed to comply with the ICC requirement to have railroad cars equipped with air brakes and automatic

couplers Coupler may refer to: Engineering Mechanical * Railway coupler, a mechanism for connecting rolling stock on a train ** Janney coupler ** SA3 coupler ** Scharfenberg coupler for multiple unit passenger cars * Quick coupler, used in construction m ...

. The Diamond and Caldor, according to railroad historian Donald B. Robertson, may be the only western railroad to be put out of business due to those equipment requirements.

Locomotives

References

External links

El Dorado Western Railway Foundation
A foundation dedicated to preserving the Diamond and Caldor Railway and preserving Shay #4.
El Dorado Western Railway blog
A weblog that chronicles the weekly effort rebuild the Diamond & Caldor No. 4 Shay locomotive.

Locomotive Roster, Maps, History of Line.

Defunct California railroads 3 ft gauge railways in the United States Narrow-gauge railroads in California Logging railroads in the United States {{California-transport-stub