Saturday Work Day

Yesterday was a normal work day at the engine house of the El Dorado Western Railway, located at the El Dorado County Historical Museum, 104 Placerville Drive, Placerville, California. Six volunteers gathered around 8 a.m. to work on the Shay and other projects.

Here's an idea of what we worked on:

Keith Berry, Eric Stohl and Dale Mace discuss the hinge arrangement for the lid to the oil tanks. I took the photo from the deck of the Shay where I was helping Sam at the time.

Dale and Eric heat a strap for the Diamond & Caldor Railbus No. 10. Last week Dale cut four such straps. The straps will be used to hold steps on the front bumper to the railbus.

Everything worked well until we realized that the extra tank of gas was empty. Work stopped on this project since the local welding supply store is closed on the weekend.

Sam Thompson adjusts the valve shaper on the no. 2 engine. The reddish hue on the engines and manifold is not rust. The color is off on these pictures. (I used the automatic white balance setting for these photos.)

Bill Rodgers assisted Sam until he left for work late in the morning.

I spent an hour assisting Sam from inside the cab. Since I couldn't take pictures of myself, here's one of the backhead.