Category Archives: Caboose Project and Other Trains

John and I are in a phase of caboose restoration where there are many
fiddly not-very-photogenic projects. He has been installing the
insulation and wood facing for the new wood window frame in the
bay window cut out by the prior owner. We found leaks caused by
that prior owner having drilled hard-to-find holes in the steel. It
is a good thing we are doing this work during the rainy season. It would
have been a pain to find out about these little holes after the wood
facing was installed! We had enough original wood to replace the
damaged facing above the intact bay window but we are using new wood for
the other side.

Stained glass artist
Vince Taylor brought by the new window frame. Vince is working on
the design for the 3 windows he will install in WP668. See my

December 17, 2007 blog entry for more.

I have been filling little holes in the walls with wooden pegs. Once the
glue dries, I cut the excess peg flush with the wall then fill cracks with wood
filler paste. Some holes are too small for pegs and just need the paste.
91 years of bolts, screws, and nails have left many dozen little
holes. If it do it right, none of these will be visible once the walls
are painted. Bigger holes are covered with round tin patches. About
a dozen old patches were in place when we bought WP668 two years ago.
Our cat Valentino is contributing the bottoms of his special treat cat food
tins to the caboose restoration. Tino is happy to accept a treat whenever
we need a patch.

Valentino

Bay Window Leak

Vince’s window frame

Reused boards above old window

Pegs filling wall holes

Cat food tin wall patch

Images Copyright 2007-2008 by Katy Dickinson

From time to time, my husband John and I go hunting through the
eBay auction offerings for a
missing piece of railroad equipment for WP668, our backyard caboose.
There is something validating about the fact that there are 22,972 items
now for sale in the “Railroadiana, Trains” eBay category: we are not
alone in our interest in historic trains!

Last year, we bought a pair of original caboose marker lamps to fit into the
slots at either end of WP668 (see photos below). We are lethargically searching
for another pair for the other side. We paid $225 for our pair. I noticed another
larger pair sold recently for $1,242.50 (eBay Item number: 320198430842) and a third
pair of marker lights is now being offered for $550 starting bid (eBay Item number:
250205876513).

First, even after 9 years of regular eBay use, I am surprised that so much historical
railroad paraphernalia is for sale. Second, the prices are remarkably high. Clearly,
the market for obscure antiquities is both deep and rich.

Images Copyright 2007 by John Plocher

Today, we finished replacing the rotten and burned floor section of WP668, our backyard
caboose. We now have a solid and flat floor plus a big pile of 91-year-old
firewood.

Work in progress on WP668:

• Repaint original exterior markings (started)
• Paint new ladders yellow
• Electrical inspection and sign off
• Install stairway balusters and handrails (being made now)
• Stairway inspection and sign off
• Restore wood facing of bay window
• Paint the inside
• Install new bay window frames
• Install the metal roof covering
• Install roof walk
• Cover the floor with linoleum

Rotten floor coming out

Burn mark on floor

Cutting off floor bolts

Putting in new joists

Cut edges of remaining floor

Rotten beam cross section

Open floor – work in progress

John on new floor

Evergreen pear blossoms with caboose

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

I am working from home today (getting over a cold) listening to the
contractors in my backyard ripping the floor out of WP668, our caboose.
From what we can tell, half of the flooring is in good shape but the
other half is too damaged to save.

The floor consists of steel beams supporting 4″x4″ wood joists supporting
an underfloor (wood tongue and groove boards laid crosswise) supporting the
floor (wood tongue and groove boards laid lengthwise). The steel is solid but
the three layers of wood are rotted out from water from both top (kitchen and
toilet) and bottom (thrown up from the wheels). There are also charred boards on
the underfloor near where the old stove was. We knew from replacing the
roof that WP668 had a roof fire sometime in the past. It looks like that
fire ate a hole in the floor too. (We did not see the charring before because it
was covered with a floor patch.) The contractors are ripping out the
damaged wood now. Once that is gone, we can evaluate how solid the remainder is.
We want the finished floor to be solid, flat, and level. The final surface will be
linoleum, so the replacement wood will be plywood rather than tongue and
groove boards.

Last weekend, we planted an Evergreen Pear tree (Pyrus Kawakamii) near WP668.
It will eventually shade both the caboose and the cactus garden which we are planting
between there and the house. The little tree is now in flower and its fragile
white blooms are in danger every time the contractors toss a board out the
caboose window. John is out with the contractors now to minimize damage to both
WP668 and the surrounding garden.

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