Re: More C&S caboose under frame weirdness.

Posted by John Greenly on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/the-caboose-that-never-was-tp8369p9465.html

Jim Courtney wrote

UPD&G cabooses 1725 and 1726, originally CCRR 26 and 27, were built in late 1883. They were renumbered to UPD&G 61 and 62 in 1897.

When acquired by the C&S, they became 300 (later 1000) and 301 (later 1001). We know that the 1000 was a long body caboose, at least after the 1908-1910 rebuild (14' 10" body length). If both cars were built in the same batch in 1883, they were likely both the same length.

If Todd's 1885-86 photo at Beaver Brook is of a long body caboose, and the rear wheel set is very near the end steps, is it possible that the caboose has already been modified to ride on a pair of trucks?  Is it already an eight-wheel caboose, as you are suggesting in the snowy photo from about 1905 on the upper part of the Georgetown Loop? Remember, what started on Clear Creek, generally stayed on Clear Creek.

(He asks, as all of us move collectively further out on a conjectural limb . . .)

Ah, great, Jim, excellent!

  If this is a long body caboose, then I believe you're right, it's possible there are trucks under it.  I really can't tell.  I need to think that through, geometrically.  That would be a nice element of a very neat story for eight-wheeled cabooses!  And it'd remove our exception to the short-wheelbase theory.  I don't see anything to contradict it, at the moment.  

Out on a conjectural limb, or down a rabbit hole, either way, this is fun!!

John