Category Archives: Caboose Project and Other Trains

After several dry days (we were beginning to look around for Noah after
40 days of rain), we have finally been able to move the wooden
ties into place on the partially complete railbed in our backyard. John
was going to rent a forklift Bobcat for delivery tomorrow but the company
had one ready to deliver yesterday. David, one of our neighbor DeWayne’s
wrestling students, had some time to help so he and John moved the ties
from the front driveway to the backyard and put them in place.

After several attempts, the steel rails (which weigh about 1,000 pounds
each) finally got relocated to the street in front of the house. Then
it started to rain again. If there is another dry spell, the rails will
get shifted to the backyard today too. We have three rails, each about
30 feet long. One rail needs to be cut in
half so that we can create two 45 foot rail sections. The rails need to be
in place before we can move in the caboose.

All of the guys in the neighborhood regularly come over to watch, help,
and offer advice. There are usually two or three of them
hanging out with the big boy toys whenever we rent a Bobcat or other
piece of construction equipment.

Now that the ties are in place, the contractor can come and fill between
the ties with gravel (ballast). The top of the ties and top of the ballast
will be just below ground level. The addition of the rail plates
and rails will bring the bottom of the caboose’s wheels to slightly
above ground level. This is an important consideration because of
building height limitations in San Jose. We still need to get the railplates
from a local railroad museum. They are all paid for but not yet delivered.

We are still checking on WP668 in storage every day. The inside looks
dry despite the rain and as far as we can tell, no one has tried to break
in or damage it.

The rain cleared for long enough over the weekend that we were able
to put down 3 rail ties. John strung yellow cords around 3 sides of
the rail bed for levelling. The railbed is lower on the ends and higher
in the middle but the difference is not so extreme that the rails will
have trouble arching over the bump. We are lining up the existing
holes in the wooden ties so as to make assembly (of rails, spikes, tie
plates, ties) easier. The ties
are different lengths – some were clearly used in switches – and of
varying age and density. However, since

WP668 will not move much on these rails, we care more about the
top to bottom measure being the same (which it mostly is) than about
other measures or conditions.

Moving a hundred pounds or more of wood heavy with creosote is awkward at
best. We shifted each tie from the pile on the driveway onto my red
wheelbarrow and them bumped it over the mud to the new railbed. Now
that we have the measurements and allignment sorted out, next weekend
we will rent a Bobcat to move the rest of the ties. We bought extra ties so
that we can pick out the ones which look and fit best.

“For much of the San Francisco Bay Area, last month’s rain came near to
breaking records, which date back to 1850. …

Last month was also one of the coldest on record in San Jose: Its
average high of 58.5 degrees was almost a full degree below the 1897 record
of 59.4 degrees.”

reported San Jose’s
Mercury News
this week.

The caboose is still in storage, the ties are stacked in our driveway,
and the backyard area which will become our very short rail line is a awash
in mud. The plants, trees, snails, worms, and
other moisture-lovers are all thriving.

Our garden, except for the mud
pit which used to be our pool, will look great for Easter. The alstromeira,
nasturtiums, and vine jasmine have started to bloom and the prickly pear
cactus on the bank are forming buds. It is a great time to weed: even the
long tap roots of the nettles just slip out of the mud.
I have planted
two new trees (a Sequoia and a Japanese maple) and two more should arrive
soon (a Western Redbud and a California pepper). I hope that a very
wet beginning will help them be well established by the time they need
to endure summer’s high temperatures.

We visit the caboose at least once a day. It is wet but undamaged. We
are frustrated by a month delay but there is no harm done by the wait.

It is still raining and we have not seen the contractors who are making
the railbed for our caboose in a week. The former pool area is littered
with wet tarps and bricks and disembowelled pool equipment. Also, lots of
mud and gravel. We can’t install the ties until the contractors are done
and the soils engineer blesses their work.

While waiting, we are taking advantage of the wet by planting trees. Costco
had a sale on redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens ‘aptos blue’). We bought
one for $30 to go with the three we planted a year ago. The new arrival is much smaller (only six feet) but the different heights look good together – more like a natural grove. It will end up shading the caboose.
We also bought a threadleaf Japanese Maple ‘Garnet’ (Acer palmatum var. dissectum) to go on the garden side of the bank under
the oaks. Japanese Maple is said to be oak root fungus resistant. A
large California Lilac (Ceanothus) came home too – again for the river
bank inside the fence. I ordered another Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis) tree. This is a drought-resistant California native as lovely as
its eastern cousin but
needs less water and grows more slowly. The redbud we planted two years ago
on the bank is doing well: it is still covered with lovely purple and
white buds even though the heart-shaped leaves are starting to open.

For the wild side of the bank, on the other side of the garden fence,
I ordered a California pepper tree (Schinus molle) from the nursery. I will know in a week if it is available. It is not the kind of tree they carry in
stock. The master gardener kept asking if I really
wanted a pepper and did I know it was not a California native. I explained
that we are happy owners of 200 feet of steep river bank where a very large
very messy tree like a pepper can thrive even if it does come from Brazil.
We already have one California pepper and
it is very happy among the cottonwoods that line the bank. Cottonwoods are pretty enough but we want something with leaves all year to screen the house.

Right now, the cottonwoods are bare and squirrel nests are plainly visible.
The nests look like basketball-sized bundles of leaves high up in the
branches. Some trees have several of them swaying in the wind. There are
so many cottonwoods that the Guadalupe River becomes a squirrel freeway in summer: the little golden fuzzballs hardly have to jump to get from tree to tree.

We are still trying to finish preparing the base for the caboose in our yard
despite the heavy rain.
John had a long talk this morning with the contractor. He explained
again that the top of the wooden ties needed to be at ground
level. That is, the body of the ties and ballast rock need to be
below ground level. The topic of discussion is the operational
definition of “grade”. At the moment, the contractor has the
dirt and gravel up almost to ground level, so there is no room for the
ties and ballast. John also talked with him about not chipping and
breaking the old bricks we have stacked ready for reuse as pathways –
they are not just convenient weights to hold down tarps over the mud.
We hope that all is clear now and we may even be done with installing
the ballast and ties next week.

The caboose continues to be undisturbed. We noticed that the local
California Highway Patrol likes to park and do their paperwork nearby
so they are keeping an eye on WP668.

Boxcars Converted for WW II

Below are photos of 4 other Western Pacific Feather River Railway
cabeese (cabooses) which started out as wooden boxcars and were
converted during World War II. These sisters to our own WP668
are all in Northern California.

Caboose Types

Cabeese come in several types with differences in the location of the
observation windows and the basic construction material of the body.

Windows:
• Bay window style (with a bumped out observation window on each side)
• Cupola style (with seats and observation windows in a turret or
  dome on the roof)

Material:

• All wood
• Wood with steel bracing (likeWP668)
• All steel

Photos

WP614, “Built by the Western Pacific from a boxcar in 1937, WP 614 is undergoing slow restoration at the Portola Railroad Museum”

at Portola, California:
Feather River Rail Society

WP641, “Wood, outside braced; Cannery Row, used as a gift shop (photo courtesy of Central California Rails)”

at Monterey, California

WP645, “Built by the Western Pacific from a boxcar in 1943. Caboose is currently stored for the FRRS on Museum founder Norman Holmes’ property on the east side of Portola, she can be seen from Highway 70”

at Portola, California:
Feather River Rail Society

WP649, “1943 WP Shops (from 1916 Boxcar), Bay Window, Wood”

at
Niles Canyon Railway, Sunol California

Lists

Railfans and railroad museum members have developed several lists of
cabeese:

• 
  The Western Pacific Caboose List (broken links but interesting),
  maintained by “The Western Pacific Virtual Museum”

• 
  Central California Rails Caboose Index more than just WP,
  maintained by “Central California Rails”

We have found two web references so far to the history of our
WP668 Caboose (now in storage in San Jose)

Current Picture:



Image by Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)

Old Picture #1:
The first WP668 reference is just an old image on a web site of railroad
pictures. The image was taken between 1943 and 1977. Given the bad
paint condition, probably later in that time period, but there is no
specific date or context. The photo label is:

“Western Pacific #668 location/Date/Photographer unknown. S. Roger Kirkpatrick collection”. The best thing about this image is that it
shows WP668 in her original markings, which will
be of help when we come to restore her exterior.

Old Picture #2:
The second WP668 reference is a full history web page from when WP668
was owned
by the Golden Gate Railroad Museum.
The text is:



Western Pacific #668, Bay Window Caboose

Builder: Western Pacific (Originally Pullman). Year Built: circa 1943 (1916)

This Western Pacific wooden box car was converted with several others
to serve as a caboose on local freight trains in the bay area. This car
was in use until approximately 1977. Built by Pullman in 1916 as boxcars,
the bay windows were added in 1943 along with the other “typical” appliances
of a caboose, such as bunks and a stove. This car is a sister to
Sacramento Northern #1642, also in our collection.

Upon the car’s retirement it was sold to a private owner who leased it
out as office space on the San Francisco waterfront. The caboose was
acquired by one of our members and donated to the museum.

The photo (probably taken between 1990-2005) shows WP668 with
brighter paint and all of her original numbering gone. However,
her windows are intact and her paint looks in better condition than when
we bought her this year. In particular, there is none none of the tagging
(grafitti) she has now.

The rain storms the last few weeks have considerably slowed our efforts
to get our swimming pool filled in. The job seems about 3/4 done now
but days can go by with no work because of the wet. The huge dirt pile
has finally moved from the front of the house into the pit in the back but
it is still too squelchy to pound down yet.

The plan is to fill in the pool with gravel and dirt to one tie-height
below ground level. After we place the ties, the ballast rock goes in
around them. Only the steel rails themselves will be above ground level.