We have finally closed on a property that will be a permanent home for the cabooses. Its a long and fairly narrow strip of land in Bowden Oklahoma that has the Frisco right of way on the west boarder and Historic Route 66 highway on the east. The property is about a quarter mile long and about 200 feet wide. I made the deal last year but it took quite a while to survey the property and split it out of a 40 acre parcel. One really neat thing is the deed to the property states it is for property lying "east of the Frisco Railroad right of way" in the specific section of land. Neat that the Frisco name still shows up on legal documents.
Have been working steady on 1291. the interior is completely gutted except for the walls and ceiling, most of the rust has been cut out and replaced with new metal. Next we will be sanding and priming the walls and ceiling, then we will remove the old rotten wooden flooring and sandblast and paint the underframe. After we get the new paint on the underframe we will install the new Oak floors. The Oak floor boards are drying until early summer and then we will plane them and mill them to size and cut the tounge and groove cuts into the boards. The planks are red oak and were harvested in Central Missouri. Fun stuff!
We are slowly making progress on 1291. We have cut and sized all the new steel interior panels that will replace the ones that were rusted out, and we have checked them for fit and trimmed them where needed so they are ready to be welded in place, but prior to that we need to sand and primer the interior roof and wall panels that remain. Sandblasting is not an option on the interior panels because they are thin enough to warp with the heat and pressure. As soon as we get the interior primered we will be able to remove the old floor planks and then sandblast the underframe and primer and paint it. After the underframe is repainted we can install the new floor boards and then move the caboose to the building and set her back on the trucks, then we will be able to do all the finish work in a climate controlled environment. But for now work is slow, because of the colder than normal temps we are having, I wanted to be further along than we are now but we are doing all we can with the limits that mother nature is putting on us. We still have a target finish date for 1291 for the summer of 2016, after that we can tear into 1232 and do it all over again. Fun stuff
Image below is 1291 being moved to the display site in Exeter Mo, circa 1987. I got a phone call today from a young woman in Exeter and she told me her dad moved the caboose to the location with his truck, and she sent me the image. What a great surprise. Fun stuff !
What a crazy way to haul it. It looks like it is chained down at the front, with only gravity holding it otherwise.
Yeah Keith that trailer is pretty short, but luckily they only had to move her from the rail spur in Exeter to the display location 3 blocks away.
Modeling in 1 to 1 scale, rebuilding a crushed end platform. We cut the bad section off with a torch and grinded the cut smooth, then I found a frame from a 62 Chevy C60 truck that had the exact same curve profile as the end platform. I cut two pieces of the Chevy frame to match the angled profile of the original, then welded them together and ground the welds smooth. You can see the seams on the inside of the new piece. Fun stuff, just about wrapped up with metal work, we will be sandblasting within the next month if the weather cooperates ! Fun stuff.
Thanks William ! I was very pleased with the way it turned out. This week we will be fabricating a new set of stairs to replace the stairs that were crushed in the collision, luckily we have sourced some grating material for the steps that match the original, I found the grating on an old oilfield tank catwalk.....was a lucky find for sure ! When the new stairs are installed it will be a milestone because it marks the end of the tear down, metal fabrication , and rusty interior panel replacement, and the pendulum will swing forward to the painting and finishing stages of this restoration.
I love your work on this caboose, Paul. What a treat to look over this thread and soak it in. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Ryan ! progress is coming along really well, I had previously decided that I would combine parts from 1288 and 1291 to build only one of them, but the parts fabrication is going great, and we have successfully fabricated end platform extensions, doors, handrails, and stairs so I am going to restore both of them as I originally wanted, it was a huge moment for me when I realized what parts we could build if we just gave it a try. Its a slow process but the parts do get built and they look just fine. I have myself and two other men on the project right now and we are working every weekday as long as the weather permits, and if we don't have any surprise issues in the oilfield. 1291 will be painted freight car red with the ship it logo, which is how she looked until 1984 when she was painted green, 1288 will be orange and white, she retired in orange and white and was never painted green. All new glass for 1291 has been cut and installed in the original aluminum window frames. I don't have enough aluminum window frames for the car body ends to put them in 1288, so we will be using the rubber gasket window frames on the ends of 1288, and I can live with that. Another thing is that 1288 will not have the original style door handles and locks, but we can use something else and it will still function just fine and look okay. I look forward to the day when 1288 and 1291 are restored and coupled together looking awesome ! and then 1232 will be next ! I'm having a lot of fun with the project, and my enthusiasm for the Frisco keeps me motivated. With all the metal fab, new paint, new floors, new glass, etc. these girls will be a sight to see when they are done.
After a couple weeks of rain, we got back into 1291 Saturday and built some more parts and installed them through today, The finished platform end looks nice with the new grating and sill plates. We borrowed the stairs and hand rails from 1288. Will look great with some sandblasting and primer.
Making progress on 1291, the red interior panels are wall sections that have been replaced due to rust, we butt welded custom sized panels to the walls where we cut out the bad sections. We found the "ship it" logos under the paint and repainted them black, so we can lay paper over them and make stencils of the exact original logos. We painted the black logos today but had to stop because the caboose was getting too hot to put paint on. We will paint the coonskin logo bright and early tomorrow along with the "radio equipped" and SL-SF 1291. Have not done as much as we wanted this summer because of the rain and heat. Hoping to stay more steady through the fall. Fun stuff.
