Re: More C&S caboose under frame weirdness.

Posted by Jim Courtney on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/the-caboose-that-never-was-tp8369p9452.html

Interesting thoughts, John and SP.

There seems to be a new premise congealing as to the evolution of the C&S cabooses from building to abandonment. Lord knows if any of this is true or not. It might be helpful to summarize all the thoughts posted to date in terms of a timeline.

Construction, 1880-1884:

A total of 21 cabooses were built for the South Park, before and after the UP take over. The cars were delivered in four batches. Some had longer bodies than others. Photographs (very few) and a single surviving folio 27 drawing suggest that all cars were equipped with 4 wheel undercarriages with a short 6' 3' wheel base. We have no idea what the original undercarriage looked like; the photo of C&S caboose 313 in Blackhawk is not clear enough to draw conclusions.

Maintenance, Repair, Remodeling, Replacement with New Building, 1885-1899:

Over the years, the UP shops (including during the Trumbull Receivership) may have made major changes to the caboose fleet, while repairing wreck damage or rebuilding/new-building worn out cars. At least one, maybe more of the long body (14+ foot) cars were placed on four wheel 20-ton Peninsular type trucks. At least one of the short body (about 13 foot) cabooses had a new intermediate under frame with 9' wheel base constructed, perhaps an experiment to improve tracking/riding characteristics (this was 1511/308/1006, there may have been others).

New construction also probably occurred; 1500/303/1002, a long body car, had a center cupola added, was remodeled with square windows and quarter round corners and was place on 4 wheel trucks. At least two other short body cars were extensively remodeled, perhaps new construction to replace vacated or scrapped cars (1507/306/1005 and 1514/310/1008): The cars had new center cupolas applied and the same square windows, quarter round corners as 303/1002; the new 9 foot wheel base intermediate undercarriage was also applied, and was photographed about 1901 (caboose 306) to confuse historians and model builders thereafter.

(A contrarian argument is that 1002, 1005, and 1008 all came from the U&N during the early 1890's, but there is no written documentation to support this)

At least one more short body car (see Como photo), perhaps others were remodeled with center cupolas. There is written evidence that automatic air brakes were installed on some cars in the late 1890's (the freight car fleet had sported automatic air brakes as early as 1884). Some cars were never rebuilt and remained pretty much in their original configuration when inherited by the C&S (see Braddocks photo). Automatic couplers replaced link-n-pin couplers by the fall of 1903.

Modernization, 1908-1912:

All surviving C&S cabooses had major rebuilding, with new under frames using heavy cast pedestals/journals and a 9 foot wheel base, perhaps inspired by the 9' wheel base intermediate under frames of the 1890's. Cupolas were moved to one end of the car, and windows reduced to one per side, most double pain, at least three remained single pane, square windows. Caboose 1002 never lost its center cupola, remained on 4 wheel trucks into the mid-teens (perhaps early 1920's), but eventually received the modern undercarriage.

Amendments to the US Safety Act were issued in 1910, specifying lateral roof walks, end ladders and grab irons in specific locations. Some cabooses did not receive these upgrades until the mid 19-teens, others (perhaps rebuilt after 1910) had them added during the modernization rebuild in 1910-1912:  Caboose 1003 (see photo above) did not have the new hardware in April of 1912, while 1007 had all the new stuff in July, 1912. A few cars likely never received the new hardware and were scrapped as surplus, given the declining traffic.

Please critique this timeline by adding thoughts.

And add any thoughts about the C.C./UPD&G cabooses as well; two cars (61/300/1000 and 62/301/1001) survived through the modernization phase, 1000 survived to abandonment. Caboose 1000 was a long body car, was 1001??