Moving the Caboose!

We hired a crane company out of Portland to move the caboose 16 miles from Astoria Oregon to Seaside. All in all the move went very well. The caboose weighs 38,000 lbs total. The wheel assemblies weigh 7,000 lbs each.

We had to cut the cupola off or special permits would need to be obtained.

28,000 lbs of caboose is airborn!

 Up up and away!

7,000 lb wheel assembly

It fits!

 Safe in Seaside.

Laying Track

Getting the track ready for the train's arrival. Never did this before, so I'm just making it up as I go along.

Each track weighed 1,000 lbs, so I moved them with the Toyota!

Got everything leveled side to side and end to end.

 

I built this track gauge to ensure the caboose would fit on the tracks. 4 feet 8 and 1/2 inches! Pounding spikes is not in my future line of work.

Ta da!

The Caboose

Working to save this 1903 Caboose built for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in Tacoma Washington for it's subsidiary Spokane Portland & Seattle (SP & S) Oregon Electric Railway (OE Rwy) for use on the Willamette Valley line of the OE Rwy between Portland and Eugene. It may have been used on the Astoria Main Line. The caboose was used on freight trains for rolling office, observations car and to protect the rear end of the train in terminal or end of line. It was also a home for the train crew. On duty, the car carried a conductor, rear brakeman/flagmen, and conductor. The conductor was in charge of the train and locomotive, he had a desk to do his paper work on way bills, wheel report and timekeeping. Off-duty the head brakemen joined with the rear end crew for meals and sleep. The caboose had three bunks, a fold down table, ice box, cooking/heating stove, water tank, sink and toilet.Here are some current pictures.

Train Restoration

Working to restore this 7 1/2" gauge train back to its original glory.

I got the engine stripped down to the frame today.

Still working on a game plan for the body of the engine.

Using Klean Strip Aircraft Paint Stripper to remove paint from the outside. I wanted to retain the definition in the rivets and edges.

Cab is primered with zinc chromate primer.

and painter RED!

The trucks haven't seem much care over the years.

They get sand blasted and new bearing are installed.

I didn't care for the wooden gondolas being painted black.

Iowa Fire Hydrant Restoration

Iowa Valve Company Early Model "50" with PAT FEB 14 1928

This project is all my sister's fault. She saw an Iowa Fire Hydrant in Pacific Grove, CA and posted a pic to Facebook. I look up the company and find out that they made these hydrants from the early 1900's to the late 1960's. Apparently they are located all over the U.S. Iowa Valve Co. History

 

 

This is all pretty cool in my book. I get to wondering if there are any around for sale so I check Craigslist and low and behold there is one for sale in San Diego. I call the guy up and 24 hours later it is sitting in my garage. Now what?

 

Iowa

Valve Co

Oskaloosa

Iowa

Pat

Feb 14 28

The short term plan is to tear this thing down, powdercoat it, and turn it into a automatic dog waterer. I hit all the nuts and bolts with some PB Blaster and let it sit overnight. The top came off, no problem.

Except for a couple of whacks with the hammer on a large pipe wrench, it came apart pretty easy.

 

There isn't an actual valve in these hydrants, they were made for cold climates and the hydrant controlled a valve that was below the frost line. These are considered dry hydrants. This is how the valve would control the water from the main.

 

 

Sod Installation

The wife wanted some grass in the back yard so I took the opportunity to add a horseshoe pit. Since our yard is on a slope, I had to terrace out a couple of sections. The lower section is about 18 feet wide and 45 feet long. The upper section is about 13 feet wide and 60 feet long. 

 

 

 

The top section gradually slopes down to meet the lower section. We cannot get a Bobcat or any large machinery into the back yard, so the terracing was all done by me with a flat shovel. After gettting it shaped up, I installed sprinklers to keep everything green.

 

 With the sprinklers in, it was time for sod. I installed Marathon I sod which was developed for Southern California. Although this shows only me carrying the sod, I had a lot of help.

  

 

We put down about 1300 sq feet of sod in about 3 hours.