Journal boxes on CPLT caboose trucks

Those old trucks in the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Caboose No. 2 are coming along:

Working in the Railroad

This blog comes to you in real time ...

Much of the work in the railroad is dusty, tedious and time consuming. Here, Ken Romine cleans rust off of the journal boxes to Arnold Z, our Plymouth locomotive. Ken and his son, Scott, will paint the boxes today.

Eight-year old Logan paints the topside of one of the Railbus trailer trucks.

Busting Off J-Box Wear Plates

Ken Romine drilled out the hexagon-head bolts to day on all four journal boxes to Arnold Z today. Ths was a last resort attempt to remove the left- and right-hand wear plates on the boxes.

Ken is going to use the wear plates in the best condition as a pattern for new plates. He will use one plate from each side.

What made this tricky was that there was only one good left-hand wear plate. By late morning, Ken has successfully removed all wear plates from the j-boxes.

Railbus Trailer J-Box Guides

Another blog as the crew works ...

EDWRF welder Dale Mace welds angle iron guides adjacent to one of the Railbus trailer journal boxes. Railway president Eric Stohl said the guides prevent the journal boxes from twisting the wrong way.

The guides only allow up and down motion, according to Eric. Eric and Dale are the primary crew members on the trailer project. EDWRF vice president Keith Berry has been priming and preparing metal surfaces for paining. He is going to use an oil-based pain from Ace Hardware. The color closest to the original is named Royal Red by Ace.

The journal box before Dale installed guides. You can see the damage to the slots as the original journal boxes were allowed to twist from side to side and side up and down. The damage is visible at the base of the rusted spacers.

Journal Boxes to Arnold Z

This blog comes to you in real time ...

At our last work day two weeks ago, Garrett Augustus, Ken Romine and Scott Romine finished removing the last two journal boxes from Arnold Z.

Ken and Scott took the four boxes to Performance Machines (1348 Yosemite Ave., Mantica, CA, 209.239.2000) for service.

Owner Walt charged $40 boil the bearings in acid and steam clean the boxes. The job normally costs $100.

It's the generous donation time and labor by local business that helps the El Dorado Western Railway accomplish its goal of restoring locomotives like Arnold to service.

As I write, Ken is blasting rust away with a pneumatic needle gun in the museum yard. Ken, Garrett and Scott will prime, paint and repack the bearings at future work days.

Here's a few shots of the interior of a journal box:

Removing Arnold Z's Journal Boxes

I only had a few minutes to stop by the engine house yesterday. An adult daughter is in town and I spent the day with her.

When I walked in around 9:30 a.m., Garrett was attacking the Arnold Z with a needle gun. Sam and Bill were working on a few items in the machine shop. And Eric and Logan stripped threaded bolts from one of the trucks to the Railbus trailer.

Last weekend, nine volunteers labored on the No. 4 Shay, the Plymouth and the trailer. It was the best turnout the El Dorado Western Railway has had this summer.

Garrett, Ken and Scott removed the last two journal boxes to the Plymouth. Dale, Eric and Logan, our newest and youngest trainman, were removing the brake shoes and tumbler bar from the Railbus truck. And Sam and Bill continued in the machine shop with Sam's valve shaping tool. Keith helped where needed.

(In case you're interested, I take keep historical notes for the newsletter and the blog, in addition to being the photographer.)

Wheel Sets Removed From Arnold

I stopped by the engine house Saturday for the first time since I returned from vacation. My visit only lasted 1-1/2 hours. Keith and I were heading to Yerington, Nevada to pick up a 1941 Dodge military Power Wagon.

Over the work day of Saturday, August 5, 2006, Eric, Keith and Garrett removed the wheel sets for Arnold Z, the El Dorado Western Railway's Plymouth switch engine. Both wheel sets were placed behind the locomotive (to the left of the photograph).

Scott had "planned on getting those two journal boxes off" the wheel set Saturday. Several sick volunteers and other projects in progress left Scott with nothing to do but clean the Plymouth.

The journal box on the left. The other pair of journal boxes were removed last April. The puller sits on the ground between the wheel sets.