This Labor day weekend, over three days, the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources (SPCRR) will, completely rebuild a West Side Lumber Co. 24Â’ flatcar.

We are looking for additional volunteers. The project will need about 8-12 people on hand each day. If you have ever been curious about how a wooden railroad car was constructed, this would be your opportunity to work with an experienced crew. (This will be the 8th restoration or reconstruction of a wooden railroad car by the SPCRR.)
In addition we will offer the public, particularly children, occasional opportunities to participate in the project, under supervision, by sawing or drilling the timbers.

Tools used will 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. We encourage our participants to wear period appropriate costumes.

The project will revolve around West Side Lumber Company 222, a 24Â’ flatcar built for logging service by the West Side in their own shops in June of 1928 as a log car, with steel log bunks. The car was extensively rebuilt after World War II, possibly as late as 1959, without log bunks, utility service on the line. After the West Side abandoned operations, the car was preserved privately before being acquired by the SPCRR in June of this year.

The restoration will include replacement of virtually all the original wood in the car body, the only exceptions being one block (of eight) on top of the bolster supporting the truss rod bearings. Several beams were so badly deteriorated that the collapsed prior to disassembly. Only one side sill, 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.

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 Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources and the Samuel Knight's chapter of the SIA 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.

This is not the first time our group has used the "This Old Flatcar" restoration process. As a test in 1996, the SPCRR tested the idea of a public car building project by constructing a reproduction of a 12Â’ 4 wheel flatcar used on the South Pacific Coast RailroadÂ’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 Railfair 99, at the California State Railroad Museum, we disassembled and built a new frame for a Sacramento Northern.

For information on this project, and how to volunteer, please email Randy Hees at hees@ix.netcom.com, or call 510 791 4196. For more information on the SPCRR and its Railfair, go to www.spcrr.org .



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hees@ix.netcom.com