Grinding away

Grinding away, originally uploaded by SeabeeCook.

By my account, Keith Berry, Wayne Thorley and Steve Karoly have put in about 72 man-hours into the restoration of the Diamond and Caldor Railbus No. 10 since the first of the year. We have worked each Friday and Saturday since January 3.

Since Wayne took today off, Keith and I are working on other projects this morning.

As of this morning, we have completed the frame for the railbus and have completely re-built the rear coupler pocket. The rear wall to the body was completely framed in over the past four work sessions.

Yesterday, Keith and Wayne fabricated the pocket for the backup light and installed five cross-braces under the front deck on either side of the engine housing. One brace on the engineer's side will support the battery box. The two braces on the fireman's side will support the airtank.

Although Keith, Wayne and Steve currently make up the railbus team, other volunteers have contributed toward the railbus. They include:

• Bill Rodgers and Mark Bruto repaired the MIG welder last Saturday. After mentioning about the welder 's demise on Friday, January 9, Keith and I though that we were going to have to transport it to Sacramento for repair. Bill and Mark stepped in Saturday and discovered the problem was a stuck relay switch.
• Marcus Hodge is currently fabricating the battery box in his shop at home. When he completes that project, Marcus will take another project home to work on.
• Jacob Karoly has served in a key role as Keith's helper for two Saturdays now. He will continue to work every other Saturday.
• Dale Mace did the original design work on the coupler pocket. Dale has not been able to attend recent Saturday work sessions.
• Ed Cuhna researched the make and model of the Wakasha engine. This is significant because two years ago we though it was a Stewart.
• Now that we know the origin of the engine, we will be able to locate parts, etc., when Doug Youngberg re-builds it in his home in Oregon this spring and summer.
• Keith Berry located and purchased a diesel locomotive ditch light for use as the backup light.
• Keith Berry and Alterto Weiss built the brakeman's footboards last summer.

In the top photograph, volunteer Steve levels a piece of steel tubing with the power grinder inside the engine house. Keith fits the battery box brace in the second photograph.

Yard cleanup day

Saturday the crew of the El Dorado Western Railway cleaned the engine house yard. Our main purpose was to help the museum get ready for its sale of excess museum property, which is being help on Saturday, March 29, 2008 (see the link for more information on the sale).

Like many short lines, including the Diamond and Caldor Railway, we have collected an odd assortment of scrap iron and old parts in 15 years of existence. To facilitate the sale, the crew had to move railway property to a secure area. Since railway property is not for sale, we wanted to ensure that museum staff and volunteers only tag appropriate items for the sale.

All went well until about 11 a.m. when the transmission in the forklift became extremely hot. Eric Stohl, EDWRF president and forklift driver parked it and shut her down for the day.


Keith Berry, left, Steve Karoly and Bill Rodgers wrestled the three rusted drive chains to Arnold Z, the Plymouth locomotive, into a steel barrel. Keith plans to give the chains a Diesel-fuel bath. This will help break the rusted links to the point where we can clean and lubricate.

Eric prepares to move a pallet of parts for the Michigan-California Lumber Co. bobbie car. We believe the bobbie car, which the Mich-Cal once used to transport rough cut lumber across the American River gorge is the only one remaining.

Doug Youngberg, left, and Bill catch up on news on the railroad front while Eric loads the bobbie car parks on Doug's trailer. Since Doug's move to Oregon last year, he had become one of a handful of long distance volunteers. Doug plans to rebuild the bobbie car in his new machine shop.

Keith, left, and Doug discuss possible problems with the forklift. At first they though it may be a hydraulic leak. They later determined that the cause of excessive smoking and fluid loss could be a transmission seal.

Home and Garden Show

The crew pulled the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 out of the engine house for the second annual Fall Home and Harvest Show at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds. This was our first attempt at displaying the Shay geared locomotive during an event other than the county fair in June.

From my vantage point in the kitchen, located at the north end of the engine house, we received 50 to 75 visitors between 10 a.m. and early afternoon. As with the fair, vice president Keith Berry showed our rolling stock to two potential volunteers.

In the upper photograph, Sam Thompson doesn't let a little sunshine get in the way of his most important task. Since early spring, Sam has operated the valve shaping machine on the number two cylinder. He's almost ready to move to the number three.

Board member Garrett Augustus (standing to left) discusses the locomotive with a visitor and his wife. I took the right hand photograph last week just after the foll moon.

I took advantage of the nine volunteers present this morning and cooked lunch for the crew. In honor of our locomotive's 100th year, I selected dining car recipes from two railroad cookbooks.

The old fashion navy bean soup is composite recipe from the Denver and Rio Grand Western Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. The cole slaw came from the Missouri Pacific Lines. The toasted hot Mexican sandwich was a favorite in the Santa Fe.

The recipes are posted to my personal blog at 'Round the Chuckbox.

Fireman's Side in the Engine House

Here's a shot of the west side of the El Dorado Western Railway engine house. If all goes well, we plan to move the locomotive outside during the El Dorado County Fair, June 14-17, 2007.