Re: C&S caboose undercarriage timeline.

Posted by John Greenly on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/the-caboose-that-never-was-tp8369p9506.html

Still checking over my geometry for the photo analysis.  I think the late '90's  Como caboose in the photo Jim posted on p.2 of this thread is the poster child for the short wheelbase caboose.  Here it is again:



If anyone can supply a clearer version, it would be a huge contribution!

The more I look at it, the more I can't help thinking that the car looks like a body plopped down onto a passenger car truck.  The heavy beam that carries the pedestals/journals  (whatever they are)  doesn't attach to the end beams of the car, is way below the bottom of the car side and is at about the right height to be the beam of a passenger truck.  Here's an anguished plea to all you early passenger car experts-  did any passenger cars have truck wheelbases as long as 6' 3" ????
This would be pre-1880 or so, before the cabooses were built and before the familiar leaf/coil sprung modern type of equalized passenger truck came into use.  Could the UP have built these caboose bodies and put them on some old, obsolete passenger trucks?

John

BTW, Geoff, that's a very cool D&RG bobber, thanks for posting!