Workin' on the railroad

I've twice had opportunity to lay and remove railroad track. The first came in 1983 when my reserve unit, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 2's Detachment 0402, built a 880-foot rail spur at McClellen Air Force Base in Sacramento.

I should've come away from the five-month project with a new found appreciation for the heavy physical labor required by track workers. But it didn't happen that way.

I worked a desk job during the years that I drilled with Det. 0402. As the detachment career counselor, it was my job to convince the young Seabees to stay in the Naval Reserves when their first enlistment came to an end.

During those years, I often held counseling sessions on the tailgate of my pick up truck at the job site. While I spent many hours at McClellen as the Seabees removed the old spur, built a new loading dock and lay the ties and rail, I pushed paper instead of driving spikes.

I did drive several spikes at the insistence of some of the Seabees on the project. As a life-long rail enthusiast, I eagerly joined in. I can say that driving a spike with the long, pointed spike maul is not easy. It takes years of experience to hit the spike square on its head.

My newest experience started Saturday. The crew of the El Dorado Western Railway is removing the track on the old Southern Pacific Placerville Branch right-of-way east of Missouri Flat Road in Placerville, California.

The crew is relocating the track, along with the switches, joiners, joiner bolts, spikes and tie plates from the old Diamond Springs yard to the site of the proposed El Dorado County Railroad Park in the town of El Dorado. A contractor is currently expending the El Dorado Trail a long the old right-of-way from Placerville to Missouri Flat Road.

I have a new found appreciation for the work of the old section gangs. It took two four-hour days for the crew to remove the joiner bolts on approximately 1,000-feet of mainline and siding track.

Using early twentieth century track tools, our crew of six unbolted the joiners that were spaced every 30 feet on Friday and Saturday. A four-man crew removed spikes on 300 feet of track on Sunday afternoon.

I realized Sunday that track work gives you a good, healthy cardio workout. My pulse approached 130 beats per minute after I had pulled spikes for an hour. I felt good despite a few aches and pains Sunday night. I belive my evening walks helped.

The track relocation is a project of the El Dorado County Historical Museum. As volunteers of the museum, the El Dorado Western Railway is providing labor and technical assistance to the museum as it moves forward with the railroad park in El Dorado.

Rail work ...

Since last Friday, crew members have worked every day to prepare the rail at the old Diamond Springs yard for removal. The El Dorado Western Railway will ultimately move the rail and its associated hardware to the town of El Dorado for the new El Dorado County Railroad Park. The rail and switches will be used at the railroad park for the sidings and third rail.

All track east of Missouri Flat Road in Placerville is being removed. Within a couple weeks, the contractor will grade the old right-of-way and built that section of the El Dorado Trail. The track west of Missouri Flat will remain in place.

Each day one or more teams of two to three volunteers have worked for three to four hours to remove the joiner bolts and spikes. Once that process has been completed, the crew will remove the joiner plates and turn the rail on its side. Then the tie plates can be picked up.

The following volunteers have helped with the project: Keith Berry, Steve Karoly, Bill Rodgers, Ed Cuhna, Eric Stohl, Mark Bruto and Jacob Karoly. Plus, we have a new father and son team that joined the effort last Friday.

Please don't look if you're a high school shop teacher! Bill uses an unconventional assortment of tools to hold the joiner bolt steady while Keith attempts to break it free.

Eric hold the bolt steady while Ed prepares to remove the nut. Friday and Saturday, the crew removed the joiner bolts on approximately 800 feet of the main line and 200 feet of one siding. On Sunday, the crew removed spikes from about 300 feet of track.

Removing the engine

On Memorial Day, the crew pulled the engine out of the Diamond and Caldor Railbus No. 10. We are getting ready to send the circa 1937 Waukesha engine up to Doug Youngberg's house in Oregon. Doug will rebuild the engine and return it to Placerville in the fall.

The crew had already removed the radiator and hood from the engine compartment. When welder Wayne Thorley builds the engine stand, he will include supports for the radiator. Doug will need the radiator when he tests the engine on the stand.

The first task was to move the flatcar out of the way. Keith Berry pulled it out into the parking lot while Mark Bruto kept trucks from crabbing.

Ed Cuhna, Mark and Keith first tried to lift the engine out of the railbus by attaching a lifting plate to the rear head. When Keith lifted the engine, they found that the center of gravity was too far back. The engine leaned forward into the forward engine mounds.

Ed and Mark removed the lifting plate and moved it to the center head on the engine. First, Mark had to take the plate to the machine shop and re-bore the holes to match the studs on the center head.

Keith re-positioned the forklift. Ed and Mark then rigged the chains to the lifting plate.

The crew then removed the engine out of the railbus. The engine behaved as expected. It tilted approximately 20 percent to the transmission. Here Mark guides the engine as Keith backs the forklift.

Mark and Ed steadied the engine as Keith drove it to the front of the engine house.

The crew blocked the engine in front of the engine house. The engine stand will be build with material that was donated by Barsotti Juice Company. Bill Rodgers was instrumental in acquiring the material. During the engine removal, Wayne welded plates for the steel casters to the bottom of the engine stand. Wayne and Mark are building the engine supports for the engine stand this morning.

Cuttin' torch

Mark Bruto uses a cutting torch to free the exhaust manifold so that we can remove the engine from the Diamond and Caldor Railbus No. 10. Keith Berry assisted Mark perform a few last minute tasks on Friday, May 15, 2009. Volunteers plan to remove the engine today.

2009 membership letter

Dear Railroad Enthusiast:

There she sits, alone in the weeds, without purpose, and unattended. Her paint is faded, her cab is rusting, and her headlight is but an empty shell. No reason to worry; she has no place to run. She sits on a lonely stub of track, near an auto racetrack, not the saw mill she served from 1907 to 1953. No engineer to open her throttle, no fireman to raise her steam, not even a kid happens by to play engineer and head east to Caldor.

The Diamond and Caldor No. 4 sat for many years on the El Dorado County Fair-grounds. Eventually, concerned management decided to bulldoze a pit and bury the locomotive. Thankfully, a last minute offer was accepted and the locomotive spent time at Camino as a display for a tourist railroad. Once again, the locomotive found its way to Placerville, this time being located at the El Dorado County Historical Museum.

During the past 15 years of volunteer Saturday work, the D&C No. 4 has been our center of attention and commitment toward a return to steam operation. New parts were patterned and cast, other parts were sandblasted and painted, and one key part purchased still in its box from 1940.

Today, this once almost buried locomotive is nearing restoration. Her water and oil tanks are finished, her wheels are round, her brake rigging repaired, and her cab is fashioned from beautiful Red Oak. Today, this locomotive draws attention from visitors. She will be the oldest operating Shay of her class. The most frequently asked question is "When will she run"?

Is something special happening here? Progress is evident from the vantage point of a before photograph. Dare we look ahead to operation?

This is where you come in. Would you like to see the D&C No. 4 chug along the old Southern Pacific Placerville Branch line in the Town of El Dorado? Please take this opportunity to join the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation. Your valuable support will assist in the continued restoration of this historic locomotive and other El Dorado County railroad artifacts like the D&C No. 10 Railbus.

Through our membership program and generous donations by railroad enthusiasts like you, we will raise the necessary funds to complete the D&C No.4 and return her to a safe operating condition. For a weekly view of restoration activities, please visit our comprehensive website at ElDoradoWestern.blogspot.com. The blog chronicles the efforts of the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation as it restores a number of key
El Dorado County railroad artifacts.

The Membership Program has many benefits:

1. You have the satisfaction of knowing you are contributing in a meaningful way toward the preservation of our historic railroad artifacts
2. Membership card
3. Quarterly newsletter
4. Discounts of 15 percent on Foundation merchandise
5. Recognition as an Associate Member in the newsletter

Enclosed is an Associate Membership sign-up card. Please don’t put this off. We want to continue to make progress on these most important restoration projects and we need your help.

I would just like to say thank you for your interest in El Dorado County railroading. I also want to thank you for joining the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation as an Associate Member and contributing to the preservation of railroading history for future generations. All aboard!

Sincerely,

Keith Berry
President

PS: Please stop by the museum any Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 104 Placerville Dr., Placerville to say hi to the crew and see our progress.

Camp Layman Road crossing

Camp Layman Road crossing, originally uploaded by SeabeeCook.

My son and I drove spent the day following Union Pacific No. 844 up the Feather River Canyon yesterday. We started at Oroville at 8 a.m. and ended later in the afternoon when the train pulled into Portola.

This photograph is my best of the day. I like the classic pose of the 1940s-era 4-8-4 Northern pulling past a jubilant group of railfans at the Camp Layman Road grade crossing on the Middle Fork of the Feather River.

The UP 844 was the last steam locomotive built and delivered to the Union Pacific Railroad. With a 4-8-4 wheel arrangement, the locomotive was used in fast passenger train service until the 1957. It spent its last days in active service pulling freight trains.

The Union Pacific saved the engine from the scrapper's torch in 1960. It now tours the country as a living legacy to the days of steam. The locomotive was built by the American Locomotive Company and carries a construction number of 72791.

A slow week or two

"It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon ..."

This is how Garrison Keillor has begun his monologue about the fictional Minnesota town each week on the A Prairie Home Companion radio show.

You can say the same thing about the engine house at the El Dorado Western Railway. With our normal cadre of six to eight volunteers cut to one or two, slowed progress a bit.

Unseasonably cold weather and rain, along with out-of-town volunteers (myself included), has hindered work over the past two weeks.

As the weather warms, work will pick up on the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 and Railbus No. 10.