A New Steam Engine In The Family

On a seasonably cool June morning I received a call from Mike Thompson asking if I was doing anything special to which I replied that there wasn't too much going on. He said that he was getting ready to light the fire for the first time in his 2 1/2" scale Mich-Cal Shay. I said I'd be over in a while. When I arrived on the Harley he was tending to his new baby like a proud papa. She was popping off and just simmering away on the engine stand. The drive shafts were removed from the engine so she would just run and not climb off the end of the stand, the engine had run many, many hours on air and even ran on air at Joshua Tree earlier in the year; but this was special she had a fire in her and was under steam, alive!

Mike has been working on the Shay project since 1993, he showed me the first pieces he fabricated, the frame perches for the tank and cab. We have all watched it's progress over the years, sometimes a seemingly large amount of progress is noted, like the boiler attached, and sometimes it would be just the cab details that one would notice. It all needs to be done to get the end result and today was the day. Sixteen years in the making and June 20, 2009 was the day.

Mike finished his cars first. They've been tagging along behind someone else's trains for years. His Westside short Caboose is rapidly shrinking as his two kids barely fit inside when the roof is off. Also in the mix is a Westside 24' flat car and his Westside tank car that holds both water and a propane tank for the engine. All his cars have link and pin coupling as when he started this project he was a 'lone wolf' as some of us started too, and didn't even fathom somebody else would be building something in this scale.

Having spent years around the hobby and slowly in between ten plus years of marriage, two great kids with activities that they enjoy, a demanding job with a commute and a new house a few years back, Mike had never ran a steam engine till I put him on the Heisler at a meet in Chula Vista a few years back, if he could run that, he could tackle anything. The next year at Chula Vista it became known that C&S #13, a beautiful Mogul in 2 1/2" scale; built by Kevin Doe and at the time belonged to the late Rudy Van Wigen was available. It didn't take long for Mike and his dad, Bruce, to be the new owners. As when you have more then one of anything, some thing has to go to the back of the shed for a while, not so with the Shay project. There was always something new being put together on her, even when the Mogul consumed the bench a few times to get bushings or a crosshead reworked.

Congratulations Mike, you deserve it, many happy years of steaming around whichever track that the runday is at. Look for it at Bittercreek in August.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hey guys. the desert is getting hot out here and we're staying out of it this weekend. Enjoy yourselves this weekend and remember what Memorial Day is all about while your enjoying it. See you at Bitter Creek in August, Brian

Joshua Tree Goes to Train Mountain Narrow Gauge Meet 2009

On the first weekend of May in Chiloquin Oregon for the last three years has been the Narrow Gauge meet at Train Mountain. A private little party of like minded narrow gaugers. The expanse of Train Mountain's miles upon miles of track with only a hand full of trains operating.

The bulk of the engines and cars that make it up to Chiloquin for this weekend are the same engines that travel south to run out here at JT. Ron Schmidt, Peter Moseley, Bill and Holy Boller, Burns' and Beard, Allan, Brian and Greg Ratliff, Becky and Ray Bjerrum, Bruce and Mike Thompson, Jeff and Kevin Tolan, Paul Lavacot. So it is our unofficial run day for us. And Bill Shepherd just walks out his front door from his darn near complete summer home.

The rest of the attendees of notice are the regular travelers from afar. Bill Dobbs with his empire of rail cars from Pennsylvania, Bruno and Trudy Platzer from Nevada, Rich and Linda Ulin from Colorado and Tom Artzberger from Colorado as well. Tom delivered yet another RGS #20 on his way to the meet; more ng engines. The rest of the folks at TM for the weekend are the regular group that shines and polishes the railroad for the upcoming season. So, this is the first run of the year really upon which we get to see the railroad as it is emerging from the winter and spring is doing its thing.

This years operations were hampered by the weather more then in the past. The weatherman predicted it to rain and it did at least sometime every day. Sunday it rained and tried at times to lay down one last blanket of snow but it didn't stick too long.

After pulling an all nighter to reach our destination Greg and I made Chiloquin about 6:15 Friday morning, we unloaded the trailer and headed to breakfast at Maleta's, the off site center of attraction for the weekend. With their rooms for rent, some people stay there and the restaurant gets plenty of business from breakfast to dinner as well. By the time breakfast was over the steaming bays were bustling with jacketed activity. It never quite got warm all day and the vapor shots were awesome for the photographers. Every body made it out and soon one would think that they were the only engine out there at times.

If last year the Elizabeth Loop wasn't far enough from civilization for you, the new single track extension is just the ticket. Heading up the grade from the end of nowhere this new track works its way up the gentle valley and at present ends at a Wye, with the roadbed graded forever it seems towards the great north. I was crewing with the Shay's, double headed of course, with the Thompson boys leading up ahead on the C&S Mogul when we reached the Wye, radio contact had Peter and his train behind us back at the loop and it was communicated to come on up. Soon there were three trains at the end of track and upon descending back to the loop there were two more trains waiting to tackle the hill when we cleared. When our group stopped for lunch a steady trickle of activity passed for our dining entertainment.

Operations on Train Mountain are different that you will see everybody in the steaming bay in the morning but they can totally disappear for a whole day and never pass you. I saw RGS #41 once during Friday's run briefly yet everybody that ran that engine was soot faced from running somewhere all day. I only saw Ray and Becky on Saturday because they where stopped in a siding, and they ran all weekend too. Or you'll pass a train going in the other direction on the serpentine, never to pass again all day. Out in the flat land in the distance one might see a train wondering through the forest but they are on a different loop. With the Shay's double heading, one could hear them but where they were was any one's guess. Shay's in a forest are like Huey's in the jungle; they're there, you can hear them like thunder, but where?

Sunday morning a thin coating of snow greeted the early risers. Then it would split rain, try to snow some more, my chance to fire up the Mogul and play. It was cold, ugly and fun at the same time. Mike and Nathan accompanied me down the serpentine and around the Midway for a few photo runby's in the snow flurries. It never got a blanket of white on the ground, but it wasn't for trying. Then it was back up the hill in the heaviest it tried to snow. Good fun, us southerners don't get snow days very often. By 11:00 the sky was starting to clear and it even warmed up a bit. Drying out and allowing all of us to pack it all away in our vehicles for the trip home. Another interesting weekend at Train Mountain. Next year the meet will move back two weeks till after Mother's Day to try for a little less inclimate weather.

For a peek at the photos of the weekend;

Train Mountain Narrow Guage Meet 2009

15" workday, April 25, 2009

On Saturday the 25th I ran out on the Harley to assist Brendon Hilton and his crew of dedicated helpers on an historic endeavor. The plan was to finish the 15" gauge balloon loop on the mesa before their Spring Meet on the first weekend in May. Well it seems that Brendon and company had been at it since Wednesday and had the loop completed excepting final grading and alignment. That was done in quick order and I had the opportunity to operate the 'ore car' with the Sessum's ballast car in tow through the new cut. That is an impressive piece of work Brendon and all the others; that whittled on that section of real estate from April of 2007 when this picture was taken and twenty five months later when the dream was fulfilled, a train can pass through. Later in the morning a few more helpers arrived and the switches were raised just west of the bridge and work progressed on the other side of the abyss above the museum cars. The existing track panels that were past the bridge were removed to allow the grading crew a clear shot at leveling and grading. The roadbed clear up to the base of the hill behind the caboose was regraded and soon the track crew was replacing the old section of track just east of the bridge. Now this rail the 15" use is thirty something feet long, so it doesn't take long to have 100 feet of track laid out, and their tie spacing is a lot further apart too. With the help of their handy dandy 'Iron Maiden' tie holder three guys can get ties put to the rail pretty quickly without too much pain. By the time I left around four that afternoon there was track back to the caboose and it was ready to grade already. A great accomplishment from a hand full of people in short order of time. Brendon's report of the weeks accomplishment is more telling of all that was done and by who, I just wanted to get the word out about what had transpired on the last weekend in April. Something that the early members of JT had envisioned, and has now come to pass.">

Easter Weekend, April 2009

Hey guys, this is a work in progress, so enjoy while I get it done. It might change so keep an eye on it, Brian.



The wildflowers are out in force this year, they are blossoming everywhere. And out out the tracks is no exception. The curve out of the station was just one of the many places where it was absolutely covered with flowers.

This weekend's project was many fold and long in planning to be done someday. Foremost of them all was to relay the rail in the station to remove the bent section of track from an automobile driving on the platform a few years back. Of all the things to do at JT it is the most disheartening to have to do something over because of negligence. But it needed done and while we were at it why not improve the situation, so we did.

One. The rail in the station is a lighter or smaller size then we use on the main line and it was intended for use as guard rail and the like. Over the years it has been used up and it is now gone. When the Palmer bridge was relaid in March of 2006 it never got guard rails placed on it, so the light rail on the station track was put to use as the new guard rails for the track. We're still twenty foot short, but better then we were. New track panels with heavy rail are now in place down the station track. And now the switches at the west end of the station can be built using heavy rail.

Two. The station was lacking adequate water facilities when steam engines are at the platform. The only water plug is mid way on the platform. Just great if you're the only train but when it gets busy, and we know that is two or more on our little pike. And it would be nice if the steam engines wouldn't have to stop on the platform for safety reasons too. So let's put the new plugs just past the end of the platform. Well, the station sidings don't go that far, or at least they didn't. We added twenty feet to the three tracks so that all three tracks can now get water at the east end of the station. This makes the station track look a whole lot better now that the track is straight throughout the station platform too.


Three. That nasty kink in the switch on the center track at the station. Any body that's prayed the engine stays on the track as they go through there knows which one. Well with every thing apart while moving things east twenty feet it was apparent that there was just too much track between the first switch and the second one to make a nice curve there. So we took some out, thirty inches of tangent brought the switch in alignment and now we have a nice curve into the second track and a great little 'S' curve to watch when the long trains go through it. We rebuilt the switch so that all four rail joints aren't on the same tie too, that will keep things in one with the alignment forces.

JT visits MLS Spring Meet

March 20-22, 2009

With the Narrow Gauge Meet over and done it was time to visit another track as it is traveling time for Three Companies. With Mom felling much better these days Al and Lynn were off to the Maricopa Live Steamers Spring Meet. They pretty much just went from JT to Phoenix, ah, that retirement life. Greg and I had to attend our weekly sessions at the salt mill, but we were on the road by mid Friday afternoon. Matt Z, the CVLS president and soon to be new JT member (hint, hint)drove up to Corona for the trip over with us. He had never been to the Adobe track site and was exited to get the chance to go along.

The trip across the desert was uneventful, with the sun at our backs and traffic bearable we were soon in Buckeye and stopped to see Mike Polinsky's new house and to see his Artzberger RGS #20. When these engines are finished they will be as prolific as Little Engines Americans once were. Looking forward to that day.


In Greg's truck we had a stack of flat cars and the caboose to compliment the stack of flats that Dad had with the GE 47 tonner. It makes for quite a string, meandering out among the flora and fauna of the flood basin in spring. On an early Saturday trip through the yard area, Ron and Lila Schmidt had arrived as they were in the area for a spell.
We took them on a scenic trip on one of the five different loops that can be taken at MLS. After a good hour on the ride they were off again to enjoy the great spring weather.

MLS has quite a few 2 1/2"ng engines and cars about their railroad. Karl Hovanitz has a stable of 2 1/2" equipment at the club as well as at his home track at Bitter Creek.
Bruno Platzer keeps a plethora of narrow gauge equipment to pull behind his massive K-36 and GE 47 tonner there as well since MLS is the closest track to his home in Las Vegas. John Mueller's C-16 is at home there as well and is an early representation of Rio Grande equipment. He is working on finishing up a wooden box car, individual boards on the exterior, nice. John is one of the original five to be involved in the JT property. Jeff Hickman has an impressive collection of rolling stock with wide wheels too. A past visitor to JT, Bob Clark from Farmington, New Mexico was down to pick up his new Easlon freight cars. Bob says he lives by the blogs and E-mails from other clubs as he lives in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for the good word about these musings. Thanks to Rick White for the photos of the train, I took one photo the whole weekend.

It is always fun and interesting to travel to other tracks, you learn different ways to tackle things, some work for you, some don't. MLS has a weather demon like we do and the way they go about it makes a lot of sense. They have sand everywhere and their switch throws are the way we should go. We're working on it. Make an effort to visit another club track this season, you'll be glad you did. Next travel spot, Train Mountain Narrow Gauge Meet 09, May 2009, Chiliquin Oregon, see you there.

March 2009 Narrow Gauge Meet

Joshua Tree & Southern Narrow Gauge Meet 2009
and Dedication of the Bill Shepherd Lift
March 12-15

The best decision for having a meet was to have it in March instead of February. The weather was absolutely wonderful; mild temperatures, clear skies, and the next day was ‘more of the same’ all weekend.


The Meet started early for Gary and Margret Stites, they came the week before, a calendar mistake to their favor. Gary got in some valuable throttle time on his GE 47 tonner, learning the ins and outs of its operation quite well by the end of the weekends. The painting project and detailing are coming along fine, good job Gary.

Bill Shepherd has been in town for a few weeks now and his handy work is to be found all throughout the place.
The Gazsi bay is complete and filled now and the steps are forming at the south end of the steaming bays, a greatly needed and appreciated addition and completion to the steaming area. A concrete curb was added to the turn table pit area to keep the soil from eroding into the pit. The only thing left is the erection of the engine house to add the final crown to the improved and expanded complex. Bill has also completed the pedestrian entrance at the front gate. You must come see it for yourself, this is a project that Bill has worked on for over a year in secrecy and it is now de-classified for our enjoyment.

Bill has also been trenching away at the campground septic system, when finished it will need more than four hundred feet of pipe to complete. Bill has also been finishing up the steps and retaining walls around the new lift area. I’m sure there will be added attention to details as we dedicated it in his name on Saturday, a very fitting expression of our gratitude for all his hard work, dedication to detail and the stamina to see it through to completion of many things around our great museum and club.


The dedication on Saturday was well attended. As a background for the occasion, three locomotives sat on the leads from the hoist. Giving those assembled a touch for what can be done at the new facility. The Speech for the dedication was short and to the point about how all who come out to Joshua Tree leave ‘finger prints’.


Finger Prints, from the early days of when the original founders of the club put their mark on what is out here. From the building of the 7 ½” railroad that started in 1979 to its present scope has taken many more different sets of finger prints to evolve to what we have today.
Some people’s finger prints lay below the surface where they are not as readily seen. Some people’s finger prints might lay behind the scenes, and yet we only see those that are on the surface, those that created through what has been called ‘sweat equity’ the physical plant of the organization; the roadbed, the track, the facilities that make a railroad more then just a circle on the ground. So in honor to one that has left many a ‘finger print’ about the place, we dedicated the new hoist as the Shepherd Lift. Fittingly Bill even wore a blue shirt to match the hoist’s color well. Thank you Bill, from all of us, for all you have done and for many things yet to come we are very appreciative of your time, toil and techniques.


On the operation side of the meet we had a very good turn out. Ron and Peter made a light load trip south with one C-16, #278, in tow. The Burns Family made it down with the whole train behind the RGS #41. The Thompson boys had C&S #13 out for the weekend as well. The Tolans made a light trip as well, only stuffing the van to the gills, no trailer, had the ‘Chloe’ along. Erin Swain and his growing family made the trip from Flagstaff with the Fitchburg Mogul.
On Saturday Jeff Tolan and Erin had double headed with Paul Lavacot’s string of log buggies in tow, power to weight ratio for that drag was pretty low. Allan Ratliff had GE 47 tonner #17 polishing the rail as well, hauling log cars around all weekend, even had a new load to pull; stacks of untreated ties for the soaker.
The days were warm and the nights delightful, Terry Watson had the Museum open all weekend for those that wanted to see the sights. Peter Moseley had not been inside since Gary Conley and Terry had spruced up the exhibits and stated that his Father would have been impressed with what and how they have arranged the Museum. A new addition to the shirts available at the Museum is a nicely embroidered hat with the JT&SRR logo on the front, and for the Narrow Gauge Meet a special run was made with that on the back hoop. All 36 went quickly and could be seen throughout the area all weekend.

Many new faces were seen about the place over the meet as well as many old ones that haven’t been out for a while. Paul Westover invited his folks from Tehachapi to see the place for the first time. Paul’s dad has been cutting the ties for us for quite some time, now it all makes sense. Paul’s brother Richard and his family was up from Santee and has vowed to be out again to help in the ‘finger prints’ with some sweat equity of his own, Paul says he hasn’t stopped talking about the place yet. Kim and Linda Beard spent the weekend and stayed in the ‘romantic’ Pullman car, this is the first time Kim has seen his peddle car set out track near Burns Spur, it was well used over the meet with his and Shepherd’s peddler filling the track. The Chula Vista club had many make the trek to see the sights as well as Ron Wilkerson from Riverside.


A new addition to the layout was the new place signs that the Burns have started making, the original is at Burns and is ceramic from Liz’s art class, the newest and how the others will be made are wooden and double sided. The first new sign fittingly was placed at Tedder, just in front of the Tedder Mansion, below the same named trestle. The placement of the signs adds yet another ‘finger print’ to the railroad.

A great time was had by all and it was over all too soon. Next time out will be Easter Weekend so find all the eggs early or bring them out to hide between the cacti, see you there, Brian