Driving spikes

Driving spikes on the El Dorado Western Railroad has changed little over the last 100 years. Track workers used the spike maul to manually hammer spikes into solid railroad ties when this section were laid in the 1880s.

Here volunteer track worker Bill Rogers drives a spike just east of Blanchard Road. The rail jack is being used to hold the ties firmly against the rail.

Rail spreader

The maintenance of way crew uses a make-shift rail spreader to adjust the gauge of the rail on the El Dorado Western Railroad. For the past month the crew has been re-ballasting the curve and replacing ties at the private rail crossing in front of The Barn antique shop.

In the photo, project lead Garrett Augustus sets the gauge bar as Billy Bellas puts pressure on the rail jack. Once the track was properly gauged, Jeremy McCormack drove several spikes into the tie to hold the gauge.

Removing ties

The crew replaced railroad ties on the El Dorado Western Railway during February. After the weekday tie replacement crew installed replacement ties, the Saturday crew removed the rotten ties from along the right-of-way on February 12. In the photo, Billy Bellas and Jacob Karoly wrestle a beat-up tie onto the Southern Pacific push car.

Track rehab on west end of Placerville Branch

Eric Olds, vice president of the Placerville and Sacramento Valley Railroad, graciously allowed me to share this update on track work on the western end of the Placerville Branch:

Saturday, Ethan Doty, Jim Fryer, Philip Rose and I commenced track rehabilitation on the initial operating segment for the Placerville and Sacramento Valley Railroad. Ethan, P&SVRR assistant roadmaster, ably instructed us newbies on the finer points of tie replacement, and we had a grand time.

Jim and I are both Cal Poly SLO grads. We discussed how the day's activities reminded us of Cal Poly's "Learn By Doing" slogan as we discovered successful and less then successful ways to wrestle old ties from the roadbed and insert relays.

One particularly satisfying aspect of the day for me was hearing the ring of the spike maul as new spikes were driven into place. I have a new appreciation for those who went before us constructing this portion of the line in 1863-1865 with simple hand tools and hard work, Our dedicated volunteers are willing to do the same to be a part of the historic reactivation of this grand line.

Eric Olds

Ethan Doty pulls a new tie under the rail with a pair of tie tongs as Jim Fryer digs out the trench with his hand. In the background, Philip Rose prepares a trench for the next tie.

Driving spikes on the SP Placerville Branch

Donny Bellas, the youngest volunteer on the El Dorado Western Railway, drives a spike on the former SP Placerville Branch rail line. During the week, the crew removed about 14 ties between Hagen's Crossing and the Blanchard Road grade crossing. They had inserted all the replacement ties and had them spiked down by Friday except for two near Hagen's Crossing. The Saturday crew finished the job yesterday morning before moving onto other projects.

Storm patrol

Water is the enemy of railroad ties. More than 20 years of maintenance inactivity on the Southern Pacific Placerville Branch line has taken a toll. Many ties have slowly rotted away due to poor drainage on the right-of-way.

One of the first tasks of the El Dorado Western Railway was to rehabilitate a major flood zone adjacent to the El Dorado Community Hall. Storm water formed a sizable pond each winter at the site of the SP station in the town of El Dorado. The seasonal pond threatened to undermine a good 100 yards of track on the curve.

A volunteer crew began work at the site in late October. The crew fill in the pond, stabilized the soil with straw and devised a drainage system. Volunteers patrol the site during each large storm to make sure water is properly flowing.

Last Saturday, my son and I mucked out the drainage ditches at the depot site. Storm water once again flows in the ditch on the north side of the rail after all obstructions were cleared. In the background, Jacob Karoly mucks the drainage ditch on the south side.

The El Dorado Western Railway No. 1, a 1952 18-ton Plymouth locomotive, waits out the rain storm in El Dorado. The water started draining once I muked out the ditch.

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.

UP tie replacement

You Tube caption: "A walk along the tracks in downtown Elmhurst while The Union Pacific Railroad replaces wooden ties. We start just West of York Rd. and go about a block West and show some of the equipment in operation. This is right at the Elmhurst, Illinois, METRA station."

Maintenance-of-way the real way

Maintenance of Way -- CPR Castlegar BC, originally uploaded by arrowlakelass.

Keith, wouldn't this be fun to operate?

Caption on flickr: "Kershaw Tie Crane at work removing old ties recently removed from the rail line in Castlegar Canadian Pacific Railway yard."

Replacing ties

How does a railroad replace ties?

Like most aspects of our 21st century lives, railroads have found ways to mechanize tasks that once to require back-breaking labor. Tie replacement is one such task.

"There's a lot less back work now. The Union Pacific spends money for equipment so we can get in and get out and don't disrupt the traffic," Union Pacific foreman Dean Barber told the Craig Daily Press in May 2007. "I give credit to the old timers. They busted their backs working on the railroad."

The Union Pacific Railroad has a track-mounted machine called the TKO. After specialized track machines remove the spikes, the TKO travels down the rail, removing ties marked for replacement.

"Clamps grasp the railheads and hydraulic jacks push off the ground, lifting the rails from the ties," explained Dan's Depot: The Coast Line in Union Pacific maintenance-of-way gallery. "Then the hydraulic arm grabs the old tie and pulls it straight out, leaving it alongside the tracks."

Following the TKO are other speicialized machines that lift the track that allow workers to insert tie plates. Then spiking machines come a long, "rattling away like machine-guns."

"Oh, just in case you were wondering, we replace an average of 2,700 ties per day! The record is 5,000!" a UP worker told Amtrak conductor and student engineer Dan Klitzing in 1998.

I doubt the El Dorado Western Railway will acquire a TKO tie replacement machine any time soon.

And 2,700 ties per day? We pat ourselves on the back when we replace five in a day (our current record)!

The EDWR handles tie replacement the old fashion way, with lots of "back work!"

After replacing three missing bolts in the joiner bar, Steven Karoly (left) and Ed Cunha pounded, pried and kicked until the rotten tie could be pulled from under the track on the old Southern Pacific Placerville Branch rail line near Blanchard Road. Meanwhile, Keith Berry tightened the joiner bolts.

Railway maintenance crews uncover rail spur

Backhoe operator Bob McCormack skillfully scooped the six- to eight-inch layer of soil that had covered the spur track for the past 20 years. Bob pulled the bucket over the layer of soil without disturbing the rails or ties. Once he exposed the long buried ties, the maintenance-of-way crew removed the loosened dirt with hand tools.

Completed in 1888, the historic Placerville Branch rail line became an "important feeder branch line after the turn of the (twentieth) century for the Southern Pacific, producing hundreds of carloads annually, mostly lumber and refrigerated loads of deciduous fruits," said Doug Noble today in the Mountain Democrat newspaper.

For the first time since the Southern Pacific ceased rail operations in El Dorado County in 1987, the El Dorado Western Railway has started the process of rehabilitating the rail line for railroad operations. Volunteers are working three to four days each week on the El Dorado County Historical Railroad Park.