Steam & Excursion > Sometimes, The Steam Railroad Became A Member Of The Town!

All across this Country there were small towns during the steam era that few distinguishing features about them.  Sure, most sported the usual handful if standard buildings such as a general store, maybe a bank, always a school and a church but not much else.  A special few of these small towns could boast something while both quaint in it's size, but unique for it's presence in the small town, namely , a railroad enginehouse.

Such was the case in Martell, California in 1943 when L.L. Bonney captured this fine view of Amador Central #6 parked outside the small 3-stall enginehouse on the Amador Central RR.

The rolling oak-covered hills of the Sierra foothills in the background give testament to the remote nature of this 12-mile long shortine that had been begun in 1902.  The white washed wooden enginehouse is more than adequate to service the small fleet of secondhand steam locomotives for which the line was famous for.  #6 her self had been purchased a few years earlier from the Klamath Lake RR in Oregon where she had worked since being delivered there by Baldwin in 1906 when she was new.

#6 sports a hose reel on her pilot to handle the various grass fires caused along the line by the Amador Central steam locomotives during the dry summer months. This demonstrated that the railroad was indeed a good citizen to the small town that gave her room in town for an enginehouse.  This helped put Martell on the map.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/18 04:06 by LoggerHogger.

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Another beautiful photo and thoughtful caption. 
Thanks for sharng so many of these images.
Bob

War time headlight shroud?
RB

up833 Wrote:
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> War time headlight shroud?
> RB

Yes - called for in the 1943 photo.

Martin

And her sister "Iron Ivan" stands in the little town of Ione, CA today.

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