Steam & Excursion > A Night Shot Really Picks Up Details On This Steam Locomotive!

Sometimes you can see more details in a locomotive photo taken at night with a flash than you ever could in bright sunlight at high noon.  This is an example of that principle.

This fine night shot of Diamond & Caldor's 3-truck narrow gauge Shay #6 really pops with a wealth of detail brought about by the use of a flash at night.  Many of the intricate parts of the Shay that are usually hidden in shadows in daytime become quite evident in this photo taken in the early 1950's at the D&C shops at Diamond Springs, California.

Also present here is the root cause for the line to be abandoned in 1952.  Appearing on the flanks of the tender of #6 is the name "Diamond & Caldor Ry".  This is the common carrier name given the line when it was first organized.  Years earlier, the State Of California had outlawed the use of link & pin couplers on any common carrier railroad in the State.  Just prior to this photo being taken, a State inspector visited the D&C and discovered that they were still using link & pin coupler on all their equipment.  With the cost of conversion to make the railroad legal being seen  by the owners as too high, that was the end of the line for the D&C.

Soon after this great photo was taken, the Diamond & Caldor Ry was torn up and gone fore good.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/20 03:19 by LoggerHogger.

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D&C #6 built with short drive shafts simular to WSL #12 and New Mexico Lumber #7, both of which are still surviving.
California was the only state to out-law Link and Pin coupler after the Safety Appliance Act was finally in effect Sept 1903.  New York State was the only state that specified by law that Janny coupler must be used on all equipment in the state before 1893.  The rest of the States and railroad system became fearful that other states would specify another style of coupler and all got to support the new Safety Appliance Act which only required the coupler to work on impact without man stepping between cars.  The SAA did not name any brand, or type of coupler that would be acceptable.  Therefore, the Miller Hook was a legal coupler because it was handled by a lever from the car's end platform.  But it could only be linked to a MCB knuckle by linking it to a tender or engine.  The Engine and Tender were not required by law to have a automatic coupler as the SAA only  made the law effecting "cars that carry interstate commerce" must have compliance coupler.  Many of the Boston & Maine trains continued to run with Miller Hook linked to engines that had automatic Master Car Builder (MCB) split knuckle couplers.  

I challenge the fact that the D&C had to shut down, if you say the D&C was a common-carrier under the Federal rules as the SAA only required compliance equipment on "cars that carry interstate commerce" then the State had no jurisdiction.  The Diamond & Caldor did not carry any commerce.  It carried logs which were not way-billed and that was industry and not transportation.  The state can rule what industry can do but if the D&C was a Federal common-carrier the D&C could have continued hauling logs by just way-billing them with a tariff that was intra-state.  But they cut-out and had very little timber yet to haul.  The State just killed the jobs, not the Safety Appliance Act and not the link and pin couplers.   

The FRA recently concured that the steam engine "York" and engine "Leviathan" were able to link together with link bar and split knucle on MCB Coupler on the "York", at New Freedon, PA but the FRA man warned they "could not interchange" which in that case meant going onto another railroad, being the Stewartstown RR
View of Leviathan with link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dxwFbk1qyc .
 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/20 12:26 by PlyWoody.

Nice but wht does the other side look like????

Didn't there used to be an "adaptor" coupler that fitted in the link and pin buffer? I know I've seen pictures of them.

I forgot to add that the Safety Appliance Act had a number of exemptions.  One exemption is for 4-wheel cars.  Next exemption is for 8-wheel logging cars with coupler height less than 25 inches, Center line coupler above top of rail, exempt. 

Normal height of 3' gauge log cars is 24" and two-foot gauge railroad log cars is 18" so both are exempt from any Safety Appliance Act law to require them to have any type of coupler, or any air brakes, or any hand rails, or any roof platform or ladder on the cars.  The SAA Federal law did not cover the Diamond & Condor railroad and that is why they ran with link and pin for 3 decades or more after the SAA went into effect on the common carrier railroads.  

Locomotives used exclusively in logging service were exempt, so this locomotive #6 was never covered by the Federal Safety Appliance law requiring air brakes, or automatic couplers.

Attached is close representation from ShayLoco.com of the left side.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/20 16:08 by PlyWoody.

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D&C #6 may be the same Lima class as NML #7 and WSL #12, but was cleearly not from the "same plan"  The NML ans WSL engines had girder frames, as opposed to #6 I-beam truss rod frame, as well as cast trucks.

Earlk is entirely correct as I did make a major mistake confusing D&C #6 by thinking I'm looking at Madera Sugar Pine #6 that was built from that same plan, and later became Feather River Lumber Co. #6. 

FRLCo. is one of my interest as it owner was George Laws who operated the saw mill 3.16 miles south of Chama, NM. and prior to that Catskill, NM on the C&S.

Earlk is cleaver to see the error but it is interested that others did not find it sooner.  My Bad!  All done in error confusing a fine looking locomotive with the very short drive shafts  And of course, Thanks to LoggerHogger for posting such a nice nightime view.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/20 11:57 by PlyWoody.

Don't know I remember it but there was some common 3 rail wiht the SP and an issue over air brakes on the log cars, I might be wrong on that but
it's in my memory somewhere.

Out