Ralph's cabooses thread

[Ralph]

I've decided to improve my caboose fleet this year. I plan especially to make my Penn Central cabooses/cabins more realistic but I'll also be creating some better looking cabooses for my freelanced Kings Port & Western. As a start I'm going to stop running these two PC cabooses that I bought several years ago.

I liked the way they looked and I had seen photos of Conrail wide vision cabooses so I assumed they came from the Penn Central. Some recent research revealed that Conrail's wide vision cabooses came from the Reading. Having learned that, I've decided to not use them as PC cabooses anymore and plan to make them new Kings Port & Western acquisitions.

This blog will follow that project as well as others to develop a more realistic PC caboose roster.

Ralph

[Gary S]

Are you going to repaint the cabooses to Kings Port and Western colors?

[Ralph]

Yep!

[railroader9731]

Im sure the shop have thier paint guns ready for the new kp&w cabeese

[Gary S]

Well, keep us posted on the progress. Can't wait to see'um!

[Gary S]

Ralph, how are the cabeeses going?

[Ralph]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for asking. The holidays have delayed the project but so has indecision at the KP&W corporate offices. There was considerable debate over whether to continue the blue and orange scheme, add a black roof, or simplify the scheme so that cabooses follow the all orange look of KP&W boxcars. There was also some interest in revising the logo. Expedience and thrift won out. The first new wide vision Kings Port & Western caboose is almost ready to be photographed.

Ralph

[Ralph]

Here we go!


I'll convert the second wide vision to a KP$W caboose and then turn my attention to the PC fleet.

Ralph

[nachoman]

very nice Ralph!!

[Gary S]

Looking really good, Ralph. I like the orange with the yellow steps and the roof looks nicely weathered.

[Gary S]

Ralph: If you wanted to dress it up a bit, you could add some reflector squares along the bottom, and consolidated lube plates, maybe even wheel inspection dots if they fit your era. Here's a photo of a Santa Fe caboose with the above items. The photo is linked from the Barstow Railroad Museum website.

[Charlie B]

Gary, the reflective tape came later, and the wheel inspection dot was only in the late 70's, after PC. It didn't last long as all cars with the bad wheels had to be changed or the car removed from service in late 79, but I forget the exact date. I think a white dot was a bad car.
Charlie

[AF350]

Way to go Ralph, like the grubby grimy weathering, nice outline of the State Of New york Like the forword slant of lettering as well.

[Gary S]

Hey Charlie,

I think the wheel dots were in the late 70s as you mention. Something about a batch of bad wheels that hit the market, too much carbon or something with the chemistry. Some of them cracked and failed causing issues. So the inspection program was put in place. Yellow dots meant no bad wheels, white dots meant the wheels needed to be replaced.

The ACI label on Ralph's KP$W caboose indicates it is from 1967 to 1978, of course they didn't remove the labels from the cars after 78 I'm sure. So depending on Ralph's exact era, he may want the wheel dots, and also the lube plates.

As for the reflectors, I am assuming you are talking about the PC cabooses? I think they would look good on Ralph's freelanced KP$W caboose.

[doctorwayne]

The reflective Scotchlite lettering tape was first introduced in 1939 (earlier than I would have thought) and was first used on railway equipment in 1944, by Great Northern.

Wayne