New website for El Dorado Western Railroad

The El Dorado Western Railroad introduces its new website at http://museum.edcgov.us/el-dorado-western-railroad. It's a component of the newly revamped El Dorado County Historical Museum website.

Please click for the schedule, information on volunteering and directions to train stations at El Dorado and Shingle Springs. You can print a Adobe potable document file (PDF) copy of the 2013 ride schedule and post it in the window of your business or place of employment.

Train rides for 2013

Come to Shingle Springs this Sunday (January 13, 2013) and help the El Dorado Western Railroad inaugurate train rides for 2013. The EDWR sends a heartfelt thank you to the community as it enters its third year of operation. Your continued support has allowed the railroad to continue to give train rides and preserve this valuable historic resource for future generations.

Highball for the first train is promptly at noon. The last run departs the depot at 3 p.m. Please remember at this time of year, all railroad operations at dependent upon weather. Watch our Facebook page for the latest news as we approach the run day.

The railroad will post its operating schedule soon. Watch for a special train on Saturday, March 30, and Sunday, March 31, out of Shingle Springs. In the meantime, here's the timetable through the end of February:

January 13 -- Shingle Springs Depot
January 20 -- El Dorado Station
January 27 -- Shingle Springs Depot
February 3 -- El Dorado Station
February 10 -- Shingle Springs Depot
February 17 -- El Dorado Station
February 24 -- Shingle Springs Depot

Please mark your calendars. Highball for the El Dorado Western, and we'll see you on the train!

Modeling the Placerville Canal Street Southern Pacific train depot

George Mihal built this model of the Placerville Canal Street train depot by hand. He cut full-scale lumber down to half-inch scale. The model is suitible for a G-scale model railroad. As a collector and seller of vintage photographs, Mihal based his model on a glass negative of the depot that he once owned.



The video includes a number of photographs of the depot. Here's one from the El Dorado County Historical Museum collection:

Sacramento bound Train No. 61 is ready to leave the Canal Street depot. The depot was located at the modern day interesection of Canal Street and U.S. Hightway 50 in Placerville, California. The Coffee Depot can be found one block south at Canal and Main.

This and other historic photographs can be purchased from the collection of the El Dorado County Historical Museum. They are available for $10 each from the museum. Call (530) 621-5865 for additional information. Please consult museum staff for limitations to the use of the photographs.



Ready to begin CPLT caboose rebuild

The renovation crew for the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad Caboose No. 2 last week took the last step before beginning the rebuild. The main beams were removed from the caboose frame and transported to the rebuild site in Shingle Springs. Once lumber and hardware is purchased, the rebuild phase of renovation will begin.


Here's a photograph of the caboose in its glory days on the CPLT. The eight-mile short line owned several cabooses, "one at a time," according to Steve Polkinghorn. "The short one, which was also the last one, was wrecked in 1950, after which one was leased from the Southern Pacific. The diesel locomotive was light enough so that no fireman was needed in the cab, unless a caboose was used." Once the CPLT No. 101 (a GE 44-tonner) was placed in service in July 1953, the railroad cancelled the SP lease and operated without a caboose until the railroad ceased operation.



The renovation crew loads one of the four main beans to the caboose into a trailer last Tuesday. They were transported to Shingle Springs and placed in storage until the lumber arrives for the rebuild. The caboose was located at the El Dorado County Historical Museum for almost 20 years.  Once it's rebuilt, the caboose will operate on the El Dorado Western Railroad, along with the Southern Pacific caboose No. 1094.

This picture was taken by Harry Critchfield. Harry is one of the photographers for  the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation.



Renovation of CPLT Caboose No. 2

Over the past several months, the crew of the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation began the renovation process on the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad Caboose No. 2. Due to the poor condition of the wood structure on the caboose, it will be necessary to completely rebuild the caboose from the trucks up to the cupola. The hardware will be saved and reused where possible.

All the major pieces of the wood structure are being saved for the time being. They will be used as patterns to help the crew measure and cut timbers for the rebuilt caboose. Where possible, timbers in good condition will be used to build interior benches.

This picture shows the steel cupola frame on top of the caboose. Last Tuesday, November 6, 2012, the crew lowered the frame into the interior of the caboose. Volunteers first removed the walls and ceiling from the frame. Then they dislodged the frame from the roof of the caboose. The next step was to slide two 2x6 timbers under the frame to support it. The interior ceiling joists were next removed (one was completely rotted away on the right side).

Homer Rail steps onto the ladder after the crew positioned the cupola frame for the drop into the caboose interior.

It took five minutes to lower the cupola frame into the interior of the caboose. Two 4x4 pieces of timer were used as slides. Ron Sexton used come-a-long to pull the frame down the slice. Homer (out of the picture) and Bill Rodgers guided the frame from the roof.

Ron gives an enthusiastic thumbs up as the cupola frame comes to a rest on the inside of the caboose while Homer (standing next to Ron) and foundation president Keith Berry look on..

Bill coils a rope at the end of the work session last Tuesday. On Wednesday, the crew completely removed the caboose structure.

El Dorado Western Railroad Santa Run

Interior work on the Southern Pacific No. 1094 caboose

Crews from the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation are busy restoring the interior of the Southern Pacific No. 1094 caboose to its original condition. The current focus is to restore the interior color to the original paint scheme, a sea green green color. 

The railroad plans to use the caboose for its Santa Run on December 15, 2012.While the caboose won't be ready to run on the rails, Santa will "set up shop" in the caboose as he greets children. We will post information on the blog and on Facebook soon.


The main compartment of the caboose. The conductor's desk is located on the right side. The toilet is located in the tiny room to the left of the front door. The coal bin is located in the foreground.

The picture of the cupola shows the exposed grain of the redwood interior. The crew is currently applying primer to the interior walls and ceiling. We are evaluating how to treat the exposed wood grain.

The cupola corridor and rear door of the caboose. Several storage compartments under the cupola held the ice box, radio, generator and railroad tools.

Volunteer Steven Karoly removes the stretcher brackets from the ceiling in the caboose. The coal burning stove will be replaced with an authentic SP caboose stove in the future. Retired SP/UP conductor Davey "Doc" Wiser located the replacement stove last year. We don't know what happened to the original stove.

Anne's Caboose is located in the El Dorado County Historical Railroad Park at the town of El Dorado, California. It was build in 1940 to the railroad's C-40-3 specification for cabooses. Southern Pacific sold it to a Placerville family in 1973, where it was used an artist's studio. The family donated the caboose to the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation on Christmas Day 2010.