Category Archives: Caboose Project and Other Trains

Yesterday, we finally got the yellow postcard from San Jose’s
Plan Implementation Division assigning us a planner. (We had
turned in our Variance Request on 12 January.) We were assigned the same
planner as before. John talked with her today and are we scheduled
for a hearing for the caboose project on 21 February 2007.
There is a letter coming with specific questions we need to
answer.

Progress at last on getting official permission to move WP668
into our backyard!

John took our rewritten Variance Request to San Jose city planning
this morning. The guy who accepted the paperwork seemed to think it
was straightforward (and a cool project to move a caboose into our
yard). We should know who our new planner assignment is within a
few weeks and then we will see about next steps. We may even get
a refund for the almost $2K in fees they had us pay for the first permit
request last November! We may yet have WP668 moved before her first
birthday in storage.

There is a crew from DaveyTree
out in our yard now pruning 11 trees. We needed to get all of them
smaller and lower to be able to lift in the caboose over. As requested
by the San Jose water department, we are dumping all of the tree trimmings
down our bank of the Guadalupe River (below the top and above the water).
The tree crew was prepared to chip and haul it all away but we need all of
that brush to build up our bank and protect it from erosion. This will be
an upsetting day for the feral cats on the river bank and some squirrels
whose tree top homes are being relocated.

We have another appointment next week to have San Jose city planning review
our Variance Permit application to move WP668 into our yard. At their
request, we have reworked the Special Use Permit application they originally requested. Last month, John rewrote and reprinted the 350 square feet
of application forms and backup paper with the latest requested changes.
I just hope they accept this version of the permit application. I would like
to get the caboose moved, hopefully before
the first anniversary of its arrival in San Jose (28 February 2006).

In the time it has been in storage, the caboose has dried out, we have
filled in our swimming pool and replaced it with a short rail line,
the caboose body has been roofed and electrified, we moved in the wheels onto
the tracks, and we stripped 2/3 of the old paint on the caboose body. At
the request of the place where it is stored (new management – new broom sweep),
we have stopped all work. We want to bring WP668 home soon.

Here are selected pictures from the caboose move and the work since:

WP668 Leaving San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point:

Caboose in San Francisco traffic:

Crossing tracks:

Heading south on highway 101:

Under the lowest bridge (14 feet, 10 inches):

Home in San Jose (2/06):

New Yard Track (4/06):

Backyard with Wheels (8/06):

Fiat Lux (8/06):

New Roof (10/06):

Ready for Winter (10/06):

Images by Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)

WP668 is getting stripped of its old paint. We hired Avi Lenchner (whose daughter
and my daughter were in school together and who has painted two houses for us)
of Avi Decorative Painting (Menlo Park, CA)
to strip and paint our caboose. We decided to get the paint done while WP668
is on asphalt before she moves on to the rail line in our backyard.

Avi has been trying out different ways of getting the ancient paint off. At the
moment, the paint is coming cleanly off the wood (probably Douglas Fir) but the steel
bracing is more of a challenge. Avi tried chemical strippers but tapping the steel
with a hammer to shatter the paint seems to work best.

On one of the vertical steel framing pieces Avi found some decorative welding. The
steel script signature says “Illinois” on the part we can see. It was probably
added in 1916 when WP668 was first created as a box car by the
Pullman company.
It will be interesting to see what other mysteries lie under all of that old paint
and dirt.

We have made some progress toward getting our caboose WP668 moved
into our backyard:

• The new caboose roof is in good shape despite the current rain storm.
  Hooray!

• The San Jose city planner (intern) assigned to us said on Friday that we
  need a variance rather than a special use permit. John went to City Hall on
  the way home to pick up our original application plus the new variance form.
  He needs to read through what they gave him to find out
  what parts of the documentation they originally requested we can reuse
  for their latest request. We hope that a variance will be approved faster.

• I met with the
  Davey Tree man early today about getting 11 trees pruned and shaped
  around our property. This includes the two hawthornes, privets, silk
  tree (mimosa), two olives, plus the two big ash trees in the area where the
  caboose will go. We want the trees well back when the crane lifts
  WP668 into place. Davey Tree will also prune one of the almond trees, plus
  four unhealthy low branches on the big oaks on the riverbank. We checked
  but decided to leave the riverbank cottonwoods and pepper tree alone for
  another year. The new pepper tree we planted on the bank last Spring is
  growing well. The fruit trees in our little side orchard are short enough
  that we prune them ourselves so I did not ask him to look at those.
  We hope to schedule the tree work during the last week of 2006 or the
  first week of 2007. In accordance with the request of
  the water company, we asked Davey Tree to dump the pruned wood and brush
  down the slope to build up the riverbank rather than hauling it away.

We hope to start work on stripping and preparing to paint the outside of the
caboose during Sun’s winter break.

Last week, the San Jose Water Company issued its formal permit for us to move WP668 into
our backyard sometime during the next year. Hooray! We are now waiting for the San
Jose city planning department hearing and then permit.

We are also waiting for the leaves to drop on our two mature ash trees so that they
can be pruned. We want to cut back the trees before lifting in the caboose so as to
damage as little as possible. We last had the ash trees’ canopy trimmed (which
the arborist called “lifting their skirts”) two or three years ago. The ash near
our back door in particular has been very happy about our removing the brick patio
which was over its root system: its canopy has grown about 1/3 larger since it was
last pruned. We think the ashes were planted when the house was built, so they
are about 80 years old. They had a very bad pruning about 10 years ago (before we
bought the house) but they have mostly recovered and are very handsome now.

Here is a current picture of WP668 (with its new roof):

Image by Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)

John met with the San Jose City Planning Department on the morning
of Halloween to submit our formal application to move WP668
into our backyard for use as an office. All went well. It cost almost
$2K in fees and
will take several months to process, including neighborhood hearings.
The water board (separate from city planning) already approved the
move contingent on the crane & rigging company providing proof of
insurance. Hooray! Our caboose move has officially started!