Category Archives: Caboose Project and Other Trains

As part of our vacation last week, we visited the
Railtown 1897 State Historic Park
in Jamestown, California, in the Sierras. We have several railfans in the family,
including Daniel, my little nephew. One of the exhibits was a caboose without
markings and much-modified but which we recognized as a sister to our own WP668.
We spotted her original designation still faintly painted on the frame underneath.
She is indeed Western Pacific caboose #695, now serving as the crew office at
Railtown 1897.

I looked her up on the
The Western Pacific Caboose List and the
Central California Rails Caboose Index and found WP695 correctly listed
as being in Jamestown. I also found a book in the museum store:

Western Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment
by Jim Eager (2001, Morning Sun Books, Inc., ISBN 1-58248-063-X) which not only
has a color photo of WP695 but also a photo of our own WP668 on page 122.
The text is:

WP 668 NE series 644-668

Converted in October 1943 and still two years away from retirement, the 668
was at Sacramento in September 1974. That is the axle-drive for the generator
silhouetted inboard the right hand truck. (Peter Arnold)

We were interested to see how the museum’s stock was blocked from rolling.
Most of it wasn’t but then Jamestown is not in earthquake country. Two examples
we did see of wheel blocks:

Wood wheel block:

Chain wheel block:

Images by John Plocher and Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)

Having finally sorted out our laptop difficulties by buying a new
one, I can now post the most recent caboose project photos. Some
background: a set of 4 caboose wheels are attached by a truck and each
set of 4 wheels plus a truck weighs 5-1/2 tons (11,000 pounds or 4990
Kilograms). The wooden and steel caboose body rests on top of two trucks and
8 wheels. Details of the wheel move are in my
“Caboose Wheels Moved Today” entry of 5 August. We do not yet have
a date for moving caboose WP668’s body onto the trucks now on our backyard
rail line.

Crossbuck Sign in Our Backyard:	Backyard Rail Line with Brick Walks:	Wheels, Trucks, Battery Box in Storage:	Forklift Lifting the 1st Set:
John in the Hyster Forklift:	Chaining the Wheels to the Hyster for Safety:	Driving the Wheels Down the Street:	Neighbors Enjoying the Show:
Josh and John Planning:	John Driving the Hyster:	Backing into the Backyard:	June Bug on a Tieplate:
Aligning the Wheels to the Rails:	Josh and Neighbor with Camera:	1st Set Down:	Lifting the 2nd Set:
2nd Set in the Air:	Katy Driving the Hyster:	Turning Past the Caboose:	Katy and the Hyster:
Lifting Over the Back Gate:	Just Enough Room:	Getting Ready to Spin onto the Tracks:	Touchdown for 2nd Set:
2 Wheel Sets Down:	Moving the Battery Box:	Securing the Wheels:	HO Scale WP Caboose Model on Prototype:

Images by John Plocher and Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)

We rented a huge Hyster
forklift today and moved the two sets of caboose
wheels onto our backyard rail line. Each set of 4 wheels attached
to a truck weighs 5-1/2 tons (11,000 pounds or 4990 Kilograms). We
had to wait several weeks for the largest size forklift to be
available: they were rented out for the
“2nd Annual San Jose Grand
Prix”.

Josh from the
Silicon Valley Lines model train club and John and I worked all
morning moving the wheels. John did most of the driving but I got
to drive the Hyster for a few blocks too. It was not as hard to
drive as a little Bobcat since
the Hyster has a regular steering wheel instead of levers. The
turning radius is tiny and the ease with which the Hyster lifts
unreasonably heavy and bulky objects is impressive.

One of the fascinating and unexpected experiences of today was the
sounds. John and Josh were too busy to hear but I was standing
further back to take pictures when the wheels were lowered onto the
rails. This was the first time anything heavy had been on our
backyard rail line since
we built it in May. I could hear the ballast rock scrunch and the
rails and ties creak as wheels rolled over them. Our 1916 WP668
caboose is 90 years old but the wheels rolled quietly and smoothly down
the rails with three of us pushing against the axle. This is a
very well made and well engineered piece of equipment.

After lunch, John and I hosed down the wheels and trucks. We found
trash and sticks and leaves in some of the inner parts. There was
also a yellowjacket bee’s nest. When I turned my hose onto the
wheels, they sang. I have heard train rails sing but the wheels
themselves have a high chime of their own.

To celebrate today’s move, John and I bought a brass HO scale model of our caboose at The Train Shop (1829 Prineridge, Santa Clara, CA). It is the
only model we have seen of a Western Pacific outside braced wood caboose
with a bay window, and it was in stock. The model even has the red
brown with yellow trim color scheme we will be using for WP668 (not
the orange and silver colors the line used later).

Tomorrow, we will chain down WP668’s wheels. The leaf springs extend
way beyond the wheels to the edge of the ballast and we don’t want
them smacking into anything or anyone.

Here is what WP668 and her wheels looked like this morning before we
started work:



Image by Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)

While it has been so very very hot in San Jose, California, this week, we
have been working on the caboose preparations in the early morning and
after sunset. John installed a temporary light fixture at the end of
what will be the platform/deck so that he can work after dark.
The electrical, gas, and water lines are now all tidy with switches,
outlets, connectors, and spigots as appropriate. Watering the yard
is much easier with new spigots in all the locations where I have wanted
them for years. The new brick walkways are working well – especially the
one which goes around the ends of the rails so I can use my wheelbarrow
to move rocks and dirt around.

I moved some of the larger stones to make a rock garden next to the concrete
pad of the spa. I planted two Portulacaria afra (Elephant Plants) and a
Succulent Sempervivum (I don’t know its common name) among the rocks.
I put two larger flatter boulders on top of base rocks to make seats and
made sure there were smooth boulders on the bottom layer to feel good
against bare feet. I think this will grow into a comfortable informal
bench as well as a planting area. I am deciding how to plant the rest
of the space. I may install my garden railway there with little mountains
and small-dimensioned plants to make it look to scale.

The “2nd Annual San Jose Grand
Prix” is downtown this weekend and they have rented all the big fork
lifts so we have to wait for that to end before we can move the caboose
wheels.

During Sun’s summer break last week, we spent quite a bit of time getting
the area around the caboose ready for the installation. We are stalled on
our permit development for the city of San Jose, thanks to the laptop getting
damaged. We had a family trip to Wisconsin last month and John’s laptop
was in his checked luggage. John’s bag was inspected twice in transit by the
TSA (which left little preprinted notes
behind). The laptop worked fine when we left Wisconsin but had a bad
motherboard by the time we got home to San Jose, California. We now have
to pull the data out and start again on a new computer. Sigh.

Last week, we dug trenches to add 4 new garden water spigots so that we
can water the yard without dragging hoses around the rail line. John is
also running gas and electric lines in the trenches to light and heat the
caboose. We are distributing the piles of sand and dirt left by our
contractor. The sand goes under the brick pathways (reusing the
bricks we took up before filling in the swimming pool) and the dirt will
go into a new planting bed between the brick paths and the deck. The base
of the deck will be the extra rail ties. Between the caboose and the back
fence will be a gravel walkway with plantings of nandina, dracena, and
maybe gazanias for a ground cover.

We also raised the reflective Rail Road Crossing crossbuck sign we bought
with the caboose. We had to cut off the bottom three feet of the
sign post so that the sign is below the level of the lower ash tree
branches. It looks great! (I will post a photo once we get the
software off of our now-dead laptop).

We plan to move the caboose trucks and wheels with a heavy fork lift
next weekend. This will reduce the time and number of trips it will take
to move the caboose. Getting the wheels moved will also allow us to
secure them to the satisfaction of the San Jose inspector. He is
concerned that they may roll in an earthquake.

Some later press on the JMRI
open source model railroad interface software winning the

Duke’s Choice Award in the “Java Everywhere” category at
JavaOne Conference:

• 
  “James Gosling & Bob Jacobsen at the Duke’s Choice Awards”
  Award Photo:
  James Gosling hands out the Duke’s choice award to Bob Jacobsen, Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI) group during JavaOne, at the Moscone Center, in San Francisco, Calif., Tuesday, May 16, 2006. Sun Photo Library

• 
  “Congratulations 2006 Duke’s Choice Awards Winners!” Award Photo:
  Every year the world’s biggest Java technology event, the JavaOne conference, culminates with the Duke’s Choice awards. Java.Com

• 
  “Does This Open Source Project Make My Wallet Look Fat? This Software is Free, as in Patent Violation”, 1 June 2006, By Esther Schindler,
  in Digital Producer Magazine (includes a photo of the JMRI model train
  layout at JavaOne)

• 
  “JAVAONE: Sun gives out fouth annual Duke’s Awards recognizing most innovative Java technology” in
  Enterprise Networks and Servers, June 2006 issue

• 
  “Sun Recognizes the World’s Most Innovative Java Technology Applications at the Fourth Annual Duke’s Choice Awards”
  15 May, 6 ABC Action News

• 
  “Sun recognizes Java app innovation”, 5/23/2006, By ADT Staff,
  Advanced Development Trends

• 
  “Fourth Annual Duke’s Choice Award Winners –
  Recognizing Most Innovative Java Technology-based Applications”
  May 22, 2006, Article #16422, Volume 99, Issue 4, Java Technology
  (Paragon Pinnacles)