The CPLT caboose is almost ready

The Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe caboose is really shaping up. All the iron work is going onto the body. The steps are major achievement by our woodworkers. Roof catwalks, interior ladder, end wall grab irons and end deck handrails are next. 

Note ladder guards in place. We need an  additional retainer to pull guard in tight. The lettering will be white. 

Now we're ready to build a complete train on the track, couple it to a steam locomotive and run east to El Dorado, just 9 miles from this location at Shingle Springs.

Progress on the CPLT caboose

The Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad caboose project team has been very busy, making use of the dry fall months. The project is in the final completion phase, leading to raising the car body up on the wheel trucks. The major projects have included the installation of roof flashing, installation of the metal roof and installing the cupola windows and wall siding.

A caboose does not make a good boat, the cupola is mostly windows and the cupola wall is single sided. This lends itself to being a challenge to weather seal around the base of the cupola and windows. A quality roofing job was completed by Mott Roofing, with great detail made to flashing the cupola walls to main roof, and insuring a good drip edge around the car body.

The metal roofing is an exact match to the original metal roofing. Completing the roofing ahead of the rains was quite a relief. Other projects have included finishing the freight door hardware, and weather stripping the freight doors using re-purposed cloth fire hose. New drip guards were also fabricated to prevent water dripping down behind the freight doors.

Other metal work included making up new exterior wall retaining straps, roof catwalk supports, freight door latches, and cupola window retaining hooks. All existing metalwork was carefully stripped, repaired, and painted leading to installation. Current work is underway to install new wood/steel bolsters in the wheel trucks, finish installation of exterior grab irons, and develop a lifting plan to raise the car body.

All wood team, metal team, support team, and external professionals are thanked for their untiring contribution to bring El Dorado County's only in county built and operated caboose back to operational status.

Journal boxes on CPLT caboose trucks

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

CPLT caboose ready for painting

Here's a note from Keith Berry:

The Camino, Placerville, and Lake Tahoe caboose will be primed and painted over the next two weeks. The exterior will be a dark green, as determined form original paint chips. Once painted, the grab irons will be bolted onto the car. The cupola and freight doors remain to be completed. The wheel trucks are a current focus to insure they are ready when the car body is completed.

All volunteers working on El Dorado County's only home built-home and operated caboose are to be thanked for their efforts, time and determination to recreate this piece of local history.

As a side note, we have recently received a photograph showing the caboose at Camino after being significantly damaged from collision with an unknown source. Thanks to this event, the caboose was not sold to another railroad once the CPLT began using a diesel locomotive, which led to the caboose being stripped of its trucks, couplers and air brake equipment.

Thankfully, it was sold to a private party in Camino, then to another private party in Shingle Springs for a kids playhouse. The collision saved the caboose and (indirectly) led to it's donation to the museum, and now it's recreation on the El Dorado Western Railroad. Another photograph shows a much bolder white lettering on the sides and above the entry doors on each end.

Progress on the CPLT caboose rebuild

These images show the progress on the standard gauge Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Caboose No. 2. El Dorado County's only home-built and operated caboose, is now being re-constructed at the Freight Station in Shingle Springs.


The caboose is being reconstructed at Shingle Springs. It's El Dorado County's only caboose (to our knowledge), having been built in 1930s from parts of an earlier boxcar caboose. The project is going very well. The car is being built over the track to allow for setting on wheel trucks when ready.

The wood working crew on the El Dorado Western Railroad. These are the type of guy's that worked in the car shop for Mich-Cal Lumber Company at Camino and the California Door Company at Diamond Springs. The kind of guy's who converted a boxcar into a passenger/freight car for the CP&LT around 1900, and then took it apart and built it into a proper caboose that ran until the 1950s.

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.



There is a better way to remove ties

I've previously posted pictures of the crew removing railroad ties the hard way. We often resort to prying, kicking and pounding the tie out from under the rail. While it's time consuming, our method gets the job done, especially in remote areas.

Last week El Dorado Western Railway President Keith Berry let me download these photographs from his camera. They gave me a chance to view track work on the weekdays. Since I work in Sacramento Monday through Friday, I miss the weekday projects.

This photographic series show how the crew used Bob McCormack's backhoe to remove a dozen ties on the historic Southern Pacific Placerville Branch rail line on Friday, November 5, 2010.

Ben Cuhna and Jeremy McCormack (both bent over) guide a rotten tie out from under the rail as Bob pulls it with the backhoe. While difficult to see, the crew wrapped a chain around the leading edge of the tie and attached to to the bucket.

Jeremy observes as the backhoe operator pulls a rotten tie out with the claws on the bucket.

The CP&LT No. 4 track inspection car waits at Hagen's Crossing on Oriental Road in the Town of El Dorado. The ties on the Southern Pacific push car will soon be inserted under the track.

Speeder run on Saturday

On Saturday, December 4, 2010, the El Dorado Western Railway participated in the Town El Dorado's Gold Rush Christmas. It was a relaxing day after working on the track for the past seven Saturdays.

Put my granddaughter in a moving vehicle and she's sound asleep! She's drifting into dreamland as she watches her reflection the speeder's taillight.

Twice I was able to take the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad No. 4 speeder out for a spin between the old SP depot site and Blanchard Road.

These western troubadours strolled along the right-of-way in early afternoon.

Haulin' brush on the railway

One of the goals of the El Dorado Western Railway has been to reduce the vegetation load along the right-of-way. For the past several years, the Folson, El Dorado and Sacramento Historical Railway Association performed this task for the Sacramento-Placerville Transportation Corridor JPA. Last spring Keith Berry and Steven Karoly joined the FEDS in this effort. EDWR is now taking on this task with railway assets.

(While the SPTC is the current official name ascribed to the historic rail line, we prefer to call is the Southern Pacific Branch after its last operational designation.)

While the task may seem insignificant, it's important to preserve the historic right-of-way in operating contition. You can read about Keith and Steven's brush cutting work by clicking here, here or here.


Keith leads the crew in a safety brief at Hagen's crossing on the north end of Oriental Road.

Most of the morning the crew removed down brush in the area between the Oriental Road and Blanchard Road grade crossings. Keith transported the crew one-quarter mile to the east to the spot where brush was at its heaviest.

Volunteers tie off a load of brush on the Southern Pacific push car. The crew ferried about 10 loads of brush throughout the day to a staging point near the old depot site.

Billy Bellas of Cameron Park operates the speeder on the return trip. The railway uses these work days to train all volunteers how to operated its equipment.

Keith guides the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe No. 4 speeder down the track on the last run of the day.

MOW trailer

Ed Chuna prepared the wheels to the Southern Pacific maintenance-of-way trailer last Saturday for painting. The trailer is called a "push car" in railroad parlance, according to Keith Berry.

The El Dorado Western Railway will use the push car to haul MOW equipment on the old SP Placerville Branch. It will be towed behind the Camino, Placerville & Lake Tahoe No. 4 speeder, which is fully restored.

After he prepared the wheels for painting, Ed painted the frame of the push car in a color that resembled SP orange. "Does that look like SP orange?" Ed said as he sprayed the car.

In addition to painting, the crew inspected the bearings and installed a safety chain on the car. The wood deck was installed this week.

Speeder driver

Speeder driver, originally uploaded by SeabeeCook.

The El Dorado Western Railway, in partnership with the El Dorado County Historical Museum, hosted rides museum's track inspection car on the former Southern Pacific Placerville Branch in El Dorado, between El Dorado and Blanchard roads.

The ride gave us a chance to tell key people and organizations of our plans to build a railroad park and demonstration railroad on the site of the old SP railroad depot at El Dorado.

EDWRF president Keith Berry drives the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad speeder back to the depot site. Each ride took the car 1/2-mile west toward El Dorado Road. Keith then "turned the car around" and headed to Blanchard Road, about 1-1/2 miles to the northwest. Each 3-mile ride took about 20 minutes.

Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Speeder No. 4

The crew replaced the brake shoes on the CP and LT Speeder No. 4 during the past two weeks. The standard-gauge speeder is now fully operation and can be used to survey the Southern Pacific Placerville Branch right-of-way once we secure permission.

Old Rail Never Dies

Recycling, railroad style ...

I suppose you could say, "Old rail never dies. It gets reused."

Several feet of old railroad rail, presumably salvaged from the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad, were fashioned into an iron retaining wall. The wall supports the built-up roadbed around a culvert. This retaining wall won't rust away soon.

Maintenance of way crews fabricated the wall from discarded rail. Railroad mechanics were masters at reusing old materials laying around the shop. It fit their operating model to scrimp, save and repair everything without spending a dime.

I'd say this wall, when amortized over the years, this wall will cost less than a penny per year!

Patience for Railroaders

It's been said that patience is a virtue. It's a moral quality that I've long held in my personal life. And it's a value that I've come to appreciate in my railroading life, which is really just an extension of my personal life.

Like others involved in the business of steam locomotive restoration, we at the El Dorado Western Railway have come to appreciate the virtue of patience.

Early indications told the crew that Diamond and Caldor No. 4 would be steaming within months.

"We figure 75 more working days, maybe this fall or winter," one early supporter of the project told the Mountain Democrat in August 1993.

Project leaders confidently said the locomotive would become a "serious" income source for the museum. Renovation was estimated to cost $35,000.

By the time of the May 1997 steam up, the crew looked forward to running trains on the abandoned Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe right-of-way, adjacent to U.S. 50.

"Wouldn't (a logging and rail museum on Newtown Road) be a tourist stopper - to see a passenger train hooting and steaming alongside the highway?" asked the Democrat in an editorial.

One volunteer "waxed enthusiastic about the Shay, rattling off its specifications, reciting its history, relating the progress of its restoration by foundation members" to a Democrat reporter one year later. Restoration work on the engine was estimated at 75 to 80 percent complete.

Today the project seems as far from operation as it did the day the needle jumped to 160 pounds 10 years ago.

At times we face obstacles that appear insurmountable. These days you rarely hear any volunteer proclaim project completion in 75 days. We know better.

But there's hope for the locomotive.

I remember reading of one steam renovation project that took 20 years to complete. By that standard, we are six years away from acquiring a steam tag from the State of California.

I recently found these encouraging words from fellow railroader Doyle McCormack, president of the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation:

I thought forty years of railroading had taught me patience. Sitting in sidings, waiting for trains, waiting for dispatchers, waiting for signals, just to name a few. But now I realize that was the patience of hours, not the patience of weeks or months. I hope that you have learned patience in your lives, too, because it seems we’re all going to need it as we work toward our goal of a home for Portland’s three steam locomotives.

There's hope for the El Dorado Western Railway and the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 Shay geared locomotive.

Patience is waiting for the project's completion when there's no light in the tunnel. Like the ORHF, we've experience the "patience of weeks or months" and years.

But patience doesn't sit by the depot and spin yarns. It's built on a hope-filled vision of the future.

Patient railroaders work while they "suffer long" (to quote the Old English rendition of patience) and wait for the day the old Four-Spot will steam.

The vision of a logging and rail museum on the Southern Pacific right-of-way between Diamond Springs and El Dorado has replaced the Newtown Road museum.

While six to eight volunteer trainmen gather at the engine house each Saturday to give new life to the engine, others meet with community leaders and property owners to secure a future for the No. 4.

We may have no other option but to wait for the next steam up. In the interum, the El Dorado Western crew is working one part at a time and working toward the day when vurtue will be rewarded with a Shay running down its own demonstration railroad.