Southern California Railway Museum Steam Shops

Southern California Railway Museum Steam Shops Stay up to date with all things steam at Southern California Railway Museum. no. 2.

Southern California Railway Museum Steam Shops will keep you up to date on all our steam locomotives, with news and updates for:
--Ventura County Railway no. 2
--Union Pacific Railroad no. 2564
--Mojave Northern Railway no. 2
--The Emma Nevada
--The Chloe

The majority of this page will be dedicated to news about our operating steam locomotive, Ventura County Ry. You may also find other news unrel

ated to our locomotives that is significant enough for us to share, such as friends of ours accomplishing a major milestone on their projects.

The crew today consisted of Jeff, Brian, Dan, and Jim. We got a good bit done.Jeff worked inside the tender water tank t...
03/22/2026

The crew today consisted of Jeff, Brian, Dan, and Jim. We got a good bit done.

Jeff worked inside the tender water tank to weld the new steel patches for the tank wall. He is 60% done with the welding now. Jim assisted Jeff on the tender.

Brian and Dan reinstalled three more bearing cellars today. There is only one cellar left to install. That cellar has a small crack that needs to be welded before the cellar can be installed.

Want to donate or volunteer? Go to socalrailway.org/sco to help!

The crew today was Brian, Dan, Jeff, Daniel, and Jason.Dan and Jeff inspected the inside of the tender water tank. Dan i...
03/08/2026

The crew today was Brian, Dan, Jeff, Daniel, and Jason.

Dan and Jeff inspected the inside of the tender water tank. Dan is researching what kind of anti-rust coating we will apply to the inside of the water tank. The first photos show the inside of the tank and Jeff kneeling at the entrance hatch.

Brian and Jeff did a dye penetrant test on one of the bearing cellars. It has a small crack that we will weld up. It’s the dark purple spot in the photo.

The crew did some housekeeping around the locomotive. Daniel and Jason made some trash runs to the dumpster out back.

Want to donate or volunteer? Go to www.socalrailway.org/sco to help!

The steam crew was at it again yesterday! The work done was:Brian continued preparing the bearing cellars for installati...
02/22/2026

The steam crew was at it again yesterday! The work done was:

Brian continued preparing the bearing cellars for installation under the leading and trailing axles. (The driving cellars are all installed now.)

Jeff cleaned out a new storage closet for the steam crew.

Dan finished the new plumbing for the blower steam line and put away the extra unneeded materials from the project. (Translation: he sorted a bucket of pipe fittings back into their storage bins.)

Randy made a metal plate to reinforce the door lock on our new storage closet.

Lee organized tools and talked with a number of visitors.

Dan represented the steam crew at the museum's recurring New Volunteer Orientation and talked with some prospective volunteers.

Jeff and Brian flipped through a book of steam locomotive builders photos and foamed over the pictures. Dan stood nearby and did not foam over the pictures.

In an unrelated incident, Dan foamed over the cover photo on another book, which featured a Chicago & North Western Vauclain compound 4-4-2.

Want to donate or volunteer? Go to www.socalrailway.org/sco to help out!

The crew today was Brian, Dan, Jim, Daniel, Karen, Blim Jr., Ben, and Jason.Some photos from today’s work:Karen holds a ...
02/08/2026

The crew today was Brian, Dan, Jim, Daniel, Karen, Blim Jr., Ben, and Jason.

Some photos from today’s work:
Karen holds a pipe from the blower steam line that was newly wrapped with fiberglass insulation tape. Jim is walking behind her.

Some photos of the newly painted pipes for the blower steam line.

Blim Jr. and Brian use an inspection camera to look inside the boiler.

Other work not pictured:
Daniel did some maintenance on our air compressor trailer. It needs a new alternator.

Jason did some welding on the plumbing for compressed air for shop tools.

Jason and Dan returned to storage the hydraulic pipe bender that was used several months ago for the blower steam line project.

Want to donate or volunteer? Go to www.socalrailway.org/sco to help!

More photos from yesterday
01/19/2026

More photos from yesterday

The steam crew got a lot done yesterday! The work done was:—Jeff, Brian, Yousef, and Dan got all the bearing cellars rei...
01/19/2026

The steam crew got a lot done yesterday! The work done was:
—Jeff, Brian, Yousef, and Dan got all the bearing cellars reinstalled for the driving axles.
—Jason made retaining clips for the pins that hold the cellars in place.
—Dan and Yousef finished paint prep and put a primer coat on the new piping for the blower and fire-up air.
—Jeff and Brian replaced a wheel on our electric cart.
—Jason installed a tire on our diesel air compressor.
—Brian set out more used railroad books for sale.

We also had a lot of visitors to Car Barn 4!

Want to donate or volunteer? Go to socalrailway.org/sco to help!

Today was the first steam crew workday this year. We had a good number of visitors in Car Barn 4.The crew worked on rein...
01/11/2026

Today was the first steam crew workday this year. We had a good number of visitors in Car Barn 4.

The crew worked on reinstalling another driving box cellar, and three other cellars were cleaned in preparation for installation.

The pictures show some of the cellars. Brian Smith is sitting inside the frame, getting ready to install a cellar.

Want to donate or volunteer? Go to socalrailway.org/sco to help out!

12/21/2025

The steam crew worked today, but unfortunately we don’t have any photos to post. Some good work got done though!

We continued cleaning the spring pads for the locomotive, which wick oil up against the axles. We also got one of the driving box cellars reinstalled. The cellars are oil reservoirs that fit under the axles. Work fabricating the new blower piping continued, and we worked on removing a stud that had seized and snapped off in the cylinder casting.

The crew for today was Brian Smith, Dan Parks, Blim Lugo, Blim Lugo Jr., Karen Lugo, and Jason Marquez.

Steam lives!

The crew worked on a number of projects today. Sadly, we only have pictures of two of them because we didn’t think to ta...
12/07/2025

The crew worked on a number of projects today. Sadly, we only have pictures of two of them because we didn’t think to take photos. The work today was:

Cleaning spring pads for the driving box cellars. The spring pads are cotton wicks sewn around metal springs. They gently press against the bottom of the driving axles to wick up oil onto the axles for lubrication. They are the shaggy sponges in the photos.

Work continued nicely on the piping for the blower line. A pipe clamp bracket was finished for the blower drain line, and the last section of pipe was cut to length, threaded, and fitted with a union. You can see this project in the piping photos.

Other work not pictured:
The crew connected an air hose to the locomotive’s Westinghouse cross-compound air compressor and gently ran the air compressor on compressed air to keep it well oiled and unseized.

The valve rods and valve rings were cleaned of accumulated oil and crud.

A low tire on our electric cart got filled up.

The crew today was Brian Smith, Dan Parks, Blim, Blim Jr., Karen, Jason Marquez, Jason Kobieslky, Becca Huebner, and David Huebner.

Want to donate or volunteer? Go to:
socalrailway.org/sco

The steam crew worked on two projects today. We worked on disassembling the piston valves in order to measure and replac...
11/23/2025

The steam crew worked on two projects today. We worked on disassembling the piston valves in order to measure and replace the rings that make a steam tight seal on the valves. And, work continues on the drain pipe for the new blower pipe. Pictured in the photos are Jeff Lamb (in the hard hat) and Randy Parks.

Your donations keep us rolling! If you’re able to donate, it is tax deductible. Select apply my donation to VC-2 Fund (C51): https://socalrailway.networkforgood.com/projects/184828-general-donations
Want to volunteer? We need the help! Click the link here: https://socalrailway.org/join/

Donations and volunteers needed! See below.Southern California got some serious rain this weekend. Despite the rain, vol...
11/16/2025

Donations and volunteers needed! See below.

Southern California got some serious rain this weekend. Despite the rain, volunteers continued to make progress on the locomotive. Work focused on removing the oil cellars from the rear and lead trucks. The cellars were removed to inspect the hub liners and axle bearing surfaces to ensure they will handle another 15 years of service. After removal, the cellars were cleaned and drained of any oil or residue, tagged, and bagged for later repacking. The cotton pads were also cleaned and prepared for later repacking of the cellars. For the time being that the axle and hub liner surfaces will be exposed, they were coated with grease in an effort to minimize corrosion.

So where does the project stand now? Running gear is progressing. Boiler work is in a holding pattern until engineering comes back on the thickness measurements. What we do know for now is there are a number of places on the inside of the firebox that are unacceptably thin. Outside sheets and barrel are perfectly serviceable and we think we can get another 15 years out of them without issue. Potentially some patching necessary on the first course, but engineering will tell us for sure. Once engineering comes back, we will look to soliciting bids for boiler work, and determine the scope of the work. Such things are very expensive and labor intensive, and we could really use help.
If you’re able to volunteer, donate, or spread the word, please do so. Donations are tax-deductible, and can be made here. Select apply my donation to VC-2 Fund (C51): https://socalrailway.networkforgood.com/projects/184828-general-donations
Want to volunteer? We need the help! Click the link here: https://socalrailway.org/join/

Thank you to all who support us and visit the museum.
Steam lives!

Address

2201 S. A Street
Perris, CA
92570

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm
Sunday 9am - 5pm

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