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.



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.

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.

Anne’s caboose

Years ago, a train was not complete without a locomotive on the front end, and a caboose bringing up the rear end. The locomotive was an attention getter, what with smoke and noise, whistle blowing and bell ringing. Sure it was fun to wave at the engineer, and hopefully see him wave back, signaling to you that such an important guy recognized you down there as a friend.

However, once the locomotive went by, your attention was immediately drawn to that last car on the train, a car like no other, having steps, windows, and even a smokestack on the roof. The caboose was the only train car that had the one unique feature, a cupola on the roof.

A cupola was all windows. Once you spotted the caboose and its cupola, you immediately searched for the next guy to wave at. You didn’t quite know what his job really was, but to you his job was quite simple, WAVE AT YOU.

Your moment was highly anticipated, your timing had to be just right, or the caboose would be past you with no more chances until the next train. Get ready, decide which arm and hand would be offered, and make sure you obtained eye contact with that lucky guy who got to ride on the train all day just to see YOU.

A successful wave meant everything, no eye contact and wave meant you had failed to carry out the agreement. A good wave meant you did not wave like a madman, frantic and unsure. No, your wave had to reflect your confidence and understanding of railroad waves, you were one with him, and you were on the crew, just not on the train. The successful wave lasted all day; you had waved and been recognized, so long, see you on the next trip.

Today, trains don’t provide much chance to interact with the crew. There is no caboose, or friendly crew to wave back to you. Trains are less frequent, and lack the personality of the old trains when you could identify the type of cars and repeat the railroad names. Today’s trains do not present the opportunity to wave at the crew, or look for that caboose on the rear end, a caboose with a cupola and crew. Well, most trains don’t have a caboose, but, your El Dorado Western Railroad has a caboose, a caboose just for YOU.

Yes, your caboose arrived on the El Dorado Western Railroad on Thursday, June 16 at El Dorado. A caboose from the Southern Pacific Railroad, No. 1094, built in 1940 to travel the rails behind steam powered freight trains. A real railroad caboose; a caboose with steps, windows, and yes, a real cupola on the roof! A caboose complete with interior and a ladder climbing up to the seats where the crew sat and waved to you. Did you know the caboose was an office for the conductor with a desk, a coal stove for heat, a bathroom, ice box, lights, and bunk beds? The caboose supported the crew while out on the rails going between cities.

Southern Pacific Caboose No. 1094 is a gift from a very special person; a lady named Anne. Anne received her caboose from her husband on a Mother’s Day, to provide Anne with an art studio. Now, through Anne’s family, her caboose is returning to the rails.

A caboose to ride in, and a caboose from which to wave to people on foot, bicycle, or in the car waiting for the train to cross the road. Anne’s caboose is waiting for you, come out and see her at our Sunday, June 26 fund raiser to support the railroad.

We thank you Anne for giving all of us a chance to ride your caboose, on the El Dorado Western Railroad. Now, let’s all work on our railroad waves; a railroad caboose is coming down the track toward YOU.

Keith Berry for the EDWR where we work to make you smile.

Southern Pacific No. 1094 caboose move #1

The El Dorado Western Railroad moved the Southern Pacific No. 1094 caboose from private property to the El Dorado County Railroad Park on June 16, 2011.

Caboose move coming next week

Has the caboose move sparked your interest? To learn more, pick up a copy of the Windfall at your local El Dorado County store or restaurant. See "Along the Right of Way" on page 31. The big move takes place on Thursday, June 16.

Coming events for June

Please continue to watch the El Dorado Western Railway blog and Facebook pages. The railroad has three exciting events on the horizon.

They include:

• El Dorado County Fair, June 16 to 19, 100 Plaverville Dr., Plaverville, California. Crew members will be on hand from opening each day until 8 p.m. On Saturday, the crew pull the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 Shay locomotive out of the engine house.
• Train rides in the historic town of El Dorado, June 26, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Follow the signs for tickets.
• New Southern Pacific caboose to be moved to the El Dorado railroad park soon. The caboose, Southern Pacific No. 1094 from the 1940s, will be placed in service for train rides next year.

Watch these pages for more news.

New caboose in El Dorado County

I discovered this Southern Pacific Railroad caboose at Grampy's Produce in Shingle Springs this afternoon on my way home from work. According to Keith Berry, Caboose No. 1188 would've been manufactured circa 1941. It's nice to see a piece of history spotted on the right-of-way.

You can view a picture of the caboose here that was taken on May 31, 1972, in El Centro, Calif.