Samuel Knight Chapter - SIA, Newsletter Issue 10, June 10, 2000

Newsletter

Samuel Knight Chapter

Society for Industrial Archeology

Issue Number 10

June 10, 2000

The Newsletter is published whenever it seems appropriate. Members are encouraged to contribute articles, letters to the editor and items for the Calendar. The Newsletter, Calendar of Events and Links to IA Websites are available on the Chapter Website: http://reality.sgi.com/csp/knight_sia (since relocated to http://www.sia-web.org/chapters/knight/knight.html)

THE SAMUEL KNIGHT CHAPTER OF THE SOCIETY FOR INDUSTRIAL ARCHEOLOGY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ENTERPRISE

A Time of Renewal

A note of apology to our members: It has been a long time since the last newsletter! The final stages of the acquisition of Knight Foundry and the reorganization of the non-profit became an all consuming involvement for most of the Chapter Board. The final closing of the deal seemed to be just around the corner for a period which dragged on and on for months and months, and so we delayed publishing a newsletter until the good news could be announced. Well, here it is: Knight Foundry has been secured for posterity, we are reorganized, and the Chapter has successfully brought to a close its first major project: saving Knight Foundry. Many Chapter members contributed to this achievement; heart felt thanks to you all! We will hold our Chapter Annual Meeting at Knight Foundry on July 1st during the Grand Opening. (See below.)

We have arrived at a critical moment in the life of the Chapter. At our last regular Directors' meeting in December several new initiatives were proposed. These included develop a series of events featuring expert speakers on IA topics, following up the re-discovery of the Alameda Point Ferry Terminal with some on-site archæology and, most ambitious of all, sponsoring the 2002 SIA Annual Conference in Oakland. Some of us are moving on to a full time involvement at Knight Foundry, others have dropped out of the leadership. Very little effort was put into building Chapter membership last year, with predictable results. It's time to re-invent the Chapter, and it can only be done with your participation.

The life of the Chapter has proven to be a rewarding experience to those of us who have organized or joined the numerous tours and participated in special projects like Knight Foundry and This Old Flat Car. If we are to continue as a vital organization, it is indispensable that new people take on a leaderships role in organizing tours and special projects events. This is your big chance! To all those people in the Chapter who we have gotten to know over the last three years; with your help, now, we can continue developing the new and traditional directions in industrial archæology we have been exploring.

What's involved? For an example, this newsletter has been an exciting forum because of the diversity of voices and ideas contributed. Consider writing on your favorite IA passion. Organizing tours is really not that difficult, as the Chapter board can provide the necessary logistical support. And you get to showcase a site you would like to see or think that others in the Chapter should experience. The really challenging task will be the 2002 conference. This is one project we will have to either commit to or drop out of in the near future depending on your response, gentle reader. Finally, we invite you to stand for a seat on the Chapter Board of Directors; four seats are up for election at our Annual Meeting at Knight Foundry. Call or write any of us listed on the back page and ...

Knight Foundry Saved

Grand Opening Celebration

Saturday, July 1, 2000

Sutter Creek, All Day

A lot has happened with Knight Foundry in the last six months. The site was designated an Official Project of the Save America's Treasures Program last fall. This is a national project "dedicated to the celebration and preservation of America's priceless historic resources so they may inform our future," according the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is partnering with the White House Millennium Council on the program. Official Project status qualified Knight Foundry to apply for grants set up under the program. We applied for a Save America's Treasures planning and emergency stabilization grant sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Fund and received $35,000 in a matching grant at the beginning of this year.

In March we applied for a preservation grant to fund actual rehabilitation of structures and machinery, which is a federal grant under the America's Treasures program. This grant, also with a matching requirement, will be for between $250,000 and $1,000,000, and awarded at the end of this month. Providing the matching funds will be our next big hurdle.

This leads us to ...

The Good News

Hang on to your Save Knight Foundry buttons: they're going to be collector's items! We are delighted to announce that Knight Foundry has been secured for posterity with its purchase by two dedicated preservationists – active in the Save Knight Foundry Task Force for the last two years. The new owners, Richard and Melissa Lyman, are firmly committed to supporting our mission: to operate Knight Foundry as a center for preserving historic iron working skills, as an operating iron works providing hard-to-get cast iron products for historic preservation and as a living history experience for visitors and students.

The deciding factor in the Lymans' decision was their strong perception that, to quote Richard, "everyone wants us to succeed". Thus, all of the many Chapter members who have helped can take personal credit for this breakthrough. Heartfelt thanks to you and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, The J. Paul Getty Fund, the City of Sutter Creek, and the civic and business organizations of Amador County!

The new owners have made the generous offer to help guarantee our ultimate success: they have purchased Knight Foundry for our newly reorganized non-profit to operate under a lease arrangement as an historic industry and educational institution. We now have plenty of breathing space to accumulate acquisition capital and fund our preservation programs; a great blessing the Lymans have conferred upon us.

We must refurbish the foundry for operation, establish a foundry shop - The Ironmonger - and prepare to launch workshops and educational programs. Many of the buildings and machines are in urgent urgent need of repair and restoration. We have created a vehicle for success; we now must rely on our sponsors and volunteers to provide "the gas in the tank."

We will kick off our work together with a Grand Opening on Saturday, July 1st, 2000. The day will feature free guided tours, a street party BBQ and tri-tip feast, old time music and all round celebration. All proceeds will go to the non-profit effort. This is the day to get involved in our new Knight Foundry volunteer organization; we'll have lots of interesting and rewarding work to do. We plan to have the cupola furnaces ready to pour iron by early August, with our first three day workshop in September. In the meantime, we will be running regular guided tours – we need your help in all these activities!

Future plans

The non-profit entity which will operate production and programs at the site has been reorganized with an eminent, capable and committed Board of Directors to shepherd the work into the future. They are Eric DeLony, Chief of the the National Park Service's Historic American Engineering Record and founding member of the Society for Industrial Archeology; Walter Gray III, California State Archivist and past Director of the California State Railroad Museum; Jim Henley, blacksmith and Manager of the Sacramento Archive and Museum Collection Center; Margaret Mills, a retired non-profit management professional, and Kyle Wyatt, Curator of Railroad Operations at the California State Railroad Museum - all long time supporters of the efforts to save Knight Foundry. Andy Fahrenwald, will serve as Executive Director.

Knight Foundry will establishing training and workshop programs in historic crafts modeled on the very successful classes conducted by Historic Knight & Co.,the previous group which operated the foundry. The Save Knight Foundry Task Force identified a wide array of potential customers with custom cast iron work for the foundry, primarily in the world of historic preservation - historic districts like Old Sacramento, railroad and maritime museums and restorers of all kinds of historic machinery. Knight Foundry will be nearly unique in being willing and able to reproduce historic cast iron objects on a custom basis and using authentic historic processes.

The foundry will also release a line of proprietary products, some of them reproducing useful and beautiful historic objects from museum collections, for consumer sales. The Ironmonger will test market these products as they are developed, as well as serving as an interpretive center for Knight Foundry.

We can now begin building on the preservation efforts of both foundry owner Carl Borgh and Historic Knight & Co., which operated the foundry during the early 90s. Without Carl's largely unappreciated thirty year stewardship and the visionary living history programs developed by Ed Arata and his colleagues in Historic Knight & Co., we would have lost this national treasure decades ago.

Since Carl passed away, his wife Eleanor and son David have been notably patient and generous in supporting our effort. Their commitment to somehow preserving at least the core of the historic facility never wavered. The price Carl set for the foundry and all its contents was very reasonable, and the Borgh family did everything in its power to make it feasible for the new owners, Knight & Co., to finance the purchase. Our new patrons have reached very deep into their own resources to guarantee that we realize the full potential of our vision for Knight Foundry's future. We will be mounting a major capital fund campaign over the next years to complete the process of acquiring Knight Foundry free and clear as a major historic legacy for our posterity. Being able to start our programs and demonstrate our ideas in action will enormously increase our fundraising potential. Hats off to Richard and Melissa Lyman!

Upcoming Tours and Events

Annual Chapter Meeting

Knight Foundry, Sutter Creek

11am, Saturday, July 1, 2000

We will hold our Annual Meeting during the Grand Opening Celebration at Knight Foundry. Sutter Creek is in the Sierra foothills on Highway 49 about an hour's drive from Sacramento, and two hours from Oakland on the west and Carson City on the east. Park at one of the public lots in Sutter Creek, walk east on Eureka Street (one half block north of the bridge over Sutter Creek, the creek) and Knight Foundry within sight at the end of the street. Handicap parking is available at the Foundry via Broadway Alley off Broad. (Eureka will be closed for the celebration).

We will elect four Chapter Directors at this meeting if a quorum of members is on hand; if not we will conduct a mail ballot. If you would like to stand for election, but cannot come to the meeting please notify the Chapter Secretary. You must be a member in good standing of the Chapter and the Society for Industrial Archeology to serve as a Director.

Maritime Heritage Boat Tour

Pier 1/2, San Francisco

Saturday, July 29th, 2000

9:30 am - 2pm,

Once again, Laborfest 2000 is mounting one of the popular waterfront boat tours we developed with them, this time featuring a much more wide ranging tour of maritime industrial sites including the San Francisco waterfront and shipyards, Oakland harbor and the Richmond Kaiser Shipyard. The tour is a four hour extravaganza of in-depth on-site perspectives presented by leading authorities on maritime industrial and labor history, good food and traditional music featuring the Labor Chorus and Babar Jug Band.

The cost of the tour is $20 in advance (reservation guarantees a free lunch), $22 at the Pier (lunch with luck). Children ages 6 to 12 are $10, under 6 free. Send your check or money order to Laborfest P.O.Box 40983, San Francisco, CA 94140 - 0985. Call 415 642 8066, or email laborfest@hotmail.com or surf website www.laborfest.net.

You must be at Pier 1/2 just north of the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street at 9:30 when boarding begins. The pier is convenient to the BART Embarcadero stop. Boat sails at 10am.

Tours and Events in the Works

Chapter members have been working on developing tours of Marin County maritime sites, the Black Diamond Mine, Folsom Power House, the last remaining working gold dredge, a Portland cement plant and hosting the Society for Industrial Archeology Oakland 2002 Annual Conference. We need your help; give us a call.

Recent Tours and Events

Inaugural Amador County Industrial Heritage Corridor Tour

On Saturday, Dec. 11th, we had a well attended tour of Kennedy Mine , Knight Foundry and Sutter Gold Mine in Amador County. The Kennedy Mine Foundation has made impressive progress in their program to restore the surface workings at the site, Knight Foundry provided a large proportion of the equipment for these mines of the central Mother Lode, and Sutter Gold has greatly expanded their underground tour of their working mine with an extensive walk through traditionally equipped gold mine blasted right through the gold bearing quartz.

This tour was an experiment in modeling a Motherlode Industrial Heritage Corridor tour. It turned out to be a full and varied day long experience. All the participants sat down for a post tour evaluation which gave the experience high marks for providing a solid experience in mining history. Since the tour, we (the three sites) have successfully promoted the concept to a number of tour operators who have conducted similar bus tours of the site.

Talks are continuing with a number of interested parties to expand this concept into a California Gold Country Heritage Corridor comprising the entire mining district. Fragmented and disorganized at present, the regions historic resources could enormously benefit in bringing to bear an integrated program in preservation and promotion. This represents another opportunity for Chapter Activists, particularly the many members residing in the Sierras, to develop a preservation initiative which could have great positive impact on some of California's most significant industrial archæological sites.

MARIN HEADLANDS AND POINT

BONITA LIGHT HOUSE FIELD TRIP

Richard Alvarez

The chapter had its first over-night tour on October 16-17. Seventeen of us visited the Marin Headlands, on the north shore of the Golden Gate, to tour the World War II coastal fortifications and the Point Bonita Light House.

Military historian John Martini, retired from the National Park Service, gave us a wonderful four-hour tour beginning with Battery Townsley, one of the huge under-ground gun batteries that guarded the Golden Gate. The guns fired projectiles that were 16 inches in diameter, and had a range of about 25 miles out to sea, using 2,800 pounds of gun-powder for each shot. Since the gun battery normally is closed to visitors, we had the rare chance to go where few people can go. Then Martini took us up Wolf Ridge to some of the little almost-buried base end stations that served as giant range-finders for aiming the big guns. Last, he took us farther up Wolf Ridge to an anti-aircraft installation, and took us into the remains of an under-ground living and work complex that has survived the 50 years since the war. Throughout the tour, he explained details of the coastal fortifications, and spun tales of military history on the Headlands. He left us with diagrams and data on Battery Townsley, the base end stations, and military life in the Headlands. Tour guides just don't come any better than John Martini!

After the tour, we had a wine-and-cheese party on the beach. After watching the sun set into the ocean, we went to the Headlands hostel for a pot-luck dinner, followed by a movie from the Fort MacArthur military museum about aiming the big guns using the primitive analog computers of the day, and a presentation on gun aiming and on details of the light house that we would visit the next day. We stayed that night in the hostel.

On Sunday morning, following breakfast, docent Ek Mahl led us on a combined geology field-trip and tour of the Point Bonita Light House. The light house trail leads along the cliffs on the north side of the Golden Gate, then through a long tunnel that was bored by hand through solid rock, then across a suspension-bridge to the light house itself. The big old Fresnel lens was built in France, shipped to the base of the cliffs, and then laboriously hauled in pieces to the light house. The Fresnel lens is still in service.

[Ed. Note: Chapter Member Sue Brock catered the wine and cheese beach party and made us all a sensational breakfast Sunday morning. Oh, what omelettes! Thanks to Sue, Dick Alvarez and Alan Langmuir for providing not only a great tour, but also a fine occasion for us all to become better acquainted. With John Marini's kind permission, we reproduce his article on the Marin Headland battery base end stations .](not available in this web version of Issue 10)

This Old Flat Car: Nuts & Bolts
Sacramento Northern MW 32

Randy Hees

[Ed. Note: This formal report follows up last issue's somewhat delirious articles on This Old Flatcar: a ten day marathon restoration-in-kind of a standard gauge wooden flat car and public demonstration of traditional car building production methods and historic skills during Railfair 99.]

HISTORY

It is believed, but not documented, that the car was built between 1909 and 1911 for Sacramento Northern Railroad predecessor Oakland - Antioch Railway, probably by Holman in San Francisco. (Most of the stake pockets were marked "O - A", strongly suggesting that the car was built before 1912 when the railroad was reorganized as the Oakland Antioch and Eastern.) A photo taken of the car in 1961 by Ralph Melching, published in Cars of the Sacramento Northern, notes that the car carried a stenciled builder's date of 1911.

The car was built as a flat car for general freight service. When built, its design was already obsolete. In 1910 over 90% of the railroad freight cars built were steel or steel framed. By the mid 1930's wooden cars like this one were outlawed for use in interchange service. We suspect that it was during this period that it was converted to work service. At the same time the original trucks were removed, and "Southern Pacific" shops built trucks were installed in their place.The car was also converted to AB brakes at an unknown but likely later date.

When built, car 32 was a typical wooden flat car one of just over 2 million freight cars in service in North America.It consists of 6 wooden sills running the length of the car, capped by wooden end beams and supported by 4 wrought iron truss rods. The bolsters were wrought iron.

Less typical, but not unknown, was the use of cast iron sill pockets to attach the center and intermediate sills to the end beam. The side sills used the more common mortise and tenon joints. The most unique element of car 32's original construction was the inclusion of safety chains.While common on wooden passenger cars, these chains and hooks were rarely used on fright cars or electric interurban equipment.

It is likely that 32 is not the car's original number. A 1917 freight car roster published in "Cars of the Sacramento Northern" lists two groups of flat cars, 2000-2009 built in 1911, and 2010-2029 built in 1913. It is likely that car 32 comes from one of these two series. We know that the car was assigned to work service early, as Car No. 32 is listed as "Flat car with house and wrecking tools" valued at $1,100.00 in a 1941 account book. The lettering on the car used different stencils for the SN 32, and the MW, suggesting that the car carried number 32 before being renumbered "MW 32."

Most likely the car was renumbered 32 when assigned to work service, then had the letters "MW" added later, due to a change in numbering systems on the railroad.

The car was last used in Northern Contra Costa County, as a maintenance car based in Walnut Creek The air brake tank is stenciled:

S.N.RY. 7.11.62

W C

As a work car it carried a shed, a derrick, and a stake box. It was commonly seen with a gondola, car 1449 also in the CSRM collection.

Pre-restoration Condition

The car was very badly deteriorated. It had been separated from its trucks. One truck bolster (wooden) had failed completely. The derrick had been previously removed by others. Prior to the public This Old Flatcar project at Railfair, we removed the shed and stake box and stored them for later reuse or replication. The deck was so badly rotted, that volunteers fell though during disassembly.

Surprisingly, the car carried a nearly complete set of spare parts, along with many tools. Included were various wrecking chains, cables and other items needed in conjunction with the derrick. The Sacramento Northern was an electrified railroad, and as a result included were insulator pins and cables as well as two light bars, each containing six light sockets wired in series, to be hung from the overhead wire, with grounding straps with clamps to be attached to the rails, to use the 600 volt trolley power to light the work area. Most useful, were numerous wedges, used to block equipment, which we used to lift the house off the car frame.

The restoration included replacement of virtually all the original wood in the car body, the only exceptions being two blocks (of four) on top of the bolster supporting the truss rod bearings. Several beams were so badly deteriorated that they collapsed prior to disassembly. One intermediate sill collapsed into fragments no larger than 1" x 1" x 6". Only one side sill, one end beam and the needle beams were removed intact. All others failed either before restoration, or during disassembly.

The complete replacement of all wood in a flatcar is not without railroad precedent. Wooden flatcars had a life expectancy of only 15 years in service. Commonly a railroad would remove the trucks and air brakes and burn the body leaving only the metal parts. Those parts would then be reused on the new carbody. For example, White Pass and Yukon shop records carry notations such as "rebuilt flat car, replaced all wooden parts." Locally, The Pacific Lumber Co. of Scotia CA regularly rebuilt wooden flatcars like car 32 as late as 1978.

With the exception of the air brake inspection stencil, there was no recognizable lettering on the car body. The surviving paint was matched using the Munsel system by California State Railroad Museum Foundation employee, Kevin Bunker. Based on this match, paint was ordered to be used in the restoration. (2.5Y R3/6) Any lettering will be based on photographic evidence.

Inconsistencies

The car, which we restored, was not the car built circa 1909. The car had apparently been in several wrecks. The draft gear was on the "B" end had been replaced with a more modern dual spring style drawhead, malleable washers were used and the bolster showed signs of damage. The "A" end, while of original single design, showed signs of less significant damage, including broken draft gear straps, broken stop castings, and bent bolts. The "A" stop castings carried two different casting numbers, and the draft gear keys didn’t match, suggesting previous repairs. Further, we found the center sills had been broken, and repaired with through bolts. The trucks had also been damaged. Several of the truck bolster chafing plates were broken.

One of the most curious inconsistencies, was the use of walnut for the draft timbers on the "A" end, while the "B" end used oak, as expected. Walnut was an expensive, rare hard wood. Using walnut for railroad car frames was unheard of.

Only the side sills tenons were painted, while the intermediate sill ends were not, strongly suggesting that the side sills had been replaced. Curiously the matching mortises in the end beam were not painted, suggesting they had been replaced at some later date, by a different crew.

We believe that the trucks had been changed, probably at the time the car was converted to work service. The truck (and body center plate and side bearings) castings carry "W" prefix casting numbers, commonly associated with Southern Pacific’s Sacramento Shops, while no other castings on the car carry the "W" prefix, except three stake pockets on the intermediate sill, installed to carry the stake box for work service.

Problems and Compromises

The wood received was different from the wood as measured on the car. We adjusted the mortises and joints as necessary to adapt to the wood used. The design of the car required that two locations be fixed, the top of all sills had to be level to support the deck, and the width of the car was fixed by the iron bolster.

We did not install the "work car" specific steps, but did install the internal stake pockets. (All parts which were not installed were tagged and stored for later reuse.)

The AB brake system was reinstalled as found, fixing the date of the restored car as post World War II. This along with the trucks, which we believe were installed at the same time as the conversion to work service, argue strongly for reinstallation of the shed, derrick and stake box along with the associated steps and grabs.

We used Douglas fir for the draw timbers, instead of the original Oak or Walnut.

Only the visible portions of the original car were painted. We, on the other hand, painted all surfaces of the body, all mortise and tenons, and treated the deck boards with a clear wood preservative.

Restoration, Interpretation and use options

There are two restoration options: as a typical wooden flat car, circa 1910-1930, or as a work car.

To properly restore the car to its freight car appearance, we would need to replace the AB brakes with K, and remove the additional stake pockets from the intermediate sill. Additionally it would be necessary to replace the Southern Pacific trucks with an unknown earlier style. The missing two stake pockets should be replicated and reinstalled. Arguably we should also rebuild the B end draft gear to its as built, single spring style.

On the other hand, to restore the car to its work car appearance, we need to reinstall the house, the stake box, the derrick, and the steps and grabs. These parts were carefully removed prior to the public restoration, and are available for replication or reinstallation.

As a freight car, it would represent any of thousands of wooden freight cars used by American railroads before 1930.

As a work car it would be possible to assemble a "typical" work train using this car, car 1449, Sacramento Northern box car 2360 and locomotive SN 402 all owned by CSRM. The train could be completed by the addition of a Sacramento Northern or Western Pacific caboose (owned by CSRM, located at Jamestown) This train could be both interpretive, and operationally useful to crews maintaining the tracks of the Sacramento Southern Railroad.

We suggest that in the short term the car be used as a flat car, but that ultimately it should have the work car equipment reinstalled.

The Restoration Process

The car was restored as a public event, This Old Flatcar, during Railfair 99. Today, most railroad restoration projects take place over many years. On the other hand, the business of car building was time sensitive. A railroad car builder in the 19th century needed to build cars quickly. For several years, the Knight's chapter of the SIA and the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources (SPCRR) have been developing a unique joint program. Called This Old Flat Car, it is a union of Railroad preservation, Skills preservation, and Education. This project calls for the construction of a wooden railroad car, in "real time" as a public event.

We selected a flat car for this project for several reasons. Flat cars are complex enough to demonstrate the basics of wooden car construction, (Mortise and tenon joints, wood in compression, iron (or steel) in tension) yet simple enough to restore quickly and inexpensively. A restoration of a wooden flat car is commonly a rebuilding in kind, where a box car or passenger car calls for much more conservation of existing materials.

As a test in 1996, the SPCRR tested the idea of a public car building project by constructing a reproduction of a 12’ 4 wheel flatcar used on the South Pacific Coast Railroad’s Centerville branch. That car was competed in two days. While smaller than the cars in question, it still had 80% of the joint work.

During the course of Railfair, we routinely had a crew of 5-10 workers actively building the railroad car using 19th century methods and tools. At the same time we had 1-2 docents on hand to answer questions. In addition we offered the public, particularly children, as many of 12 at a time, a chance to participate in the project. With supervision, they were offered a chance disassemble the old car, to saw and drill the timbers for the new car as well as gathering large groups to carry the timbers, assemble and turn over the body.

Tools used included traditional carpenters tools, brace and bits for drilling holes, hand saws, chisels and mallets for the mortises, as well as a "patent" mortise machine from the SPCRR collection, a portable forge and blacksmith shop and a tripod with block and tackle to lift heavy castings.

Many of our participants wore period appropriate costumes.

The project took place across from the Huntington-Hopkins Hardware store in the "Big Four" building at the front of the State Railroad Museum.

Unfortunately at the end of Railfair we hadn’t yet finished... The car still was missing one coupler, and many of the bolts were not yet tightened. The trucks had been disassembled, but not yet been reassembled. We pulled the parts together, and reassembled the trucks using the old parts. At the conclusion of Railfair the car was moved upside down inside the arcade depot along the water front in Sacramento for completion.

What did we learn?

Intellectually, we understood the process of building this car before the event. But there is a great difference between intellectual and practical knowledge. Some of the planned techniques worked well. From previous projects we knew that we should build the car upside down. This eliminates trying to fight gravity by lifting heavy parts up to the car body while bolting them on. Instead you gather a crew to lift the part onto the frame, then a single craftsman can install them. We were had read Voss’s admonition to drill holes oversize to allow for easy assembly and later repair. This worked as well, especially in light of the poor condition of many of our bolts.

There were problems we were not ready for. Many of the bolts needed re-threading. We didn’t have the necessary dies on hand. Luckily the CSRM shops came to the rescue with the needed tools. The wood we used was rough cut. In the future we would want the wood planed to size. Not surprisingly, an inventory of the Carter shops lists a large wood planner. (Surprisingly, the wood was better than the wood which had been used to build the car originally.)

We were not really prepared for the weight of the parts. The side sill of a narrow gauge car might weigh 600 lbs. The side sills for this car weighed nearly twice that. This was nearly too heavy to be moved without heavy equipment. This demonstrates the narrow gauge concepts of light weight making the railroad technology approachable by smaller industrial organizations. Clearly any shop intending to build cars of this size would need to be much better equipped than a shop building smaller, lighter narrow gauge equipment.

We encountered only had one assembly mystery. The truck bolster, a 9" x 14" beam, had two truss rods through it, supporting the car. Clearly the holes through the beam were much larger than required, 2" holes for a 1" rod, and originally we assumed that we could snake the bent rod through the over size hole. After several attempts, we finally gave up and heated the rod red hot and bent it in place. Surprisingly Kevin Bunker, CSRM employee and SPCRR board member found a historic photo of an SP crew in Portland OR rebuilding a similar truck, near by was a forge much like the one we used.

Additionally, we were able to introduce a large number of volunteers to the joys of skill preservation, as we used both old tools and techniques to build this car.

Suggestions for future This Old Flatcar Projects

1) Plane all lumber to size in advance

2) Tools needed: Dies, White marking pens

3) Establish a nut and bolt area, with a supply of replacement nuts and bolts, and rod, with a vise and chase dies

4) Mark all bolts as they are removed with a white paint pen

5) Set regular times to photograph the progress

6) Construction is more appropriate to the This Old Flatcar program than disassembly. In the future we should disassemble and document the car prior to the public program. Any metal parts could be cleaned and primed. It would be appropriate to have some old timbers around, both for the crew building the new car, and to show the visitors what we started with.

Iron Work

This project reused the old metal work from the original car. As noted in the text above, this was virtually all that survived. Surprisingly, most of the metal parts were in relatively good condition. Of the many castings, only four were damaged. One queen post had been broken, and was repaired by brazing. Three bolster chafing plates (marked "W 7") were badly broken, and new weldments were substituted. We did find that many of the bolts were unsuitable, either because they broke during disassembly, were too rusted or were badly bent. Further because much of our wood was over size, the old bolts did not always fit. New bolts were substituted as necessary.

A complete casting inventory was made and is available upon request.

Bibliography

George B Abdill, Pacific Coast Railroads, (Superior Publishing Company,Seattle, WA, 1959) pp182 (photo of similar truck being rebuilt)

Matthias N Forney, The Railroad Car Builder's Pictorial Dictionary 1879, (New York, The Railroad Gazette, 1879) pp491 (reprinted by Dover, New York, 1974)

Matthias N Forney, The Railroad Car Builder's Pictorial Dictionary 1888, (New York, The Railroad Gazette, 1888) (reprinted by Newton K. Gregg / Publisher, Novato CA, 1971)

Sacramento Northern Railway, "Property as per Schedule, 1941" (CSRM Corporate Collection)

Ira Swett, Sacramento Northern, Interurbans Special 26, (4th printing, Pasadena, Pentrex, 1998 (originally published 1962) pp 208

Ira Swett, Cars of the Sacramento Northern, Interurbans Special 32, (2nd printing, South Gate, CA, Interurbans, 1972 (originally published 1963)) pp 112

Ira Swett, Sacramento Northern Album, Interurbans Special 34, (2nd printing, Cerritos, CA, Interurbans, 1973 (originally published 1963)) pp 136

William Voss, Railway Car Construction, (New York, Van Arsdale, 1892) pp 80, (Reprinted as Train Shed Cyclopedia, Nos 29 & 39, Novato CA, Newton K. Gregg/ Publisher, 1975, 1976)

John White, The American Railroad Freight Car, (Baltimore and London, The John Hopkins University Press, 1993) pp 664

Notes and Queries

This is a forum for research and developing resources of help for our membership. If there is any IA related project you would like to communicate with our readers, please contact the Editor, Andy, at andylora@slip.net or 916 442-1636

Sponsorship, Volunteer and Grand Opening Reservation Form

Please send your donation to Knight Foundry P.O.Box 1776, Sutter Creek. CA 95685. For general information call 209 267-0201. Please make your check to The Knight Foundry Preservation Fund.

Here is my tax deductible contribution of $_________________ to launch Knight Foundry.

Please reserve ___ places for us at the Grand Opening Benefit Street Banquet at $15 each. Includes complete meal and libations. I enclose $_____ (not tax deductible.)

Name:....................................................................................................

Address:.................................................................................................

City, State, Zip:.....................................................................................

Telephone: Home:................................... Work:...................................

Email:.................................................... Fax:......................................

I would like to volunteer; I can help with.................................................

I'm interested in three day foundry crafts workshops................................

Contents:

A Time of Renewal
Knight Foundry Saved
Upcoming Tours and Events
This Old Flat Car: Nuts & Bolts
Notes and Queries
Sponsorship, Volunteer and Reservation Form
Contact and Membership Information