Foothill Rails--El Dorado Lime & Mineral Co

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Foothill Rails--El Dorado Lime & Mineral Co El Dorado Lime & Mineral Co
Brief History
A large limestone formation runs the length of the Sierra Foothills. It stretches from just east of Auburn to just south of Angels Camp and includes several great natural wonders such as the Moaning Cavern, the Mercer Caverns and the California Caverns in the southern portion. In the northern portion lies a few limestone quarries. One such quarry near Auburn operated its own railroad, the Mountain Quarries RR which is covered elsewhere on this site. Another such quarry is located just to the south of the Cameron Park/ Shingle Springs area. This quarry, The El Dorado Lime & Mineral Co, also had its own shortline.
Started as a narrow guage feeder line for the Central Pacific's Placerville branch, this was a very short line operated by two shay locomotives and connected at a place called Bullard. Later on, Southern Pacific standard guaged the line and operated it till the mid 1980's with the rail removed shortly thereafter. Also during this time though, the quarry used three different Plymouth locomotives. Currently the right of way is now the main road to another one of the foothills gated communities and access is difficult. Only the main switch off the Placerville branch exists at the south end.

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Images and Maps

1. Local street map.
2. 1:150,000 scale topographic map.
3. 7.5 Min series topographic map.

4. Aerial image of quarry taken 6-16-71. (courtesy Bill Calmes)
5. Undated aerial of quarry from about 10,000 feet. (courtesy Bill Calmes)

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6.-7. East and west views of the lead switch at Bullard,CA 2007.
8.-10. Along Amber Fields Drive which was once the right of way and is now in a gated community.
11. The end of the street where the line entered the quarry property.
12. Another view of the right of way looking north approaching the quarry itself. Opposite the trucks, just around the bend, sits the office/freighthouse.
Waste piles are also visible. There were also two or three staging tracks between here and the quarry.
13. A view looking north at the office and quarry site. This building is quite visible in the aerial (image 4) above.
14. Closeup of the office/freighthouse. There is still a standard guage car scale in the ground in front.
15. The only remnants of the railroad is this nice scale.
16. A rear view of the office. Besides a few homes that may have been related to the quarry,
this is the only structure still standing on the site.
17. Eastward view of the quarry itself.
18. At the north end remains one of a handful of explosives bunkers that can still be found.
19. This view faces south covering the quarry area from the bunker in the previous image.

Locomotive Roster

Number	Type	Builder	Bldr.#	Built	History & Notes	Dispositon
#1	Shay 2tr	Lima	#1785	1906	lease from US Bureau of Reclamation, ex Standard Lmbr (S.Fork Mill), nee Union Construction #1 (Stanislaus Ry)	scrapped
#2	Shay 2tr	Lima	#1823	1907	lease from Bureau of Reclamation, ex Cazadero Lmbr #1, nee DH McEwen Lmbr #1	scrapped
No#	DL-2	Plymouth	#1565	1930	deliv as 36" gauge, later standard gauged
No#	DLH	Plymouth	#3524	1930	ex HT Neal Machinery, nee Stone & Webster Engineering Corp	retired 1970
No#	ML3	Plymouth	#4156	1941	ex A Teichert & Sons, ex USATC #7689, nee Quartermaster Corps #2038	to private owner, Folsom,CA to Olney Land & Cattle as display, Maxwell,CA