Category Archives: Caboose Project and Other Trains

Our neighbor Jamie works for CalTrain and has been supportive all along of our caboose
project. Jamie and Alice own the house in the background of this photo WP668 being lifted on
12 May 2007:

Jamie has been particularly interested in our discussions with the City of San Jose on how
to be sure WP668 will not move during an earthquake (it is his house the
caboose would roll into). As John was building the new fence on Sunday, Jamie
mentioned that WP668 had already been through its

first earthquake, a 3.4 magnitude temblor centered about 6 miles from our house.
Nobody else noticed the quake so the inaugural shaking passed without much comment.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS)
has a
Map for San Francisco on which it plots local earthquakes as they happen. It looks like
there have been four in our immediate area in the last week, the biggest being the 3.4
magnitude quake last Sunday.

Photo Copyright 2007 by Danek Duvall

Our yellow caboose car stops just arrived, strapped to a wood pallet in a big truck. One of
the formal recommendations of our Civil Engineer on how to secure WP668 from moving in an
earthquake was to use car stops. (See my blog entry of

9 Feb 2007 for two examples of the minimal effect of earthquakes on trains.)
A car stop is a fancy bolt-on steel wedge that secures the wheel to the
rail without damaging either. It is a semi-permanent wheel chock. We bought
our pair from
Aldon. This set weighs in at 248 pounds. In train museums, we have seen
simple chains and wooden wedges used to prevent rolling stock from unauthorized
excursions. What we just bought is the official version, suitable for approval
by the city building inspector.

When we
moved in our caboose recently, we had to take down parts of the back fence
and the neighbor’s gate. We had a temporary plastic orange net fence stretched
across the opening but that was not keeping the dogs in.

Last Saturday night, Romeo and Juliet jumped the fence and were off in great
excitement to explore the neighborhood,
Jessica and John and I running after them. Of course, the dogs got lost when they
ran beyond our block so they were upset and scared. Romeo and Juliet walk nicely on
their leashes but we did not have leashes with us when they jumped the fence.
Carrying 75 pound dogs several blocks home is no fun.

Romeo and Juliet were born from a local stray who crept under the garage at
our old house to have her puppies. There were 7 pups in the litter with at
least 3 fathers. Two were black, two were white, and three were brown. We
describe them as a very local breed: “Palo Alto Shorthairs”. After much begging
by Jessica and Paul, we ended up keeping a white and a brown and my daughter named
them. Romeo and Juliet are good watch dogs and very sweet but poor at
remembering their commands when not on a leash.

On Sunday, John and our neighbors Jim and Felix installed the new fence –
7 foot tall redwood boards with a lattice top. The new gate and latticework still
need to go in. It is about 5 feet from the end
of WP668’s coupler to the fence and we are discussing what kind of plantings
or walkways will go around that end. We are glad to have the caboose (and
dogs!) fenced in. The
Willow Glen Resident news story about our caboose move is due out at the
end of this week. We don’t want WP668 to become an attractive nuisance:
the tall fence will help us manage visitors.

Ever since our 91-year-old WP668 caboose was lifted by crane into our backyard
a week ago, we have been working on her. John has adjusted the doors
(which now close tight again) and replaced most of the broken window
glass. The door locks work but need some alignment because of the
shifting from WP668 resting on ties in storage to sitting on her own
proper trucks and wheels. We will probably have replacement windows made
but not for some time.

Paul and Jessica have been sweeping and
vacuuming out the cobwebs and dust, picking up nails and screws of every
size and condition in generations of designs, and pounding in nails that
wiggled up out of their holes. We have put down sheets of plywood over much of
the floor since that is in the worst condition but will be the last
thing replaced.

We have a small pile of wood trim and metal pieces that
go somewhere to be determined, plus the ladders, steps, and battery box that were
cut off for transport, and the metal ventilator (smokestack?) from the roof.
All of the trim and little bits will go into a storage box until we need them
during restoration.
The windows are high enough that we get a great view over the fence of the
garden next door so some curtains will go up soon.

The big caboose projects for this summer (before it rains again) are:

• Building new steps and a deck (meeting San Jose Building Department
  requirements)

• Putting the metal skin on the roof (working with our neighbor and roofer,
  Felix Quintero, 408-592-4341, San Jose, CA)

• Painting the exterior (working with Avi Lenchner, who has painted two
  houses for us, of Avi Decorative Painting, 650-329-0770, Menlo Park, CA)

• Filling the wall hole where a prior owner started installing a window,
  and replacing the front of one of the two bay windows where that prior owner
  started to put in a door

• Getting San Jose Building Department permission to hook up the utilities

Dennis Smith of South Bay Crane & Rigging (408-244-0414, Los Gatos, CA) just came
over to inspect the caboose and where it will land in our backyard. The
move is good to go for Friday morning, 11 May. Dennis checked out the power and
phone line heights over the road, tree and branch locations, wiggle room on the
access road, and the site in general. He said everything looked good for
WP668 to take flight once more to land in her permanent home in our backyard.
Dennis said the crane can easily flip one of the wheel and truck sets (we put it in
backwards). We don’t even have to move the lightpost we installed in the yard.
John and I are very excited to be so close to having WP668 home.