Black Diamond Coal Mining Railroad facts for kids
The Black Diamond Coal Mining Railroad was a short railway, about 9.5 kilometers (5.9 miles) long. It ran from Black Diamond Landing, which is now part of Pittsburg, California, all the way to Nortonville, California. This railroad was owned and operated by the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company. Because of this, it never had its own official name. People called it by different names over the years, like the "Black Diamond Coal Mining Railroad Company" or simply the "Black Diamond Railroad."
Building the Railroad
This important railroad was built by Sherman Day, a civil engineer and artist from the California Gold Rush era. It started running in 1868. The main reason for building it was to serve the Black Diamond Coal Mine in Nortonville. This mine needed a way to transport the coal it dug up.
The railroad crossed over the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad near a town called Cornwall, California. It used a special bridge called an overhead trestle to do this.
How the Trains Worked
Most of the Black Diamond Coal Mining Railroad used a "standard gauge" track. This means the rails were a certain distance apart, which was common for many trains. However, there was a small part of the track that was "narrow gauge." This smaller track was used to bring coal cars from inside the mine to the storage bunkers.
The railroad had four locomotives, which are the engines that pull the trains. Two of these engines were built in San Francisco by a company called H. J. Booth at the Union Iron Works. Another was built in San Francisco by Vulcan Iron Works. The fourth engine came all the way from Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Three of the locomotives had names:
- The D. O. Mills, named after Darius Ogden Mills.
- The Hayward, named after Alvinza Hayward.
- The Black Diamond.
One of the engines was a narrow-gauge locomotive. It was used specifically to move mine cars filled with coal from the mine entrances to the coal storage areas.
An interesting fact about this railroad is that trains ran by gravity when going from Nortonville to Black Diamond Landing. This was possible because the entire route was downhill!
End of the Line
The Black Diamond Coal Mining Railroad stopped operating around 1885. This happened because the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company closed its mine in Nortonville. The company then moved all its workers to another one of its mines in Black Diamond, Washington, which was in the Washington Territory at the time.
In 1888, two of the railroad's locomotives, the D. O. Mills and the Black Diamond, were moved. They went to the Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad (BB&BC) in Washington state. These two railroad companies were closely connected because they had the same managers. The locomotive named Hayward was sold for scrap metal.
Today
Even today, you can still see parts of the old railroad's path. It runs along Nortonville Road between Pittsburg, California and Nortonville. The area where the railroad ended in Nortonville is now a historic preserve. It is managed by the East Bay Regional Park District, so people can visit and learn about its history.
