The Black Diamond, Inspection Engine and Pay-Car

ID $ 1,041

23

THE BLACK DIAMOND, INSPECTION ENGINE AND PAY-CAR

Baldwin-built in 1889 for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co., then part of the Reading system, this 26,000-pound, 2-2-2-type engine was a self-propelled car used by company officials for inspection trips. She also traveled the line once a month, stopping often to pay the employees. The company had five such engines. each named Black Diamond, in tribute to coal. The Reading's life depended largely on the coal mines of Pennsylvania. This engine is now in the National Museum of Transport at St. Louis, Missouri. Pay-trains were common sights on North Amer-ica s big railroads for at least eighty years, beginning in the 1850's. Unlike the Black Diamond, each pay-train usually consisted of an engine pulling a car or two. Known as the "money wagon" or "band wagon" and sometimes carrying up to a quarter-million dollars in gold and silver at a time, pay-cars operated only in daylight, for security reasons, and were well equipped to fight off bandits.

MISS ROSEMARIE BOYLE