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.
The Southern Pacific Railroad Sacramento Shops were the largest and most comprehensive railroad heavy repair facilities in the Western United States. This page offers an overview of the evolution of the Sacramento Shops from its beginning through the transformation from steam to diesel.
A few years ago, I picked up a used 1999-built Lionel 4-6-4 Hudson steam locomotive at a price too good to pass up. Without much of a layout to run it on, after testing all the functions, I put it in the same temperature- and humidity-controlled layout room closet with all my other rolling stock and structures.
Well, I decided to get it out this year for a new holiday layout I built, only to discover CORROSION!
Something had caused corrosion on the floor of the tender, so I tore it apart to see what was going on inside. What I discovered put me in the position of deciding what to do: take it in for professional restoration, or take on the job myself.
I discuss the discovery and the thought process put into deciding whether to tackle the repairs myself on our new Tips and Tricks page Repairing Corrosion on a Lionel Hudson Tender.