A New Year, a New Tube Sheet.

Welcome to 2010, which promises to be a year of significant progress for our project. I am happy to report that thanks to the generosity of G.W. Redman of Redman Equipment & Manufacturing we have a new section of front tubesheet ready to go. This donation of time on the Redman machinery would otherwise take us, with our limited resources, several days of effort on a conventional drill press. The accuracy of the holes in size and location is unparalleled as well. The hole layout is significantly more uniform than ALCo was able to achieve back in the day. Thanks also go to longtime friend of the project, Paul Boschan, Redman's code compliance officer, who facilitated the donation. Paul also helps us out with his sage advice pertaining to boiler matters and related issues from time to time.

The CNC "Quick Drill" machine making holes.

This part of the pressure vessel was replaced due to the deteriorated condition of the existing piece, having been over-rolled, cracked and welded through the bridges repeatedly over the years. We could have used the original front tubesheet as is, but the amount of work it would have taken to keep it serviceable would be frustrating and tedious.

Approximately 120 holes drilled precisely.

Thanks also go to Nathan Osborn who measured the original and generated the cut pattern and drilling plan into AutoCAD. During the Fall work session Nathan brought up a printout of the tubesheet patch in full size, which we matched to the existing piece to verify accuracy.

Paul Boschan and G.W. Redman with the new sheet section.

Section ready to be loaded for the trip north.

The tubesheet will come up to Portola in the Spring for the work session, April 5th-10th. Until then it's ensconced in the garage, tucked out of the way. It will be welded in after the boiler is completely scaled out inside, and we are sure that most of the work in the shell interior is complete. With the lower portion of the sheet removed access to the water space is much easier than dropping in through the dome, at least for us older chunkier individuals!

Our next fundraising drive will raise cash to have replica cab numbers and two WP feather heralds for the tender done. I am happy to report that our intrepid FRRS Secretary and board member Eugene Vicknair has donated $350.00 for the first tender insignia. Thanks Eugene for your continued generosity! More on this fund-raising effort in a later post.

For now I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2010. Please continue to follow our progress here and on our Facebook page, for those of you so inclined. We are over 200 "fans" so far and growing fast! - JCA

Fall 2009 Workweek Report

Wednesday, October 21- I again successfully escape my fetters and hastily drive back north, over the Grapevine. Happily, another uneventful trip would clear my head. Since the truck bed was to be relatively empty, I took a load of lockers for the shower car, provided by our good friend and member John Hachey of Ontario, California. A stop for lunch in Sacramento was in order with Paul Zaborsky, old pal and currently a director at Bay Area Electric Railway Association. Paul looks and feels much better now after his recent transplant surgery. For the first time in his life he is no longer diabetic, and we wish him the best with the replacement parts. Another leg of the drive over Donner Pass, with the fall colors in their full glory, and a mid afternoon arrival back in Portola, again. Peace and quiet at last. I enjoyed at least ten hours of sleep in the Pullman, after vacuuming up the cat hair. Cat hair and I don’t get along. A generous application of Febreze® didn’t hurt either.

Nathan “Maverick” Osborn and James “insert nickname here” Cowdery arrived Thursday and immediately started taking readings on the wrapper side sheets. As of this writing they have completed the first one thousand or so readings, with quite a few left to go. Suffice to say they have the process down. Mike Mucklin checked in and began photographing the goings on. Some of his and Nathan’s excellent photos are included in this post. More of Mikes photos from the week can be viewed here. Thanks again guys! He also made a nifty plywood template to match the curve of the roof sheet, the top of the wrapper sheet, at the location of a needed patch under the rear sand dome, to be utilized when the new piece of steel is rolled.

I'm holding the rolling template made by Mike Mucklin for the wrapper patch.

Nathan "Maverick" Osborn noting shell thickness readings.

The shiny dots are where readings were taken on the side sheets.

James Cowdrey carefully removes the rust prior to taking ultrasound readings.

Mike got dirty later in the week, and took a bit of a “love kiss” while needlescaling on the frame; just a bit of a scrape really. Matt Parker joined the party later in the day. He was able to tape up Maverick’s full scale tube sheet replacement drawing in place to verify that the new boilerplate misses all the parts we want it to, and that the tube locations are correct. A few minor modifications were noted, but all in all, nice work by Mav. Matt was given a quick lesson by me on cutting torch operation (sorry Rod) after which he began removing the cotter pins on the pedestal binder nuts. He then took the opportunity to burn off the grease from the nuts, etc and apply some Kroil® to ease removal of them sometime next year. An excellent first day was had by all. I enjoyed dinner at the Mexican place with Nathan and James, some quiet reading time in the Edenwold, and back into my rack.

The bottom portion of the front tube sheet is removed.

Matt Parker having a good time in the pit.

Friday October 23- Matt Parker was back for more abuse, so I put him on freeing the cab from its floor, a process Charlie Spikes already had a pretty good start on by this point. The ever-dependable Charlie torched out the portion of the front tube sheet that will be replaced, we now have a spacious entranceway to the interior of the boiler shell, no more snaking ourselves through the dome and past the throttle drypipe for a while. The cab floor was freed from the cab itself, and the whole assembly was levered up a couple inches so we could see any potential trouble spots. There were a few, but the cutting torch took care of them in short order. Rod McClure and Mr. Noodle brought the mighty “Little Giant” truck crane into the shop. We rigged for the “pick” and the cab came up with little resistance. This event drew quite a number of onlookers, a veritable “peanut gallery”. The spectator- members viewing from the floor donned their shiny hardhats. The multicolored spectacle looked from above, where I was directing the crane, like a deranged Easter egg hunt.

Mike Mucklin and I consult on rigging the cab prior to the "pick".

After a few turns jockeying the crane, boom, Rod and Mr. Noodle around, the cab was finally off and down on the ground. Eugene Vicknair and I helped guide it to its final resting place outside of the shop. The woodwork can now be removed and cataloged, and the cab sandblasted and primered prior to starting the body work. Roger Stabler arrived just as we were wrapping up. He spent the day down in Woodland fixing our invaluable porta-power ram, which no longer squirts hydraulic oil at you when under load. Another case of what you may perceive as a small job taking the whole day. My old friend Jim Blake returned for another visit. Jim is active with the Reading Company Technical and Historical Society in Pennsylvania, and now thanks to cheap airfares, with us. The Wallace family also turned up Friday night to work on their Santa Fe caboose. Everyone ended up going their separate ways, and I had dinner at the former Log Cabin, (which is now a “Roadhouse”) with Roger and Jim. I enjoyed a pretty decent piece of prime rib roast and good conversation. Later a bit of time coalescing with David Wallace in his waycar rounded out the evening.

Rod "EP" McClure handily manipulates the "Little Giant".



Eugene Vicknair guides the cab out to it's temporary resting place.

Saturday October 24- With the cab removed access to areas of the boiler shell was made easier in spots. Charlie and Duane became men possessed; parts of the cab floor and cab support came flying off at a frightening speed. They made some great progress and got to areas of the engine that are in desperate need of cleaning, scraping and chipping. Jim Blake tried to keep up by sweeping the floors of any detritus and tripping hazards, and did a good job of it. There was a lot of rust, grease and etc. that came down. The cab floor plates will need to be replaced. Roger managed to get the blowdown valve off, which has been a thorn in our side for some time. He also was able to run down the driving box wedges in preparation for freeing up the driving boxes at some point.

The two James- Blake and Cowdery amid the clutter on Saturday.

Duane and Charlie lay into the cab floor.

Roger Stabler argues with a stubborn blowdown valve.

The 165- now resembling a submarine, missing it's cab.

After wrapping things up we made our regular trek into town for pizza, and as luck would have it the local kiddy football team showed up just as we did, so it was a slow, noisy dinner, but we persevered. That evening I parted ways with most of the crew. Sunday morning I said goodbye to Roger and Jim and was back on the road headed home. The fall colors going through Sierraville were brilliant. -JCA

P.S.: Everyone please consider the purchase of a 2010 WPRM Steam Dept. Fundraising Calendar; your generosity will go a long way toward bringing steam back to Portola! It’s also the only Western Pacific calendar available for 2010. CLICK HERE.

WPRM Steam Dept. dates for 2010

The following are the WPRM Steam Dept. work session dates for 2010:

April 5th-10th
July 29th-31st
October 21st-23rd

As always please contact David Epling, our Museum Manager at (530)832-4131 if you would like to take advantage of the accomodations in the Pullman Car. Additional dates will be added for the boxcar move and as we ramp up the momentum on the locomotive restoration. Let's make 2010 our most productive year yet! -JCA

Summer 2009 Workweek Report

Pre-dawn on Saturday morning, July 25th, 2009. I made my usual run across LA in an attempt to get to the Grapevine while traffic is light and the temps are still cool, in this case, in the low 70’s. Quite a few finished locomotive components were packed for the trip, and given the size of my garage shop; it was good to reclaim the space for new endeavors. After the requisite stop at Harris Ranch for a restroom break, the next stop was the 15” gauge Redwood Valley Railway in the Berkeley hills. The RVRy is where my little 0-4-0 is currently stored, and whenever I pass through town I stop to tinker a bit on it. Dana was to meet me here for lunch, but he was not up to it. Sadly, he passed away the next day. My eulogy, which most of you have already read, is here. I received word of his passing from Craig Ferguson Sunday night at my parent’s house. Shocked doesn’t begin to describe how I felt.

Monday morning, and the week is beginning with a pall of sadness at Dana’s passing. Not much a person can do at that point but press ahead. It doesn’t pay to dwell on such things; there will be plenty of time for mourning in the weeks to come. I met Roger Stabler in Woodland, and took a quick tour of his progress on the restoration of his private railcar, the Two Rivers. He has to renew a good deal of steel around the windows on the car, a tedious process to say the least. I admire him for his persistence. We stopped to pick up a new refrigerator for the shower car at the Stabler families appliance store (another generous donation by Roger and Gloria, let’s hope it stays CLEAN!) and we were off up the hill. Just about every road to Portola was being paved, poured or otherwise being ripped to shreds so it took a bit longer than normal, but we did make it eventually. Steve and Charlie had already moved the wood caboose out of the shop by the time we arrived. This allowed us to roll the engine back and forth a bit, and get the siderods off. Not a bad start to the work week. Charlie left for home soon after, and Roger and I dined at the Mexican place, plenty of cold beers to go around.

Needlescaling progress on the brake cylinders and frame.

Tuesday we got the jacks under the frame and lifted some of the weight off the spring rigging. The idea was to get one of the leaf spring packs out so Roger could take it down to his “spring guy” for estimates on rebuilding and/or replacement. The engine was in the air; unfortunately the driving boxes went right up with the frame. In order for the spring rigging to go loose the boxes would have to drop. Roger spent the next two days in the pit running down the wedges on the rear driverset so the boxes would come down. They were quite stubborn, but after lots of heat, porta-power applications, and Kroil, the wedges submitted. In the end the two rear springs were removed, or at least what was left of them. That evening a brisk thunderstorm blew through and cooled us off a bit, which was welcome. Later Matt Parker joined Roger and me on the deck for my beer brats. They started talking Union Pacific-speak, so I left them to it and retired into the air-conditioning and my comfy berth.

Nathan (call sign “Maverick”) made it up on Wednesday, he was a welcome sight. His compatriot, James, had to attend a wedding the next weekend so he was, regrettably, absent. We will make sure he takes double needle-scaling chores next time! Just kidding, Nathan and James have been making extra trips to the Museum to further the progress on the thickness mapping of the boiler shell. To date they have completed the first and second courses, as well as the steam dome. Good work, guys! Roger had to get back to his life and the railroad on Wednesday night, so he left us. Thanks to him for spending three full days, in which time a great deal of progress was made. The two Bills, Bill Jackson and Bill Clark, spent lots of time during the session needle-scaling paint off the driver centers and frame. Nathan joined in later and scaled the brake cylinders. Thanks to those guys the 165 is finally starting to look like an engine under restoration. Even better, more of that accursed blue trim paint from the fairgrounds has “left the building”. We look forward to seeing both Bills back again soon for more fun with air tools.

A rare view of the tender outdoors.

By Thursday the heat was on. Nathan took the opportunity to photo-document the tender while it was outside and in the sunlight. Thanks go to Charlie who had previously pumped out around 300 gallons of oil, which will help weight-wise when we go to lift the bunker off the frame. Mid-morning I decided to drive over to Quincy and have lunch with my old friend Rick Mugele, a BNSF engineer who was in town on his rest. It was nice to see him and catch up a bit. Rick and I worked together at the now defunct Westside and Cherry Valley Railway in Tuolumne, California back in the early ‘80s. It was a neat little narrow-gauge operation that ran on the mill grounds of the old Westside Lumber Company. Nowadays Tuolumne is an Indian Casino, and the railway and mill are but faded memories.

Almost immediately upon my arrival back from Quincy, an old friend from even further back in my life stopped by. Jim and his daughter Christine were out from Pennsylvania visiting family in the Bay Area. I gave him the tour, he joined up, and we went over to the Log Cabin for dinner. Jim is a long time member of the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society, which is the only other privately funded all-volunteer group in the US dedicated to preservation of a single class one railroad, in addition to the Feather River Rail Society. He marveled at our facility, especially the diesel house. Jim wished they had something similar. He was also interested to see our boxcab diesel on the flatcar, evidently the Reading Company had a similar locomotive from this builder on their roster at one point. Jim's remarks remind us that we are lucky to have what we have. All in all Thursday was not a big day as far as progress on the engine was concerned, but certainly good for my spirit to see so many old friends and recount so many good memories.

My friend Jim and I take a break.

The Wallace boys, David, along with his sons Patrick and William were up Friday to work on their Santa Fe caboose. I have mentioned in previous posts that David is, like me, a former Rio Vista steam department member, dating from the days when we were running the Western Pacific 94, a ten-wheeler, and restoring the Robert Dollar 3, a 2-6-2T that now resides at Niles Canyon. David got some floor torn up in his car, as well as the diesel tank removed. The strong fuel odor in the car is starting to dissipate; he is in the market for a coal-burning caboose stove if anyone has any leads. Charlie soldiered on and got some needle-scaling done in the interior of the boiler shell, as well as applying a new head to the model-T railcar engine, and of course taking up the slack running locomotive rentals. He was a busy guy, but still managed to smoke his delicious ribs on the deck, which we did scarf down during the Friday evening feast.

By Saturday we were all fairly crisp from the heat. I was down to the last of my clean laundry. David and the boys went over to the city pool for a dunk which was easier than talking the boys into bathing. Nathan continued the needle-scaling on the frame and brake cylinders. I gave my report at the board meeting which began with a moment of silence for our fallen comrade Dana. Nathan and I also did some layout on the piece of the front tube sheet that is in need of replacement. The lower portion below the superheater flues has numerous cracks and welds from over-rolling. In the short term, removing this piece will give us better access to the shell interior. Many measurements and photos were taken so it can be drawn up on CAD and “hopefully” be cut out on a waterjet cutter, saving untold hours with the magnetic drill press. Our traditional Saturday night dinner at the Pizza Factory was followed by cocktails in the Pullman car with David, Seth and Nathan. Thank you again to the management for the air conditioning!

Charlie during a quiet moment on the shower car deck.

Nathan finally got a picture of Roger Stabler from the front!

The cleanup Sunday morning went quickly thanks to our combined efforts, and I was out by 08:30. No major obstacles other than an overturned Honda pickup on I-5. I was home by dinner. Thanks again to everyone who made for a week of good progress and camaraderie! And thanks to Nathan for the photos used in this post. See you all in October! -JCA

Saying Goodbye to Our Friend Dana.

WPRM Steam team member and good friend Dana Greeley passed away suddenly Sunday, July 26th, 2009. He was 49 years old. Cause is yet to be determined. His only surviving family is his brother, Doug. I spoke with Dana that Saturday before, and he was feeling poorly. I urged him to get to a clinic but he was determined to put his doctor visit off until Monday. I could be angry at him for being so stubborn, but that would be fruitless. Dana’s stubbornness was actually one of his more endearing qualities. His being argumentative and opinionated led me to more thoughtful decisions, or just shook me out of my supposed “Tree of Knowledge” at which point I would land on my butt, which would in turn cause me to rethink whatever I thought I was doing.

Dana and I met in the late 1970’s at the then California Railway Museum, now the Western Railway Museum near Rio Vista, California. I was involved in the steam program there, and he was primarily involved in maintaining the diesels. Of course in an environment like that, with so few volunteers, everyone did everything, so Dana and I would work together on track projects and the like. In those days Dana seemed a bit brusque. That might be attributed to the museum environment, youthful exuberance, or many other things; however later in life, removed from the Museum we became great pals. I would look forward to our driving trips over the mountain to Portola, or the gatherings in our friend’s backyards watching G-Scale trains going in circles.

Back in the day we really did think we were immortal. Shoving cuts of cars around with electric locomotives in the dark gave us a sense of empowerment, I suppose. Now we know this not to be true. Dana’s passing is a moment of great sadness for all of us, not only do we mourn this great guy, but also the passing of our youth.

David Wallace related the following: “Dana left this world within 20 feet of where he entered it....he was the only person I met who was born in his parent’s living room!”

No doubt his parents were there to welcome him back home. Goodbye old friend. - JCA

WP 165 Family Album

I present a few images generously provided by Martin Hansen. Our number 165 was one of four in the S-34 class that were purchased by the Western Pacific in 1927. The 164 currently resides in Hewitt Park in Oroville, California. The 163 and 166 were off the roster by 1953 and 1956, respectively.

Thanks to Martin for this peek into the past. - JCA

A Whistle for the 165.

Through the generousity of Norman Holmes, we now have a whistle for our locomotive. This five-chime was originally carried on the WP 166, an identical sister to our 165.

For the time being, it is mounted on a display base until it's time for it to go up on the engine. According to Norman, it was last used a few years ago on V&T #29 at Virginia City for a day or two.

The WP 166 did not escape the scrappers torch, but at least her voice will survive to echo around the hills of Portola once again.

Thanks again to Norm, for this and for offering to bring a headlight down to Oroville for the WP Historical Society Convention. Unfortunately my truck was uncooperative so I did not make it. Maybe next year...

Don't forget our next steam work session takes place July 28th-August 1st, 2009. Please let David or me know if you will be requiring space in the Pullman. Have a great summer and stay safe. - JCA