Category Archives: Caboose Project and Other Trains

Sometimes when John and I are feeling worried about yet another big
bill for caboose restoration, we try to put things into perspective.
In addition to having fun fixing up WP668 and bringing a historic railroad
caboose back into (limited) service, we will end up with 390 square feet
of comfortable, usable space at less than the going rate for new San Francisco Bay
Area construction. Also, based on what we see driving around here, not even
counting Ferraris and other high end sports cars, there are much
sillier vehicles we could spend money on:

Here is a current photo of WP668:

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Last weekend, I continued creating the little dry creek or arroyito, that
runs through the new cactus garden beside WP668, our backyard caboose.
I have many sizes of stones and three colors of gravel with which to create
the illusion of a natural creek bed. Picking through the stones for those
of the best shape and color and then fitting them together takes time.
Pictures follow.

John and I have also been hunting contractors to work on WP668. I can tell
that our local housing industry is in trouble because I am getting calls back from
my messages and estimators will come out to give us a bid within just a few days
even though ours is a small job. (To give you a comparison, it took 8 years
to find someone who would put a fancy stucco finish on our cabana because the
job was too small.) This week, we have finally found a metal roofing supplier
plus someone to install the linoleum floor. Those projects should be done within a
month. The stained glass should also be completed and installed before June.
We are still looking for a woodworker to build 8′ x 16′ of floor to ceiling glassed
bookcases and a window seat. We found someone who agreed to do the work but then he
got too busy.

Arroyito photos:

Partly done

Arroyito overview

Work in Progress

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

There are still many projects to finish the restoration of WP668, our
backyard caboose, but it is beginning to be usable. Once the new floor surface
goes in, it will look much better. Our daughter Jessica
gets credit for holding the first party in the caboose, on New Year’s Eve
2007. She invited a hoard of teenagers over for a dance. They didn’t care
that it was cold, the bay window wasn’t in, the floor was covered in plywood
sheets, and there was no paint! All that mattered was that they
could play their music loud and hang out with each other.

Our second party was last Sunday, when John and I invited our Agape dinner
group over. St. Andrew’s
Episcopal Church has a program for parishioners to get to know each
other better by meeting for dinner once a month at each other’s homes.
It was our turn to host last Sunday. We moved in the old iron stove and some
train lanterns for atmosphere, plus the three area rugs we bought for the caboose
at Fabindia while we were working
in India a year ago. We had wine, crackers, and cheese in WP668 and then
moved back into the house for dinner. It went very well.

John and I are moving up to hosting the Caboose Brunch next month and
then a Caboose warming party this summer. Here are some photos:

New Year’s 2007

New Year’s 2007

New Year’s 2007

Almost Ready to Party

Iron stove, lanterns

Ready for Guests

Images Copyright 2007-2008 by Katy Dickinson

We just received the current issue of The Western Pacific Headlight
(Issue 35, Spring 2008). This is the official publication of the Feather
River Rail Society (FRRS) and the Western Pacific Railroad Historical
Society (WPRRHS), based in Portola, California. The back pages 22-23 of this
issue show six black and white photos of “WP Wooden Caboose Photos” taken in 1973-1975
by Peter Arnold. Our own WP668 is one of them. This is the same WP668
14 September 1974 photo also published on p. 122: Western Pacific Color Guide
to Freight and Passenger Equipment by Jim Eager, 2001
(Publisher: Morning Sun Books; ISBN-10: 158248063X, ISBN-13: 978-1582480633)

Here it is in color (published with permission of Morning Sun Books):

All six photos in the current Western Pacific Headlight issue
are of steel strapped wooden bay window WP cabooses. This group was originally built
as boxcars around 1916 and converted to caboose service around 1943 (for World War II).
They are numbers 643, 645, 668, 679, 680, and 683. Looking at the

Central California Rails Caboose Index W, at least three cabooses pictured
(645, 668, and 679) still exist. WP645 and WP679 are in Portola and, of course,
WP668 is in our San Jose backyard.

I have been interviewing rocks. That is to say, I have hundreds
of garden rocks of sizes from the diameter of my fist to twice the size of my
head, plus many smaller and a few boulders even larger. Most of these are in
use but all are being considered for relocation to my new cactus garden.
The size, color, and texture patterns of each rock determine whether it gets
relocated. Also, if it is still needed where I had it originally. For example,
the rosemary border between the house and driveway has overgrown its
rock edging so all of those are being wiggled out and moved either to
the cactus garden or to replace rocks now in the cactus garden. My son Paul
helped me move 40 rocks on Saturday. He said he would rather lift weights.

Some of the rocks came with our Willow Glen house and I moved others from our old
house. Still more were collected in our driving trips around California
and Nevada each summer. The yellow quartz stone below came from Jake’s Creek
behind my Great-Grandparents’ Elkmont cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains
in Tennessee. Below are photos of some of my favorite rocks,
plus work-in-progress images of the cactus garden.

My neighbor came by to see what was happening. She said that the
caboose in the cactus garden looked like Disneyland. I hadn’t been thinking
of Disneyland as a source of garden design inspiration but I include
two photos from Splash Mountain’s small cactus garden below for comparison.
As you can
read in my blog, my daughter Jessica and visited

Disney World – Magic Kingdom after participating in the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in October 2007.

Buying more gravel

Dark gravel in arroyito

Starting to place stones

Moving stones

Silver Torch blooms

Trichocereus Carmarguensis Crest

Cactus without nametag

Last barrel cactus

Top gravel placed

Making progress…

Splash Mountain garden 1

Splash Mountain garden 2

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

One of the items auctioned off by
SAMA (St. Andrew’s Medical Assistance) at last Sunday’s charity
event was brunch on WP668, our backyard caboose:

Our brunch sold for $225 and we are now in the process of scheduling the event
with the winning bidders, probably for next month. I plan to finish setting out
the rocks in the arroyito of the cactus garden this weekend. I hope to get the

stained glass and new floor surface installed beforehand as well.
No pressure!

Image Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson, Certificate by Sami Asfour