Someone has to do the cleaning ...

Keith to Jacob: "This tool is going to become your best friend!"

For hundreds of years, journeymen used mundane tasks to instill the value of work into young boys and girls. In the process, these young apprentices learned a trade. Along the way they leaned shop terminology, the difference between a mill and a lathe and how to care for their tools.

Helping is a valuable learning tool for Jacob, and thousand of boys and girls his age. I take him to the engine house about every other Saturday. He helps by cleaning shop equipment, separating the recycling and brushing rust off of 100-year-old locomotive parts.

While you could call Jake's work assignments tedious, these are jobs that must be done. It's a two-way street for Jake and the railway. The railway gets a clean shop.

Jacob is learning to attend to every detail and to complete a task on time and in a manner that pleases the boss. While it isn't pleasant listening to the boss tell you to vacuum the mill again, it pays in the end.

One day, Jake will appreciate the lessons learned here. Although he may not vocalize it, he'll express in doing a good job for him employer.

Fall-winter newsletter released

The fall-winter issue of The Dispatch, the official newsletter of the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation, will be mailed to members and supporters this week.

"The newsletter adds value for our membership," said Steve Karoly, EDWRF vice-president and newsletter editor.

"The fourth issue for 2008 closes the year with important news on the recent speeder tour on the Southern Pacific Placerville Branch."

Join the effort to restore the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 today
The Dispatch is a benefit of membership in the railway foundation. To join our effort to renovate the Diamond and Caldor Railway No. 4 Shay locomotive and to build and operate an El Dorado County Logging and Railroad Museum, send $35 (check or money order) for individual membership to:

EDWRF
PO Box 3517
Diamond Springs, CA 95619

Family membership costs $60, corporate $100 and life membership is $500 for individual or family and $1,000 for a business. Annual membership runs from January to December.

Won't you please join our effort for the 2009 renovation season and help us celebrate the 102th anniversary of the D&C No. 4 Shay?

A Herculean task

"Chop ... chop ... chop ..."

That's all I heard Saturday morning as I drove up to the museum, a sound reminiscent of lumberjack cutting a tree down.

"We got our cardio workout getting that thing started," exclaimed Keith Berry.

Keith and Mark Bruto, the museum's hit-n-miss engine expert, started the Hercules Model E 5-horsepower engine by turning the flywheels.

How many turns did it take, I asked.

Keith turned to Mark for confirmation, "Oh, about 50!"

This is the third hit-n-miss engine that Mark and Keith have started since August. It's a pleasant distraction from the Shay locomotive, said Keith.

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.

History of the California Door Company and its logging railroads #9

This history was prepared by Robert Niles for the Eldorado National Forest in 1979. The El Dorado Western Railway blog will reprint serialized portions of Mr. Nile’s report in the coming months.

The camps were established at various locations along the railroad logging line to accommodate the logging and construction crews close to their work. None of the woods crew were quartered at the Caldor Sawmill complex while it operated up until 1923. They stayed out all week in the bachelor camps and came to Caldor only on the weekends.

Life in the logging camps was primitive, but after a long day of hard physical work there was little time or thought given to recreation. The men were kept well fed with a high protein diet of fresh beef sent in from the slaughterhouse at Caldor.

Consumption of various alcoholic beverages was undoubtedly considerable. The main recreation experience, as time allowed, was fishing for trout in the abundantly stocked rivers and streams adjacent to the logging camps.

The first camps that were established apparently were of a more permanent nature that in later years. Horses and mules were being used extensively for skidding operations as the steam donkey had not yet entirely out their use. The care of the animals, therefore, necessitated the building of stables and corrals, and so a more durable camp complex developed.

Rough sawn lumber was furnished from the sawmill, and the cook house, living quarters, smithy, stables, barns and out buildings were constructed, generally contingent to a spring or other adequate water supply.

By 1915 the transition from animals to steam donkeys for log yarding and skidding needs had pretty well taken place, and the logging camps took on a much more temporary and transient nature.

Wood framed buildings were fabricated at the Caldor mill and were made up of rough, board and batten construction. These were about 8’x16’ in size and would accommodate four men. These buildings could be cross hauled by steam donkeys on to log bunk cars and moved from camp to camp as the scene of logging operations shifted.

Ten Wheel, not Pacific

I misidentified the Southern Pacific No. 2260 as a Pacific. I was under the impression that Pacific and Ten Wheel were the same locomotive class. A Pacific has a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement.

I have corrected my original blog post.

The No. 2260 was a 4-6-0 Ten Wheel, a class used for both freight and passenger service. The Schenectady Locomotive Works built nine (No. 2257-2265) of the 39 locomotives in SP's T-1 class in 1895. Cooke Locomotive Works built the remainder (No. 2235-2256 and 2266-2273) between 1895 and 1897.

The last remaining SP T-1 Ten Wheel engine is located in Roseville, California. The Cooke-built No. 2252 is on permanent display at Atlantic and Vernon streets in downtown Roseville, a town known for its SP large rail yard.

Reference: Richard K. Wright, Southern Pacific Company Diagrams of Locomotives and Tenders (Pacific Lines), vol. I, Oakhurst, Calif: Wright Enterprises, 1973.

Diamond Springs mill

A 14-year old Richard Wright snapped this photograph of the abandoned Diamond Springs mill site in April 1968. At that point, the mill had been closed for four years.

Today, the planing mill is used to store RVs, boats and other vehicles. It's located at the corner of Missouri Flat Road and Industrial Drive. What was once considered Diamond Springs sits on the Zip Code boarder between Placerville and Diamond Springs.