Carson & Colorado Railway

October 26-27 was our latest work session in Independence on SP #18 and the 26th was the night of our 4th Annual Birthday BBQ fundraiser. The fundraiser was a great success, with over 170 folks in attendance from near and far for the evenings dinner and activities.  We took in a total of just over $14,000.00. That included the BBQ, raffle, merchandise and membership sales as well as individual donations. That is the largest amount we have raised to date on one of our dinners. One such donation came from Sara and Bob Bauer who donated $6500 toward the purchase of the air tanks and boiler insulation. They gave the donation in memory of Chard Walker who was a long time station agent at the Summit station on Cajon pass.

As for the restoration, a significant part was started on Saturday.We began the installation of the tubes in the boiler. We installed 65 tubes (one third the total amount) and cut them to length; none of the tubes were permanently rolled into place. Once the first tube is rolled we have one year before the clock starts on the 1472 days of operation, or 15 years before they must be replaced per the FRA form 4, so we will not start rolling until the drivers are back in place.

Other work done included the installation of the throttle valve and linkage, now when the handle in the cab is pulled the valve in the boiler opens. Bob and Gary also worked on the water glass steam valves and made some plumbing adjustments needed to make the second water glass fit properly.

On Sunday while more tubes were being installed I did some body work on the firebox door. The door was pretty beat up and out of shape. It also had several cracks in the sheet metal. I worked the metal a bit and welded some of the cracks. There’s more work to be done but its closer. Compare it to the photo in the last post.

And mean while up in Washington, the drivers are coming along but will be slightly delayed. After completing the work on the first two drivers it was discovered that the #3 driver axle is too small and will require replacement. It has also been determined that one journal crown brass will also require replacement. All together, that means that we probably will not see the drivers completed until the first of the year and they will cost us a bit more than initially estimated. Its all just part of the process required to bring the #18 back to life!

For the past year Scott Shaffer has maintained a time lapse camera in the tent to record the work that we do. Some days videos are not very interesting, but some give a great sense of what goes on. Click on the link below to see the work performed on Saturday  and Sunday August 30th and Sept 1. What you will see is about 16 hours of work in 3 minutes.

Now for the weekend of September 28th and 29th:  The most exciting news came during our second meeting with Inyo County regarding our engine house plan. The County has given us the preliminary approval for our project! While we still will need to go before the full Board of Supervisors to finalize the plan, the approval has been granted by all the necessary department heads, which is a huge step. To see some of the plans go the museum plan page.

As for the locomotive work: Dave, Rick, and Ashley spent the day putting the new cylinder insulation and jacketing on.

While they worked up front, Travis worked in the middle of the engine putting the last of the spring rigging up. The holes in which the equalizer pins go through the frame were very worn out. Since there is no easy way to bore out the holes we did the next best thing: welded them up and manually bored them out. It took a few hours but the results were what we wanted, relatively round holes that the pins fit very nicely in.

At the rear of the locomotive the rest of us worked on installing the new water glass, fitting some of the new cab plumbing, installing part of the cab floor and worked on the firebox door cover.

The weekend also saw the completion of most of the brake rigging repairs and the readjustment of Marty Westland’s valve grinding machine. Marty wanted to do one more finish pass with his grinder to really make it nice.

While we are just about ready to start rolling in flues down in Independence, up at the Mt. Rainier Scenic RR our drivers and driving boxes are well in process. MRSRR says they will be completed by the first of November which means we will hopefully have the #18 back on her feet soon.

And finally, mark your calendars for our annual BBQ fundraiser on Oct. 26th, don’t forget to stop by and say hello!