This is next installment of a periodic column that Keith Berry is writing for the Windfall, the weekly classified newspaper in El Dorado County.

Were going to the Dogs! Yep, our railroad is going to the dogs, actually several "DOGS."

I'm not sure if the crew worked yesterday. The forecast for the El Dorado County foothills called for a blanket of snow down to the thousand-foot level Friday night and Saturday morning. Instead rain soaked the foothills Friday morning. The moisture was gone by the time the cold front arrived Friday evening.

Here's picture of the crew hauling brush along the right-of-way:

Eric Olds, vice president of the Placerville and Sacramento Valley Railroad, graciously allowed me to share this update on track work on the western end of the Placerville Branch:

Water is the enemy of railroad ties. More than 20 years of maintenance inactivity on the Southern Pacific Placerville Branch line has taken a toll. Many ties have slowly rotted away due to poor drainage on the right-of-way.

How does a railroad replace ties?

Like most aspects of our 21st century lives, railroads have found ways to mechanize tasks that once to require back-breaking labor. Tie replacement is one such task.

With the skill of a High Sierra trail crew, volunteers from two railroads joined forces Saturday to stabilize the ballast under track between Mile Posts 138 and 139. The project was a joint effort by the El Dorado Western Railway and Folsom, El Dorado and Sacramento Historical Railway Association.

There comes a time in the history of every railroad when it reaches a milestone, especially early in its operation life. Just like the Central Pacific Railroad when it spiked in the first section of rail on October 26, 1863 in Sacramento, the El Dorado Western Railway reached a similar milestone last week.

Keith Berry and I joined the Folsom, El Dorado and Sacramento Historical Railroad Association during a maintenance-of-way excursion on the old Southern Pacific Placerville Branch on Saturday, May 8, 2010. After putting two hi-rail trucks on the tracks near the Mother Lode Drive grade crossing, we headed east to inspect the line and note areas of excessive vegetation growth.