To wrap up our deep dive into Southern Pacific’s Sacramento Shops, we’re posting some items that we have pictures of, but no plans: The privy, the water tower, the turntable, and the pitless transfer table.
One of the earliest of the remaining buildings, the Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops Planing Mill was built beginning in 1867 and was in use by 1869. The masonry structure was 231 feet by 90 feet with an additional wing, built of local materials, on a foundation of brick and stone rubble, oriented east to west. Round-arched windows with corbels dominated the exterior walls between load-bearing pilasters. The ground floor of the east side had double pilasters to provide openings for four large doors to allow cars to enter and exit. Check out the page full of plans and photos.
Originally built in 1869, the blacksmith shop was 60 by 150 feet in size. Within a year, the blacksmith shop was enlarged by adding a 167 by 90 foot addition. Housing everything surrounding the forging of wrought iron, by 1880, there were 50 forges, two furnaces, and a trip hammer and other metal-shaping machinery in operation in the blacksmith shop. Check out our page with a historical overview, six detailed photos and five delineated plans.
Up next in our deep dive into the Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops is the Boiler Shop. During the steam era, railroad back shops revolved around the erecting shops and boiler shops, and the Southern Pacific’s Sacramento Shops were no different. Check out the five pages of plans and 12 photos of the boiler shop, which is now the restoration shop for the California State Railroad Museum.
Southern Pacific’s Sacramento Shops were centered around the erecting and machine shop, where heavy locomotive maintenance was performed. The facility housed craftsmen who were experts in every step of overhauling and retrofitting the railroad’s equipment. Our page takes a deep dive into the erecting and machine shop with many photos, plans, and a historical narrative.
By 1872, shop managers at Southern Pacific’s Sacramento Shops realized that more space was needed for painting than was available in the wing of the planing mill that was being used at the time. The new paint shop was erected to the east of Car Shop No. 3 aligned parallel to it. The main building was 70 by 265 feet, with five parallel wings on the east side, each 70 by 20 feet. Unlike many of the buildings at the Sacramento Shops, the paint shop – through several reincarnations – survived until the Shops were closed in 1999. Check out the plans of this massive building.