Caboose SLSF 139 Caboose SLSF 139 photographed at the Frisco Museum, Springfield, MO. Photograph dated 3/29/1994.
Caboose SLSF 659 Caboose SLSF 659 at Oklahoma City, OK. Photograph dated 3/19/2001. Edit 4/22/2024: The caboose was donated in 1953 to the city of Oklahoma City, OK. It had been located at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, Transportation Building, 3001 General Pershing Boulevard, Oklahoma City, OK. It was located in a covered and fenced recess in the side of the building. The windows are blanked and the car lacked proper heralds, reporting marks and numbers. Subsequently it 2015 it was donated by the Fair Board to the Oklahoma Railway Museum (ORM) in the city. It was restored and painted freight car red by the museum in 2016. Unfortunately it was not properly lettered for the Frisco. Instead it now has big lettering advertising the "OKLAHOMA RAILWAY MUSEUM" above the side windows, with the location address below the windows "3400 NE GRAND BLVD". A shield like herald in the style of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad is offset toward the B end below the copula on the car side. The ORM uses the shield as their museum's herald. It is near where a proper Frisco coonskin herald belongs centered below the copula. The caboose now serves as a billboard. The caboose is parked to the east of and adjacent to the Oklahoma Firefighters Museum. Just to the west are the Oklahoma City Zoo and the Science Museum Oklahoma. Please see the following to the museum's web site. https://oklahomarailwaymuseum.org/exhibits/frisco-649-caboose/ The car is located at the museum's northern end of track at their Adventure Station depot. This is 0.15 miles west of Interstate Highway 35 (I-35), Exit 132, Northeast 5oth Street. It sits adjacent to and south of the street. The current address of the caboose is 2801 Northeast 50th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73111. The museum also has two other Frisco cabooses, SLSF 929 and SLSF ????. The former serves as a "party caboose", while the latter is being repaired and repainted to serve as a billboard at the museum's entrance. Other Frisco items of interest at the museum include the Oklahoma City, former Sapulpa, OK, locomotive 100' turntable, Pullman tourist sleeper, Arrington, converted by the Frisco to a maintenance of way office, bunk, kitchen and diner car, SLSF 109025. In addition they have a General Motors (GM) Electro-Motive Division (EMD) F9A painted in Frisco black and yellow. It is numbered Frisco (OKRX) 814. It is former Northern Pacific (NP) Railroad NP 7003-D. In 1970 it was renumbered 814 by that successor railroad. Other Frisco items at the museum include the Le Flore, OK depot from the Arthur Subdivision, a Frisco Velocipede and the cast concrete bridge sides from the former Robinson Street underpass by the Oklahoma City Union Station depot. Please see the museum's web site at the following link. https://oklahomarailwaymuseum.org/ Added caboose history details, current location, address and web site links. MKD
Caboose SLSF 876. The Great Plains Transportation Museum in Wichita, KS owns caboose SLSF 876. It is in need of serious repair work. We are needing any and all information about this class of car including drawings if possible. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or would like to help us save an early wood car from the Frisco
Caboose SLSF 22, SLSF 50, SLSF 78, SLSF 90 From my collection, steel cupola cabooses with original wood siding.
Caboose SLSF 27 Two photographs of side door caboose SLSF 27 from a collection of original Frisco slides I obtained at the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) national convention this summer. The slides were taken somewhere in Kansas. They are dated October 1967. Paul Bender
Caboose SLSF 895 Caboose SLSF 895 with wood copula. Location unknown. Probably Snyder, OK. Photograph taken on 10/9/1949. Photograph by Charles A. Tice.
The Santa Maria Valley (SMV) Railway Historical Museum needs your help. We are restoring caboose SMV 180, a car used by our local short line. “Legend has it”, nobody can find a copy of the bill of sale, that it and another caboose SMV 190, were purchased from another railroad in the mid to late fifties. The caboose SMV 180 is a wood caboose on a steel frame with a wooden cupola and seems to be a dead ringer for caboose SLSF 895, pictured on your site. The only differences we can see is the fact that our caboose lost its roof walks and ladders along the way. Cast in to the Huntoon truck side frames is “STL-SFRY” and “2-36,” “4-36,” and “9-36” on the two trucks. Based upon all of this, we think that the Frisco built this caboose and that the Frisco was the line from which the SMVRR bought it. We are hoping to find the two numbers involved in the sale. As SMV 190 was scrapped out years ago, we realize that we will be unable to get it down to which number is ours. But the Museum would like to document caboose SMV 180’s history and give credit where credit is due. Also, We may be of some help to the Great Plains Transportation Museum, Wichita, KS, in their restoration of caboose SLSF 876. If it is of the same class as ours, the interior does not seem to be changed much from its service with the Frisco. Does anyone have documentation which shows two cabooses leaving the Frisco roster in the mid to late fifties? These are probably the ones that became SMV 180 and SMV 190. If anyone wishes to contact us, please contact us through our museum web site at the following link. http://www.smvrhm.org/ Or as an alternative, at my email address, Dan Alves, President. aiim@juno.com
First, the Northeast Oklahoma (NEO) Miami, OK shops built two cabooses. Original numbers NEO 53 and NEO 54, built 11-47. Frisco renumbered SLSF 162, SLSF 163 (built 5-51). Frisco later renumbered to SLSF 1162 (built 11-47) at least one I know of, then they were renumbered into SLSF 1110 and SLSF 1111 What is the interior length (IL) of this caboose? I remember an article in one of the FMIG newsletters, is that right? I have mine in Australia and I cannot check. What are the interior lengths of the following, I have my numbers in brackets ( ). 1400 series (33'4") 1700 series (33'4") 1725 series (32'4") 1776 (34'6") Thanks, Nick Edit 4/22/2024: The Northeast Oklahoma (NEO) Railroad constructed four (4) cabooses, NEO 51, 52, 53 and 54. The former NEO Cabooses were renumbered SLSF 1110, 1111, 1157 and 1186 (1st). Added details concerning the four (4) former NEO cabooses. MKD
I received this from Joe Pennington in which he described the paint schemes of early cabooses (Thanks Joe!!!): The early cabooses were all box car red with black endrails grabs, platforms and steps. The first steel cupola cabooses were built in 1938(10-29,30-40 series) and had 20' truck centers and mulehide roofs. The Murphy steel roofs (as modeled by Hallmark and Overland) were not used until about half way into the 41-99 series. All the wood cupola cabooses had mulehide roofs. The painting of yellow endrails, grabs, stair edges begin in 1946. The ladders only went to the roof edge until 1947 when they started using the wrap over roof design. Joe
Caboose detail lettering locations, paint codes, dates and sizes. Here is another note from Joe Pennington that describes some of the detail lettering on cabooses. Joe's email address is JoeP1522@aol.com The 1" data in the upper left hand corner is present on all box cars, reefers, hoppers and cabooses. It is a paint code and date when the car was last painted. PP-3-40 = Pittsburg paint March 1940. DUP TC = DuPont "tuf-cote" CRL = Chas. R. Long Co. SW = Sherwin-Williams MW = Montgomery Ward and Co. A-29QD = St. Louis Surfacer Co. (black) GLID = Glidden Co. Mortex-4 = Mortel Co. This was a plastic like coating that was applied to the roofs of steam locomotives, box cars, reefers, express cars, passenger cars, cabooses, etc. and was not painted over with the car or locomotive color. The Frisco had box cars with black roofs in the 1940s. The lettering on the bottom of the car above the trucks was the date and location that the truck bearings were repacked in 1-1/2 ", sometimes in 1", numbers and letters. I have a set of decals that I produced several years back that has all this small detail lettering included. The set does eight cars plus a caboose. Also the brake reservoir has 1" lettering showing the location and date that the brake valves were cleaned. This is another item that shows up nicely on a model. Joe Pennington
Caboose SLSF 893 Here are some additional pictures of wood copula and side caboose SLSF 893, in Paul's Valley, OK to add to what Roger has listed below. Photographs dated 6/4/2002. Chris Abernathy Right side of caboose. Close-up of right side of cupola. Close-up detail of "B' end platform. Close-up detail of "A" end platform. Wide-angle, left side (same as what Roger has posted below)
Caboose SLSF 154 Wood sided bay window caboose SLSF 154. Frisco photo from the Western Historical Manuscript Collection.
Caboose SLSF 154 Interior photograph of caboose SLSF 154. Frisco photograph taken in 1953. Published in the Frisco Museum's magazine All Aboard. Posted with permission.
Caboose SLSF 46, SLSF 93, SLSF 111, SLSF 132 From my collection, steel cupola cabooses with plywood wood siding. Photographs by Arthur (Art) Marsh.
Caboose C&EI 11 Chicago and Eastern Illinois (C&EI) Railroad - Frisco System bobber style 2-axle caboose. FM
