Progress on the Diamond and Caldor Railbus No. 10

Saturday, three volunteers continued the reconstruction of the Diamond and Caldor Railbus No. 10. Steve Karoly, Keith Berry and Wayne Thorley, put in a full day. Steve and Keith supported Wayne as he welded new roof supports into the frame.

Our goal is to return the motorcar back to its 1953 configuration.

The Tally Ho -- its affectionate name from its glory days in the 1930s and 40s -- was reconfigured sometime between 1953 and the mid-1960s by then owner Hal Wilmunder. He added the outside walls and reconfigured the windows on the cab/housing.

The railbus was lettered as the Camino, Cable and Northern No. 10 and worked on Wilmunder's tourist railroad from 1964 to 1974. Richard Wright, pictured in the "fireman's seat," recently shared this picture of the railbus and two Shay locomotives in Camino. It was taken in May 1970.

The Shay on the right is the Diamond and Caldor No. 4. Wilmunder moved it from the fairgrounds to Camino in the fall of 1966.

"Friday morning (September 30, 1966) the old Caldor Shay engine at the fairgrounds was moved to the Camino, Cable and Northern railroad yards at Caimno, where it will be put back in operating condition and used on the narrow gauge line," said the October 6, 1966 issue of the Mountain Democrat.

In the end, the Shay was not renovated and was returned to the fairgrounds placed back on display.

How Fast Can a Shay Go?

There are two informative conversations occurring over at the Narrow Gauge Discussion Form.

The first answers this comment posed by El Coke last Saturday:

I enjoy all the great photos here of geared engines, especially the rare Climax. I have heard that Climax engines were the slowest, with a top speed of around 10 mph. Shays generally are estimated to have a top speed of 12 mph, but that depends on how they were geared. I was given a ride on WSL#14 on the Loop and the crew demonstrated a top speed of 15 mph to me, and said it had a higher gear ratio than most other Shays. Heislers were supposedly the fastest with a top speed of 20 mph. Any additions or corrections?

A few hours later, asked a question to clarify a rumor he had heard:

Just heard that Ron Trottier and company are doing a study to build new 40-80 ton Shays. Anyone else heard this? Guess we know what the long range power goals of the Loop are now.

These are interesting questions. I've got to go to work for now. Unfortunately, rebuilding a Shay doesn't pay the bills!

Most Beautiful Shay?

Loggerhogger on the Narrow Gauge Discussion Board asked this question last Wednesday. He posted a historic picture of the West Side Lumber Co. No. 9 Shay with this comment:

This is my vote for the most beautiful Shay built. Yes, she is narrow gauge and not the one I run on a regular basis. But I must say, I have always admired the clean lines and powerful look to West Side Lumber #9.

Most beautiful? I'm couldn't say with any accuracy. But I doubt any Diamond & Caldor Shays fall into that category.

The photo of the D&C No. 7 is from my collection. It's the No. 7 Shay spotted in the wye in front of the Diamond Springs engine house. The date is August 21, 1938.

And let me add that the No. 4 is in better condition today as we're restoring it in Placerville than it was in its last years of service.

Shay Station Coffee Co. in Michigan

I just saw a post from last September over at Robert Harrington's Controlled Chaos blog. There's a coffee shop in Cadillac, Michigan named after the venerable Shay locomotive.

The Shay Station Coffee Co. menu includes "special beverages from cream fruit drinks to double chocolate mochas." A fajita chicken wrap and spicy bacon turkey salads are waiting to be discovered by 1920s-style soda fountain and eatery. The ciabatta bread paninis sounds good!

Cadillac is a former logging town up on the Michigan peninsula. Logging in the region began with the opening of the Pioneer Mill in 1871, with the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad reaching Cadillac in 1872.

The Michigan Iron Works Company of Cadillac manufactured the Shay locomotive for a short time before designer Ephraim Shay licensed the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio to manufacture the geared locomotive from 1880. Production continued until 1945.

A Placerville Shay Station?
We could franchise the Shay Station Coffee Shop out Placerville way. After all, we have plenty of coffee lovers in El Dorado County. And we have the most important accoutrement -- a 99-1/2-year old Shay locomotive.

It would be much more romantic than walking into a Starbucks each day!

What more can you ask for? A Shay geared loco and good coffee. And it might be a good way to raise cash for the old No. 4!

Cross-posted at 'Round the Chuckbox.

Getting it in Gear

I see my close friend Keith Berry three to four times each week. As you may guess, many of our conversations center on EDWRF's effort to restore the D&C No. 4 and preserve the history of this unique period in El Dorado County logging industry.

But I didn't give it much thought when Keith mentioned a few weeks ago that a higher percentage of Shays had survived the scapper's torch than rod engines. I quickly agreed. My cerebral filing system quickly came up with seven Shays in Northern California:

• Placerville -- D&C No. 4
• Turtle Bay -- Michigan-California Lumber Co. No. 2 -- builder's number 122 makes it the oldest Shay in existence
• Fish Camp -- West Side Lumber Co. Nos. 10 and 15
• Felton -- Coal Processing No. 3, W. M. Ritter Lumber Co. No. 7 and West Side No. 7

(Another nine or 10 other Shays reside within driving distance of the El Dorado Western engine house, according to ShayLocomotive.com's list of surviving Shays. A total of 116 Shay geared locomotives are known to have survived, along with 20 Climaxes (HeislerLocomotive.com) and 34 Heislers (SteamLocomotive.com).)

For a month now, I've been contemplating a summer vacation at Odell Lake in the Oregon's Cascade mountain range. A quick scan of the Internet led me to the May 1996 issue of TRAINS Magazine, which carried an article that maps the best spots to photograph former SP and Amtrak trains crossing the range. (The vacation didn't begin as a railroad trip -- it evolved once I discovered that the UP line passed along the south shore of the lake.)

Like any railroader, I dove into the rest of the issue and discovered a 10-year old piece on the geared workhorses of the mid-1990s ("Getting it in gear: Shays, Climaxes, and Heislers do more than their share of work in today's steam world," pages 34-39).

Author Jim Wrinn reasons that "good genetics" helped geared engines run so well a decade ago. That's the legacy of the Shay, Climax and Heisler. They were built to steam in rough mountains on poorly ballasted rails where "agility, brute strength, and simplicity of design were primary virtues."

Wrinn said that geared "engines worked on steep grades, flimsy temporary track with little or no maintenance, out in the wilderness far from the shops." That's why they survived. Any locomotive that was built for the arduous conditions of the forest was bound to outlive their mainline brothers.

Approximately 174 of the nearly 4,500 geared engines built from the late-1880s through to World War II are still with us today. That means about one of every 26 geared locomotives ever built is still with us (the ratio is 1:21 for the Shay). Twenty-one of the 116 surviving Shay operate today.

What's the survival record for rod engines? I'm not sure. But, I can say that only 1 in 300 Baldwin locomotives are still with us. According to Wrinn, over 60,000 locomotives were manufactured by Baldwin Locomotive Works (including five geared engines!).

Keith is right. Geared locomotives did survive in greater numbers that their mainline cousins. It's certainly a testament to their rugged design and ability to endure rough, often brutal conditions of the forest.

Come watch the El Dorado Western restore Lima Shay number 1986, the Diamond & Caldor No. 4. We're slowly restoring the largest of the two surviving El Dorado County logging locomotives and need the support of local citizens and railfans. We appreciate the help the we receive from the local El Dorado County community.

New Mexico Lumber Co. Shay No. 7 to Steam Labor Day

Steven Haworth posted a message over at the Narrow Gauge Railroad Discussion Forum this morning. According to Steven, the New Mexico Lumber Co. Shay No. 7 will steam again this summer during Labor Day weekend during the Annual Hesston Steam & Power Show. For information and photographs, go to the Hesston Steam Museum website.

A photograph of the No. 7 that's reminiscent of the D&C No. 4 in its engine house is posted on the NGRDF.