Caboose Ladders (and other welding)

Last week, Chris Gremich* and John re-created the steel ladders at each
end of WP668, our backyard caboose. The original ladders had been cut into
pieces long ago. Chris used the remnants of the rusty scap
1943 ladders as a pattern to bend new galvanized steel pipes. He created
the rungs from steel pipe once the side pieces were in place. It took
about nine hours to go from new pipe to finished ladders on the caboose.
The ladders are about eleven feet tall (bent and cut from sixteen foot
pieces of 1-1/4″ pipe).

John is learning more about fancy welding by watching Chris work. I, in turn,
am learning simple

MIG (metal inert gas) welding from John. I have made three
plant stands out of scrap steel.

* Chris is “The Iron Expert” of CG Designs in San Jose, CA, phone: 408-313-3706

Here is what WP668 looked like with her original ladders intact, in 1974:

Photo used with permission of S. Roger Kirkpatrick

Here are some ladder restoration photos:

Original ladder scrap

Installing new rails

1st ladder done

looking up ladder

making 2nd ladder

Chris leveling a rung

John on roof

Chris Gremich

Katy’s 1st plant stand

Katy’s rail spike plant stand

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson