Greetings family, friends and train buddies! Today's rambling is about The Camino, Cable & Northern Railroad's short lived tourist operation in Camino, California, along with a vintage postcard of Shay # 14, one of the railroads six classic steam locomotives.........Bill
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Railroad Ramblings
CAMINO, CABLE AND NORTHERN RAILROAD
The Camino, Cable and Northern Railroad was a planned ten mile
long tourist railroad on the former roadbed of the Michigan-California
Lumber Company narrow gauge logging line located east of
Placerville connecting sawmill operations at Pino Grande with the
planing mill and standard gauge connection at Camino. The fledgling
CC&N offered modest operation on weekends for several summer
seasons in the mid 1960’s hauling passengers in open cars to a
picnic area in nearby Apple Hill. As with Glen Bell’s West Side and
Cherry Valley Railroad and planned theme park in Tuolumne, and the
Tahoe, Trout Creek and Pacific Railroad’s planned public
transportation system at South Lake Tahoe, the CC&N succumbed to
the high cost of maintaining antique equipment, short seasons and
meager crowds. The Sierra Railroad’s Railtown 1897 tourist
operations survived several unsuccessful concessioners by receiving
occasional movie and TV work and by obtaining protective State Park
status of it’s Jamestown operations. CC&N’s optimistic owner
acquired six vintage steam locomotives for his railroad attraction
including Porters, Baldwins, a Heisler, and the 1916 former West Side
#14 Lima three truck Shay that had survived decades of hauling logs,
mill closures and ownership changes. The ambitious plans of the
CC&N fell well short of Pino Grande and the summer sounds of
steam railroading were no longer heard in Camino. The collection of
antique locomotives were sold off to museums and private collectors
while Shay #14 went on to haul tourists at the Colorado Narrow
Gauge Railroad in Central City in 1974 and Silver Plume’s
Georgetown Loop in 1981. The well traveled historic locomotive and
survivor of the short lived Camino, Cable, and Northern Railroad is
currently on display at the Colorado Railroad Museum awaiting it’s
next assignment.
-Bill 8/23
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