Category Archives: Caboose Project and Other Trains

We are scheduled to start the final phase of exterior paint stripping and
painting of WP668 next week. Avi Lenchner, who has painted two houses for us, of Avi
Decorative Painting, 650-329-0770, Menlo Park, CA, has us on his schedule!

Also, Tanya Jankot found a 2007-2008 Catalog of Classes for

The Crucible (A nonprofit collaboration of Arts, Industry, Community based in
Oakland, CA) which includes an entry-level Hot Wheels class called

“Caboose Restoration and Modification (Part I)”.

In 2004, a class at The Crucible restored and modified a vintage fire truck to create our Educational Response Vehicle (ERV). Heartened by the success of that project, we’re at it again. A generous donor has provided us with a 1940s railroad caboose, which we are restoring and adapting to make a café to serve healthy food in our West Oakland neighborhood. Taught by The Crucible’s founder Michael Sturtz in collaboration with a handpicked team of metal fabricators, wood workers, and other artists, this class is a team-oriented, hands-on learning experience, with continuous skill-building opportunities. Aspects of metalworking, blacksmithing, wood refinishing, furniture making, painting, coppersmithing, glass working, and electrical wiring will be part of the work curriculum. And while you’re learning and working, you’ll help create a piece of Crucible history, that will provide meals to students and the neighborhood!

Looks like fun!

John is done welding the new caboose landing and place-to-anchor
the new stairs and he has the wood for WP668’s new landing mostly cut,
primed, and drilled for bolts. We have been discussing what color
to paint the caboose. The first color John tried on the new wood was on the orange-ish
end of brown and would have made WP668 look like a huge shoebox-shaped tomato. Ick.

The official color name is “Mineral Brown” but we can see from the peeling paint on WP668
herself that she has worn a wide range of red brown tints with yellow trim over the last
91 years. WP668 was one of the rail cars photographed for the book Western Pacific
Color Guide to
Freight and Passenger Equipment by Jim Eager (Publisher: Morning Sun Books;
ISBN-10: 158248063X, ISBN-13: 978-1582480633), so we looked in there to see what colors
were actually used on in-service equipment. The book shows that during 1903 – 1983, the
Western Pacific Railroad
had many color combinations: Mineral Brown with
Yellow trim, Mineral Brown with White trim, Silver with Orange trim, Gray-Blue with
White trim, Yellow with Black trim, and Red with White trim.

Almost exactly a year ago, we moved the caboose wheels into our backyard
(see
5 August 2006 blog entry) and bought a brass HO scale model of a steel strapped bay window
WP caboose at The Train Shop (1829 Pruneridge, Santa Clara, CA). Yesterday, John took
that HO model down to the paint store and asked them to match the color in Acrylic paint.
John tried the new color out on WP668 herself just now and it looks perfect.
Here is the model caboose on the actual wheel truck of WP668:

Image Copyright 2006 by Katy Dickinson

John is out in the backyard starting to shape the wood of the new back
platform for WP668, our caboose. Our neighbor Joel is a
plumber and races his dirt track car on weekends. Joel has
several welding sets to put his car back together after the
race. Joel is teaching John how to weld so that he can work
on the steel parts of WP668.

The first kind of welding John tried was oxyacetylene gas; however,
the heavy steel of the caboose made this slow going.
Then, he started learning

MIG (metal inert gas) welding which is working much better.
John has learned to wear long sleeves and button them to avoid
metal drips and to wear a t-shirt under his long sleeve shirt
to avoid a sunburn from the MIG welder. He puts up a tarp so
that we can’t get our eyes burned looking at the welding from
the house.

We need to extend and strengthen the back caboose platform (more
of a landing or small porch, really) so that it can be connected
to the new stairs. The original metal was in poor shape under the
wood because of water thrown up by the wheels over many decades.
It crumbled when poked. Very little of what John has been
working on will show when the wood is replaced but it will be exceptionally sturdy.

We have hired someone to draw the plans for the steps to the Building
Department’s requirements. The same contractor has a stucco worker who
can put the skin on the cabana (the hot tub changing room and storage shed)
plus a window guy who can produce a custom window for the cabana and consult
on replacement caboose windows. We found it hard to get
contractors for a little jobs like just the cabana or just the caboose
but with both projects together, we can get bids.

Between church events last weekend, John finished filling in the hole
a prior owner cut into our 91-year-old caboose’s wall. WP668 was
made from first growth fir in 1916. Except for the hole, the walls and ceiling
are in good condition, as is 1/2 of the floor. The other 1/2 of the floor
needs replacing.

One of the problems in restoration is that standard lumber dimensions have changed
since 1916. The original exterior boards are 2″ x 6″ and the interior
boards are 1″ x 6″. Boards now for sale are called “two by six” but actually
measure 1-1/2″ x 5-1/2″. Similarly, “one by six” boards now measure 3/4″ x 5-1/2″.
This little difference means that John had to add slim filler boards to make
the new tongue and groove slot firmly into the old.

WP668’s original boards were also thicker than standard boards now sold.
Fir in the size we wanted for the interior boards was not readily available, so
John ended up buying unsanded redwood boards and having them milled into tongue
and groove since those were closest to the 1916 thickness. First growth fir
has almost no knots because the trees they were cut from were bigger. That is,
there was more interior wood so fewer boards had scars from branches (knots).
The redwood John bought is good lumber but each board has at least one knot.
All of these differences will eventually be hidden under the paint.

WP668 looks like its interior was sandblasted at least once. Some of the soft
parts of the wood boards have been scoured away. Also, we have found sand between
the walls. We are discussing whether to
paint over the boards as they are or try to sand them more level. My preference
is to leave the dark honey colored ceiling as it is (stains and all), paint
the walls white and refinish the boards on the floor once the damages there
have been repaired. The problem is that about 10′ (1/3) of the ceiling was
painted white after it was sandblasted. (I keep wondering what the
story is behind the white paint since WP668’s original interior paint color was
light green.) I am going to experiment with sanding away the ceiling paint to see
how the wood looks under it. I am concerned that the sanding will change the
color and surface texture. We will see.

Here are some photos of WP668’s ceiling from last year before we put on the
new roof:

WP668 caboose ceiling wood and paint:

WP668 caboose ceiling long view:

Images Copyright 2006 by Katy Dickinson

Here are some photos of our early projects restoring WP668, the 91-year-old
Western Pacific caboose in our backyard. The yellow car stops will keep her
from rolling. A prior owner of WP668 cut through one inside and outside wall to install
a big window. (He just made the hole – the window was never added.) John has now
filled in the exterior boards and bolted the new wood in place. He was able to insert cut-to-fit
rigid foam insulation into the irregular cavity spaces between the interior and exterior
tongue and groove walls on either side of the new wall patch. So, already both the ceiling
and 1/4 of the caboose walls have modern insulation instead of an air gap. John took a
sample of WP668’s original wood to a local lumber company and they confirmed it was first
growth fir.

WP668 caboose car stop 1:

WP668 caboose car stop 2:

WP668 caboose inside new wall:

WP668 caboose new wall outside (and John):

WP668 caboose John and wall:

WP668 caboose old wall meets new wall:

WP668 caboose exterior wall filled:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson