Chili at the engine house

The occasional bowl of hot chili is one advantage of working at the engine house on Saturday. With a railroading chef on "staff" at El Dorado Western Railway, the crew savors a noontime meal every two or three months.

Professional chef Steve Karoly prepared a spicy bowl of chili and beans for about 10 last Saturday. The meal was accompanied by sweet Dutch oven cornbread.

Here's what one diner had to say:

"What great chili!" said Bill Rodgers. "I loved it. We gotta make it a staple in our work parties at the rail park ... it was fantastic.

"I hated to leave today. The cornbread looked terrific. You really have those Dutch ovens down to an art, for sure."

Call for the oven man

My culinary skills were put to work for the first time since joining the El Dorado Western Railway. Although my occasional meals please its volunteers, they're a side benefit. Demonstration railroads don't need a cook to renovate locomotives and rolling stock.

I was asked to check a standard home oven at the engine house last Saturday. Machinist Sam Thompson wanted to use the oven to pre-heat three cast iron valves for the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 Shay locomotive.

At about 9 a.m., I watched welder Harold Tilton wheel the oven into the engine house on a hand truck. He planned to plug it into the shop's 240-volt receptacle, which is normally used to power the electric arc welder.

Other than a mental note, the fact that Harold was moving the oven didn't register in my brain. Acquired several years ago, the oven hadn't been used to date. I have often though that it could be become the centerpiece of a shop kitchen.

"I had just sat down to preview photographs of the morning's activities when I heard my name.

Where's the oven man?" called Harold. "We need the cook."

I walked into the engine house and looked at the oven, which was set up in the narrow isle between the 39-ton locomotive and a tool cabinet.

"All I can do is to play with the dial." I explained to Harold that my next move has always been to call the kitchen maintenance man in to repair the problem.

As I walked up to the oven, I saw Bill Rodgers, the railway "kitchen maintenance" man, at work. Once we determined that the oven had no power, Bill quickly assessed that the wrong receptacle was connected to the 240-volt power supply.

Bill is our millwright, a jack-of-all-trades shop maintenance man. We've come to depend on his capability to repair almost any piece of shop equipment, including older General Electric electric ovens.

Once Bill repaired the oven, I asked Sam (pictured above, watching Bill repair the receptacle) what he planned to "cook" in the oven.

"As you know," explained Sam, cast iron cracks when intense, local heat is applied to the cold metal. Instead, Sam set the cold valves inside a cold oven. He then turned the oven dial to about 250 degrees.

Once hot, Harold removed each valve one-by-one and braized a layer of brass on each side of the valve. Sam will later machine the valves to the proper specification.

I may use the oven as long as Sam doesn't intend on cooking toxic compounds inside it. The oven and rangetop will come in handy this winter during inclement weather.

There's no reason we can't mix some harmless metallurgy with a bit of precision bread baking in the engine house.

Lunch at the engine house

I haven't cooked lunch for the crew at the engine house of the El Dorado Western Railway in six months. Several priority projects kept me from cooking in the months leading to my early June departure for the summer camp job. My labor was more important at that point.

Railway President Keith Berry and I first discussed a lunch meal several weeks ago. We both wanted to reward the crew for a summer of notable accomplishments. Plus several out-of-town volunteers were driving in for the day.

Twice this summer, Keith called on the volunteers to complete high-profile projects in a short period of time. Last June the crew rallied to remove the rail, tie plates and rail joiners from the old Southern Pacific yard at Diamond Springs. Once the county gave its approval to remove the track and associated hardware, we had less than two weeks to complete the job.

The crew completed the project in eight days. Several volunteers worked every day. The rails and hardware will be used to add a third rail and build the yard at the recently approved El Dorado County Historical Railroad Park in the town of El Dorado.

The most noteworthy event of the summer came on August 25 when the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors approved the park on a 5-0 vote. The park will be located on the right-of-way of the Southern Pacific depot in El Dorado.

Volunteers again answered the call this weekend when it became evident that we had to move about 300 ties to a secure location. The ties were open to theft in their current location along the old right-of-way, which is being converted into a riding and walking trail.

Lunch at the engine house

I often use meals at the engine house to try new recipes and to use ingredients that I already have at home. Since I had a 4-pound pork shoulder in the freezer, I knew the menu would be built around a pork dish.

Although chili verde is a favorite -- a dish I enjoy cooking for potlucks -- I wanted to try a flavor combination that was new for me. The idea for a pork stew came to me as I watched Alton Brown's Good Eats television show last week.

In the re-broadcast of his 2005 "Dis-Kabob-Ulated" episode, Brown marinated beef sirloin in a spicy marinade with red wine vinegar and olive oil. Turmeric, smoked paprika and cumin formed the flavor base for the marinade.

Since it isn't practical to make pork kabobs with the tougher pork shoulder, a braised or stewed dish seemed to be the best way to tenderize the meat. I used the marinade to impart flavor, then prepared a tradition stew from that point.

I worked the recipe in my mind Friday evening as I moved railroad ties. I had originally planned to work out the menu and shop that evening. But a 3 p.m. telephone call from Keith brought me to the Diamond Springs yard instead.

When I arrived at the storage site for the ties, the crew (Mark Bruto, Ed Cunha, Keith and myself) asked me what was on the lunch menu for Saturday. I received a chuckle or two when I told them that Keith had pulled me away from my menu planning duties.

They weren't amused when I said that I should be home planning the menu. At that moment, the crew was more interested in my back than culinary skills. Since we didn't quit until 7:30 p.m., I delayed shopping until Saturday morning.

My original thought was to prepare the stew with orange marmalade, but hit on the idea to build the stock with apple juice after moving almost 250 ties. Yams and apples seemed like a natural addition from that point.

Here's the menu for the El Dorado Western Railway lunch (the links take you to 'Round the Chuckbox, my personal blog):

• Pork stew with yams and apples
• Buttermilk biscuits
• Dutch oven bread pudding

Eleven crew and guests enjoyed the meal. While I cooked, Doug Youngberg, Sam Thompson, Bill Rodgers, Mark and Keith (see picture) loaded the 1937 Waukesha engine from the Diamond and Caldor railbus onto Doug's trailer. Doug will rebuild the six-cylinder engine and return it to the museum next spring.

After lunch, Ed drove over to the Diamond Springs-El Dorado FPD Station 49 to pick up the fire department's Bobcat. The crew (Bill Schultz, Allen Key, Jacob Karoly, Wayne Thorely, Mark, Keith, Ed and myself) headed over to the Diamond Springs yard. The last 40 or 50 ties, including about 15 massive switch ties, had to be moved to secure storage.

Keith then asked if I was going to help. Lunch over, it was time to get back to work.

Annual Christmas social

Annual Christmas social, originally uploaded by SeabeeCook.

It's once again time for the annual El Dorado Western Railway Foundation Christmas social.

We decorated this the room morning and will gather this evening in the board room of the Diamond Springs-El Dorado Fire Protection District at Station 49.

We have an evening of good food planned. Keith and I will recognize the volunteers and present a slide show of this year's accomplishments.

This has been a good year with the recent speeder car tour of the old Southern Pacific right-of-way and significant progress on the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 Shay locomotive.

You know it's a railroad wedding when ...

It seems the commissary crew at the Pacific Coast Railroad has been getting a lot of practice lately. I've reported on the culinary delights prepared by Patti LaRose, Mary Harlow and Karell Reader at least three times this year. These ladies cook more than I do on the El Dorado Western.

The railroad, which is located on a private Santa Margarita Ranch, found another reason to barbecue chicken and give up train rides.

Commissary crew member Patti "Cookie" LaRose tied the knot with fellow railroader Dennis Thurman, a trail crewman on the PCRR. The ceremony occurred at the nearby Bittercreek Western Railroad, a 7-1/2-inch gauge steam railroad park in Arroyo Grande, California.

One aspect of the nuptials stand out when you read the blog article. It's not "sight of steam engines lined up in the steaming bays and circling the miles of track" or the "delicious chicken barbecue."

Like a railroading couple I know, Patti and Dennis experienced a true railroader's wedding, down to the bride's conductor "wedding gown" and her bouquet.

Since Patti's bridal bouquet was a signal lantern and could not be tossed easily, the lantern was passed to Stephanie, Karl's sweetheart. Everyone had a wonderful time and wished the newlyweds well on their honeymoon to northern California. Congratulations and lots of love to Patti and Dennis.

It looks like the ladies will soon have a couple reasons to put some good railroading vittles. I'm certain they'll fire up the coals once the fire danger passes.

And Stephanie and Karl may just tie the knot themselves. That's reason enough to cook in my book.

No weddings are on the horizon at our Northern California railroad. But I'm sure I'll find sufficient reason to cook for the El Dorado Western soon.

Cross-posted at the 'Round the Chuckbox.

Cookin' hot dogs in the rain

Cookin' hot dogs in the rain
Originally uploaded by SeabeeCook

Bill Rodgers tends sausages on the grill in the rain at the El Dorado County Historical Museum. Another El Dorado Western Railway volunteer lit charcoal in an old blacksmith's forge to bake old grease off the brake linkage rods to the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 steam locomotive. An inverted wheelbarrow protects the fire from rain.

Don't Smell Me, I'm Here to Work

Here's little gem from 90 years ago ...

In October 1917, the American Railway Bridge and Building Association met in Chicago for its 27th annual convention. Among the convention topics was a discussion on the feeding and housing of railway maintenance crews.

Association president S.C. Tanner of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad told this story to highlight the need for bathing facilities to convention goers:

It reminds me of a story of a little boy whose mother sewed him up in his underclothes and sent him to school. He had been going in a steam-heated schoolroom for about a month. Finally the teacher didn't like his smell, so she sent him home with a note which said, "Give Jackie a bath and send him back." Jackie came back all right, and written across the bottom of the note the teacher had sent was scrawled, "Jackie isn't a rose—learn him—don't smell him."

Fortunately, my experience falls to the positive side of the bathing equation.

As a tugboat and destroyer sailor in the 1970s, the captain always exempted the cooks and hospital corpsmen from water restrictions in the showers. The captain -- with persuasion from the ship's medical officer -- recognized the importance of hygiene for these key crewmen.

After all, smelling the food is much more pleasurable than smelling the cook!

Breakfast

At Vice-President Keith Berry's suggestion, I cooked breakfast for the guys at the engine house yesterday. After a pot of thick, strong railroad coffee (after all, railroad men won't accept hobo or cowboy coffee), the crew ate a hearty meal of orange cream cheese French toast, grilled maple sausage links and orange juice. Keith stepped in long enough to help so I could take his picture.

Read the companion article on my personal blog that includes the recipe for orange cream cheese French toast.

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.

From Apple Hill to the El Dorado Western

Keith Berry spreads cold-application roof adhesive to the roof of the Westside and Cherry Valley Railway combine car. The crew from the El Dorado Western Railway is re-roofing the combination caboose and baggage car in preparation for the winter rains.

Crewman Bill Rogers, a local retiree who drives a tractor at one of the Apple Hill ranches, supplied the five-gallon bucket for the roofing job.

I wandered out loud: "Why is Apple Hill buying prepared apple filling? I thought its reputation was built on fresh ingredients like recently picked apples."

Bill assured me that his employer makes apple pies with fresh apples from the ranch. You know, the kind with a six-inch high crown of sliced apples that have been sweetened with sugar and cinnamon. The ranch uses sliced apple pie filling from a five-gallon bucket for turnovers.

Come to think of it, a nice slice of apple pie with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream would've hit the spot in the 90-degree heat on the roof.

Where Do You Heat a Burrito in a Locomotive?

I sat down to lunch with Garrtett Augustus at Denny's after working at the engine house yesterday. I wanted to know where on the backhead is the best place to heat lunch.

Garrett ordered the mega meat lover's breakfast, a meal that comes loaded with hash browned potatoes, scrambled eggs and three breakfast meats.

It's easy to imagine sausage, bacon and sausages sizzling on a clean shovel. But I forgot one key element to cooking on West Coast Shays.

"Oil-fire locomotives have no coal scoop," said Garrett. He's right.

An experienced locomotive cook and one who has fired historic Shay locomotives, like the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Nos. 10 and 15, Garrtett should know.

Garrett heats burritos, sandwiches and "anything that's packaged" in the engine cab with heat from the backhead. But he doesn't really cook.

There's "no surface with a controllable heat source that you can really cook on," said Gattett.

But the immense heat radiating off the boiler backhead will heat any prepared meal through. It's a matter of locating a good spot to capture the wasted heat.

The theory is simple enough. "Look for a good place to basically jam your food so it doesn't fall out."

Garrett likes several spots, but has no favorite. "It just depends what you're making," said Garrett.

Do you need slow heat? Try the oil can pan that sits above the firebox door. But be sure to wrap the burrito well as things get messy.

Intense heat can be found on the hydrostatic lubricator on the engineer's side of the cab. The four lubricating lines on the Shay are full of steam. Set close together, the lines act "almost like a grill."

It sounds like a good spot to grill a Rubin or grilled cheese sandwich. Just keep it simple and focus on firing the engine.

Any spot will do. All you need is is an exposed steam line, added Garret.

Garrett will sometimes jam a burrito behind the lifting injectors on the fireman's side. He also tucks it up behind the steam turret on top of the backhead. The turret's a great spot because it's the steam source for all accessories in the engine cab.

It's too bad an oil-burning locomotive like the Diamond & Caldor No. 4 Shay doesn't need a coal shovel. Just think of the culinary creations a fireman could cook on its flat griddle-like surface.

The photograph shows the backhead of Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow-Guage Railroad No. 1 Shay. Cross posted at 'Round the Chuckbox.

Meal Time at the Engine House

Here's what happens when noontime rolls around at the El Dorado Western Engine House:

About noon, I commented to EDWRF President Eric Stohl that the crew was sticking around for the meal. Eric (in white coveralls) didn't seem that amused. "Yea, but I loosing productivity here!" I think the crew ignored him. Nine volunteers (including the cook) scarfed a large pot of smothered chicken in mushroom sauce.

Soup in the Engine House

My career has been based on cooking for crowds, not railroading. While railroading has been a pastime since childhood, my comfort has always come from commercial kitchens. My pending retirement (in a year or two) from the California prison system will give me an opportunity to cook again.

EDWRF Vice-President Keith Berry told me one day two summers ago that they often made chili on the pot belly stove in the engine house. So when I joined the El Dorado Western Railway in August 2005, it made sense to bring my chuckbox to the engine house on occasion. (I secretely think that's the main reason Keith recruited me!)

I thought a thick potato soup with leeks would warm the trainmen at the El Dorado Western engine house around noon. Like the loggers who ate in the camp kitchens of the California Door Company, our workers appreciate a hearty meal that fills the belly and warms the soul.

Yesterday was the second time I've brought my camp cooking gear to the engine house. The first was to cook chili and cornbread for a rare Saturday board last February.

Keith and I are already talking about a second soup fest on one of our larger volunteer weekends.

The recipe for potato leek soup is found on my personal blog at 'Round the Chuckbox. The recipe and blog about the chuckwagon chili is found here.

Adjourn to Pie

The El Dorado Western Railway Foundation has a tradition.

Regardless of the scope of discussion or extent of disagreement, the board meeting always adjourns to pie. A slice of pie and cup of juice has a way of placing us at ease. It allows us to relax and turn our attention away from the business of running a railroad.

Last Thursday's meeting was my first turn to bring pie. Each board member is scheduled to bring pie once each year. My next scheduled turn is September 7, 2007.

It gave me a rare opportunity to bake a chocolate cream pie for the meeting. Baking the pie brought bake fond memories of baking in the Navy. I first worked as a night-shift baker at Naval Air Station Lemore, California while assigned to Attack Squadron 127. Each night the crew baked about 200 single-and double-crust pies.

The recipe is posted at 'Round the Chuckbox, my personal blog.