Abstract:

The Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources (SPCRR) proposes to acquire, restore, and document a wooden narrow gauge flat car, as part of a documentation project to preserve traditional car building skills.

This interdisciplinary project, however, is not simply about restoring an old flat car. It attemps to recapture, stimulate, and record the vanishing skills, technologies, and hands-on experiences that railroad engineers, craftsmen and apprentices used, while actually building a piece of railroad rolling stock, in 'production time', (2 days) not 'restoration time'. We will also develop a methodology for training today's apprentices in rail preservation technology. Toward this goal we are planning classroom and distance learning sessions on traditional mechanical as well as CAD drawing, railroad and California history, and workshops on pattern making and foundry work, forging (blacksmithing), as well as heavy carpentry and wood joinery.

Although facilitated by university faculty, rail preservationists, and historical documentation experts the student-lead teams will also investigate how best to integrate the twenty-first century technologies and tools now available and integrate them into a curriculum they help design. Ultimately the student teams will assist in the development of multi-media courseware that can be used to teach the next generation of apprentices -- other college, high school students, or railroad preservation volunteers.

The entire process will be fully documented with the goal of producing a 1/2 hour to one hour long video documentary on the restoration of the car and a series of skills specific short documentaries.

Overview:

"This Old Flat Car " is a joint effort of the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources, a museum in Newark, California committed to the preservation of the Carter Brothers Company and other narrow gauge railroads; TeamWorks, a cross-disciplinary team of students and faculty from the arts, sciences, humanities and engineering at California State University, Sacramento; and the Industrial Living History Consortium, an alliance of individuals, institutions and organizations working to preserve industrial age skills before they vanish.

The project will occur in four phases. During phase one a student design/build and documentation team consisting of twelve engineering and humanities students will develop a complete project plan and assign each team member specific responsibilities. Responsibilites will include researching a complete history of the car, the techniques the Carter Brothers would have used to build the car at the turn of the century, and explore the lives of the individual Carter Railroad worker. Students will also participate in the disassembly of the car to make a complete inventory of all its parts, fully dimension each part to make mechanical as-built drawings, create wooden patterns, cast all the parts in a historic foundry, and machine all the parts to get them ready for assembly. At the same time students will document the entire project -- each process, technology and skill used in the project. Each student will keep a journal, conduct research and oral interviews and be trained in the process of video and still documentation.

To prepare the students for this ambitious project will take much mentoring and training. The students will help design the courses needed to develop the skills needed to carry through this project. It is anticipated that three to four classroom sessions will be needed to review the project, the history of the local (California) railroads, the technology used in the car's construction, and the restoration methods used. These sessions will be led by volunteers and professionals from SPCRR, the California State Railroad Museum and other rail preservation societies. The students will also be encouraged to seek out other experts and advisors and to communicate via e-mail, a list-serve, and world wide web page on the internet.

After acquiring the car, a two day session at Ardenwood will be necessary to disassemble and document the car. Soon after, a follow-up classroom session will be needed to review the documents being developed. -- A few more workshops will be scheduled on pattern-making, foundry processes, and blacksmithing.

Students will also receive training in video documentation techniques, oral history, research methodology, improvisational living history, and presentation techniques. Many classes will be conducted via computer. At the conclusion of this phase the students will have developed a "kit."

Phase Two of the project will occur in two days at Ardenwood Historic Farm, when the students will build the flat car, in "real time", using the same technologies as the Carter Brothers. Students will work in "costume" and in "character" taking on the persona of a Carter Brothers employee. The focus of this two day, public event, is to not only build the car, but record the skills, community of work, and experiences of the workers during the process. The video and other documentary evidence created during this event will lead to Phase Three which includes the completion of all historical documentation and a restoration report. Eventually we hope to develop a video documentary and multi-media courseware to help train other apprentices. SPCRR would like to repeat this process in the restoration of other rail cars and the California State Railroad Museum has indicated an interest in restoring a Caboose for their new technology museum.

Some of the specific outcomes of the project are to:

• integrate the best of the turn-of-the-century engineering education techniques and process--teamwork, apprenticeship, hands-on learning, "real-world" projects with industry mentors-- with the best of today's information age technologies and processes; CAD drawing, computer modeling and simulation, distance learning, and electronic communications to train today's engineer.

• introduce liberal art students to the role technology has played in our history, gain an understanding of the role technology has played in shaping our country's past and future, and provide hands-on practice in developing the "information age" skills they need -- not only to record the past -- but to integrate that information to help solve the huge social problems facing us today.

• provide an opportunity for students to give something back to the community and to preserve an important part of our industrial heritage. In this instance, to help the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources fill in a part of the historic record. SPCRR has devoted years of work trying to recreate the construction and manufactruing techniques used by the Carter Brothers Company. Little written record is availabe and there are no employees alive to recount the experience of designing and building narrow gauge railcars, or to pass on his particular techniques or skills. How did journeymen pass on skills to the young apprentice? What type of pre-planning and team work was necessart to build a railcar in one day? What techniques, skills, technologies, and knowledges were necessary to manufacture over 5,000 rail cars in just 30 years?

The philosophy underlining this project is very simple. We learn by observing, learn by doing, and learn by teaching. Most students have spent years observing and passively listening while faculty lectures. From day one the students will be active partners in the process. Faculty will serve as guides and facilitators as the students assit in the design of the overall project, help recruit other team members and faculty, research the communication methodologies and software packages available to us so that everyone can be "connected" through e-mail, and other groupware programs, design and maintain a World-Wide-Web site, create "just-in-time" seminars and workshops and recruit faculty to help them develop the skill and knowledges they need to complete the building of the railcar in two days.

If you have comments or are interested in learning more/joining TeamWorks you can e-mail Jeff Pluth at pluthj@csus.edu

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