KatysBlog

John and Paul worked on the caboose roof yesterday. Of course, the job was
more complex than anticipated.

Before we bought the WP668 caboose, the
Golden Gate Railroad Museum (GGRM) had started
work to replace her roof. They had gotten as far as tearing off some of
the roof boards and cutting some replacement edge boards when they got word
that the museum had to move out of San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point. WP668
was pushed out of the shop to make way for more urgent projects. She had been
sitting in the rain for about four months when we bought her.

The edge boards cut by GGRM came with WP668 when we bought her and John was
able to use half of them yesterday. He got the first board bolted down when
he saw that the steel under it needed work. He unbolted the board and ground
the rust off the 40 foot steel roof edge then painted the edge with rust
preventative. Each side of the caboose roof edge needs three boards bolted
down. John got one side done but thinks he will take the boards up again
and put caulk between the wood and the steel. We are seeing a great many
yellowjackets buzzing around and we don’t want them nesting in the roof
once it is on. Caulking the gaps may help keep them out.

John also got some of the insulation batting down. We want to have rigid
foam insulation panels on top of the batting but we went to two stores and
neither had any. We are going to insulate and roof over where the stovepipe
will go for now since we haven’t found anyone who can sell us the right roof
flashing for a stovepipe.

We gave a newly-lighted caboose tour to both my brother and mother yesterday.
My brother, who successfully completed the

“Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim” from Alcatraz island to San Francisco on
Saturday without a wetsuit, braving Great White Sharks, currents, and the
cold, still thinks our caboose project is crazy. There’s all kinds of crazy.

We were working on our WP668 caboose all day today.

WP668 Today:

Other Side:

Door to Door:

John finished the ceiling wiring, we adjusted the can light fixtures, put
in bulbs, turned on the generator, and everything worked! The soft row
of new lights down the center of the ceiling look great. They blend in
well with the original lines of the room.

Before Light:

Fiat Lux:

Prometheus:

The next project was to finish tearing off the original fir tongue-and-groove
roof boards, then remove all of the roof nails and tar paper. This was my job.
I sat on the stringers and ridge boards with my roofer’s crowbar, pulling up
nails and prying up boards. I carefully collected all the nails in a cardboard
box but flung everything else off the roof. Of course, I picked
it all up and swept later but flinging is fun. It was clear
that there had at some point been a roof fire on WP668. The wood immediately
around the stove pipe was plywood (not tongue-and-groove) and the tongue-and-groove
around that was charred. I have splinters in both hands and legs.

Caboose Roof:

Tar Paper, Nails:

Nails Out:

John and I put the shop vacuum up on the roof so I could take off all of the
bits of wood, tar paper, leaves, rust, dead bees, scraps of wiring, sand, and
other mess. Vacuuming a 400 square foot surface covered in
wood stringers, nailers, and ridge boards held up by steel joists is a fussy,
filthy job. The joists had deep 90 year old pockets of rust flakes to be
chipped off and vacuumed up. Some areas had a light coating of gritty dry mud
where water had pooled. The 4″ vacuum hose clogged about every ten
minutes and had to be unplugged, dangled off the roof, and beaten against
the caboose wall to dislodge the latest blockage. The cleaning took hours but
the results look great (and a clean roof will be much more pleasant to work on).

After many unsuccessful attempts to loosen the bolts on the edge boards,
John finally cut them off with a grinder. Lots of noise and sparks: we both
wore earplugs. Except for the rotted edge boards and a few rotted ridge boards,
the wooden roof framework is in excellent condition. The steel joists are
also sound.

John on Ladder:

Clean Roof:

Under WP668:

Tomorrow, we insulate, replace the rotted ridge and edge boards and,
if there is time, start to put on the new roof covering. We will put in two
levels of insulation above the ceiling. The can lights we bought are
made to have insulation around them. A moving caboose is naturally cool and
does not need air cooling equipment but we need to plan for very hot summers.
The original Western Pacific colors for WP668 include a black roof, the worst
choice for a hot climate. However, with good insulation and an overhanging
silk tree (which will get planted as soon as it starts to rain), I have hope
of minimizing our need for air conditioning.

Over the 3 day weekend, John and the kids and I started to strip the
remaining original wood roof off WP668 and to put in the ceiling lighting. We
are working on the caboose in its storage area using a gas-powered
generator to drive the power tools. It is dirty heavy work but fun. We
came home filthy with splinters and bug bites and a sense of achievement.

WP668 is basically two wooden boxes in a steel frame. The ceiling boards
of the inner box are in very good shape, which is good because we want to
use them as is. The windows need replacement and the walls need patching and
repair. The floor is unsalvageable and needs replacement entirely. There
are now ten can lights inset down the center of the ceiling with two smaller
can lights inset over each bay window.

We were surprised to find that the original window rise into a space between
the inner and outer box – we had thought that the boxes’ surfaces touched in the walls.
Once the electrical ceiling work is done, we can insulate the space above, then put on
the new roof. Because there is space between the box walls, we may be able to
insulate the sides as well.

All of this work is being driven by the soon-to-start rainy season. It took
many months for the caboose to dry out after being soaked last year. We want at
least to get the roof in place before the rains start again.