Hogger on the Placerville rail line

Hogger is the traditional term for a locomotive engineer. According to one story, engineers were the best paid on the train crew. It's said they ate better (and more!) than the conductors and trainmen. It sorta goes hand-in-hand with being a chef, doesn't it?

Today I have my first chance to operate the El Dorado Western Railway No. 1 locomotive on the historic Placerville Branch rail line in the town of El Dorado, California. While the 15-minute run doesn't make me a card-carrying hogger, it was the first step toward certification as a locomotive engineer.

The 18-ton switcher and I share a birth year! Constructed by Plymouth Locomotive Works of Plymouth, Ohio, in 1952, the El Dorado Western Railway received it from the CertainTeed Corporation in Chowchilla, California last Friday.

A railroading letdown

While stopped at the Q Street railroad grade crossing in mid-town Sacramento yesterday afternoon, I waited for the train to appear.

No roar from of a pair of EMD diesel-electric locomotives or train horn warmed me of an approaching train. I wondered if the crossing gate had malfunctioned.

After several minutes a lone Union Pacific hi-rail truck rambled up the Sacramento Subdivision, the old Western Pacific line that slices mid-town Sacramento in two between 19th and 20th streets.

The crossing arms on P Street dropped then shot back up as if the signal grew impatient. As he approached the crossing, the driver braked to give the gates time to activate again.

It was a railroading letdown. Like the scene in one of the Lethal Weapon films, I expected a northbound freight to come barreling up the tracks, right on the bumper of the hi-railer!

In the photograph, a Union Pacific Chevy hi-rail maintenance-of-way pickup truck escorting a Dakota Helicopters spray rig through the Sacramento Amtrak depot in May 2006. Dakota Helicopters & Air Service is a company that specializes in railway vegetation management.

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

My sister periodically sends me links to blogs of interest. While most of Lib's suggestions are food related, she occasionally comes through with a link that fulfils my interests in other endeavors.

This morning, Lib send me a link to Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943, a blog post on the Denver Post website. The article contains some 70 color government photographs from the World War II era.

These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

"Toward the end - trains and planes ...," Lib wrote in her mid-morning email. The reference to trains was intended for my eyes. The photos of planes will interest my brother David, a pilot.

Nine photographs in the collection feature the Chigago and Northwestern Railway in Chigago and Clinton, Iowa. They're numbered 45 to 54. Here's my favorite photo in the collection:

Caption from the Denver Post blog: "Mrs. Viola Sievers, one of the wipers at the roundhouse giving a giant 'H' class locomotive a bath of live steam. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress."

Whiting Trackmobile

It's fun to learn of a new type of railroad locomotive. Not new in the sense that I had never heard of the mobile railcar mover, or Trackmobile.

To this point in my five-year tour with the El Dorado Western Railway, I'd never seen one up close. If you'd asked, "What's a Trackmobile" last month, I'd given a blank stare.

That changed about a month ago when the railway learned of an opportunity to accept the donation of a 1964 Model 3TM Whiting Trackmobile from Aerojet in Folsom, California. The transaction was completed Monday when railway president Keith Berry and board member Ed Chuna picked the unit up in Folsom.

The railcar mover is a lightweight combination road-rail vehicle that's used to move railcars on industrial spurs. Trackside operators typically use the Trackmobile as a cost-saving alternative to the costlier locomotive switcher.

The Whiting Trackmobile has two sets of drive wheels. The operator drives it on the rubber tires on normal road surfaces. To move one or more railcars, the operator mounts the Trackmobile on the rail and couples the unit to lead car. At this point, it becomes a locomotive.

The El Dorado Western will use the Trackmobile on the Southern Pacific Placerville Branch and the new El Dorado County Historical Railroad Museum. According to Keith, the the Trackmobile will function in a variety of roles:

• Maintenance-of-way tug to pull cars on the right-of-way
• Rescue tug that'll pull stranded locomotives and cars back to the engine house
• Crew training vehicle

I'll share more photographs of the Whiting Trackmobile once we mount it on the Placerville Branch. It's first assignment will be track rehabilitation on the right-of-way.

UP No. 844 rolling in to Roseville yard

UP 844 rolling in to Roseville yard
Originally uploaded by SeabeeCook

Keith Berry and I drove over to Roseville to view the Union Pacific No. 844 roll into town for the weekend.

The large Northern-type was the last steam locomotive built and delivered to the UP. With a 4-8-4 wheel arrangement and massive 80-inch drivers, the locomotive was used in fast passenger train service from 1944 to 1957. It then spent its last days in active service pulling freight trains.

The Union Pacific saved the engine from the scrapper's torch in 1960. It now tours the country as a living legacy to the days of steam.

The 844 is one of 45 Northerns built by the American Locomotive Company for the UP. Of the four reamining Northers, the 844 is the only one that steams under its own power.

A hot engine and the Granite Rock No. 10

After working around a cold engine for nearly three years, I climbed into a hot locomotive this afternoon. I say hot because the crew had steamed the Granite Rock No. 10 at the California State Railroad Museum for opening day tomorrow. You could feel the heat radiating off the backhead even though the ambient temperature hovered in the mid-60s along the Sacramento River.

Listening to the sounds of the steaming saddle-tank engine (the 0-6-0ST was built by H.K. Porter in 1942) gave me a much needed shot in the arm. After working on a Shay engine that's several years away from its boiler tag, the morale boost helped me recharge my devotion to the project.

I took the short walk from Amtrak parking lot after work to the museum gift shot to look for a DVD on the Westside Lumber Co. As I turned the corner on to I Street, I caught a glimpse of the No. 10 disappear around the corner into the shops. I though I missed the engine and walked into the store.

It was the distinctive chug-chug of a rod engine that first alerted me to the presence of the locomotive. So, after leaving the gift shop empty handed, I walked toward the river and mainline of the Sacramento Southern.

The sound of steam shooting from the dynamo and mechanical action of the air compressor filled my ears as I walked past the Big Four Building. I turned the corner to find the crew pumping water into its two saddle tanks.

As I did at Roaring Camp in December 2005, I walked up to the crew and introduced myself. For the second time I leaned that the world of steam railroaders is small. Even this newcomer received a warm welcome.

The fireman graciously described the action of the valves and gauges on the backhead. Unlike my cab ride on the Dixiana at Roaring Camp, I was able to follow along as he showed my how to drain both sight glasses and blow the oil back into the oil tank by turning the blowback valve. Other valves, like the atomizer and blower on the firing manifold with the quadrant, keeps the fireman busy as the engine runs down the tracks.

I'm ready to head off to the museum in the morning and keep working. A few more shots in our collective arms and we'll soon have a hot Shay running up the old Southern Pacific grade from El Dorado to Missouri Flat Road.

The photographs are from Saturday, April 4, 2008.

Playin' with Trains

Rollin' down the tracks with blog. no 29 ...

Do you want to feel like a kid again? Play with trains.

It's as easy as digging the old set out of the closet, assembling the track and running a model train. Watching a model of a 2-6-0 Mogul circle the track is fun and will give hours of entertainment.

Keith and I pieced G-scale track together in his living room on Christmas afternoon. He coupled a gondola, cattle car, box car and caboose from the Denver & Rio Grand Railroad to the locomotive. As the train circled the track, Keith and I talked about trains, and I learned a little about a new class of locomotive.

As a teenager I was fascinated with trains. I spent many hours perusing railroad books and model railroad magazines, looking for the perfect track layout. It took a jar of nickels and dimes to purchase each piece of rolling stock and building.

Since passing my HO train set to a nephew sometime in the 1980s, I really haven't thought to get involved again. Books, videos and the renovation of the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 has satisfied my urge to play with trains.

I'm sure we'll get the set out again soon.

Headin' to Logger's Final Rest

I took the photo for blog no. 9 this afternoon at the El Dorado Western Railway engine house.

This is one of those special effects that's not supposed to be. Standing on the deck of the Diamond and Caldor No. 4 Shay locomotive, I shot a series of photos of Keith and Sam as they removed the number three piston from the engine.

As I shot one last picture of Sam haul the piston to the machine shop, the camera buzzed back and forth while it tried to find a focal point. Sam was nearly outside the engine house when the camera flashed. The photo reminds me of Sam heading to the logger's final reward with a 75-pound piston slung over his shoulder.

Shot settings: f/5.6, 1/45 second shutter speed, ISO 400, 49 mm focal length in manual exposure mode with flash.

Consolidation Head On

Looks like I just broke through my December blogging slump with no. 5 ...

Here's head-on shot of the Consolidation. Friend Keith Berry noted that by the turn on the 19th century, these mightily locomotives were relegated to branch line operation. They were popular many industrial and short line operations.

A Coal-Burning Consolidation

Chuggin' along the tracks to no. 4 ...

Although its scaled to one-eighth the size of a real locomotive, this Consolidation 2-8-0 steam locomotive functions in the same manner as its full-sized cousin. Owner Milon Thorely of El Dorado, California, uses coal in the firebox to produce the steam. The gauges and valves -- from the water glass and pressure gauge to the throttle and injector valves -- control the operation of the boiler and locomotive like they once did in the Consolidations that pulled freight trains.

Consolidation 2-8-0

Here's the 613, our 3rd post of the month ...

The El Dorado and Southern No. 613, a 7-1/2-inch gauge Consolidation 2-8-0 steam locomotive, releases steam after an afternoon of running the rails at the Sacramento Valley Live Steamers in Rancho Cordova, California.