I think someone had a post where they were looking for a shot of the top of a wood caboose. I rummaged around and came up with a couple of shots and hope they will help.
Thanks for sharing. Both pictures are great. But in that second one of caboose SLSF 368, did you notice on the far left that well-traveled Santa Fe Refrigerator Department (SFRD) plug door refrigerator car in the background? This during the steam era! Interesting.
It looks like the second picture was taken seconds before the one at the bottom of page 251 of Joe Collias' book Frisco Power. It is labeled as being taken in St. Louis, MO in 1951. Rich
Excellent detective work, pensive! I believe you are spot on! Still surprises me to see a plug door reefer car in 1951.
The caboose SLSF 368 shot was taken from the Fyler Avenue bridge at Lindenwood Yard. First shot I think was somewhere in Oklahoma, by Preston George.
One of the things I noticed was the the absence of roof access ladders on one compared to the other. But both had roof walks. Good stuff as I just got a brass caboose I want to remove the ladders on but not the roof walks, LOL
Interesting over sized backup light on the tender of the 4-8-2 SLSF 4402. I have also removed the ladder extensions from my brass cabooses. Best I can tell from photographs, they were added latter as folks become more aware of safety. Brad Slone
That is a good catch Andre. Imagine my surprise when I ran across this in La Junta, CO, those reefers with the automobile racks.
This is timely information for me as I am building the American Model Builders (AMB) model of a Frisco caboose. I am going for the older style to go with my steamers. I have seen references to "mule hide" roofs on Frisco cabooses. Is this a brand name or did it actually have something to do with mules? Rich
Rich, That is a great kit and I am about to start my second one. Adding working marker lamps is also a nice touch as is the cable that hangs along the left side underneath.
The 4-8-2 SLSF 4402 was probably one of the engines that they were using on the "Pacific Switcher". The job did a lot of switching the gravel pits around Pacific, MO and most times got back in after dark.
Rich, Well, it is a brand name. On caboose's though, the mule hide roofing was canvas that was coated with asphalt or tar. I guess it looked like mule hide.
When I built my American Model Builders (AMB) cabooses, I found that with the wood cupola models, I needed to replace the thicker side fascia board with thin 0.010 styrene. It let me reduce the width of the roof enough so that the wire cupola braces fit better and did not "flare" out so far to the side.
Thanks, Bob, for settling that question once and for all. Perhaps it "stubbornly" kept the moisture out! Jim and Don, I appreciate your suggestions. The kit is daunting for my limited modeling skills. Rich
Don, Not only are they good photographs of the caboose roofs, but they are outstanding photographs for the additional detail they show. The photograph of caboose SLSF 90 is maybe one of the first photographs I have ever seen of a full work train. The maintenance of way (MoW) cars are fun to see, and the adjacent right-of-way is very illustrative for anyone trying to capture the correct look and feel of a rural ROW setting in any scale. I got lost in looking at the topside detail of 48-2 SLSF 4402's tender on the second page. Great detail, fascinating backdrop of rolling stock, caboose detail and urban buildings. And that does not even touch the "Stag" billboard. I also have a Panama hat very similar to the crewman's on the front platform of caboose SLSF 368. I might have to start wearing it during late 1940s to early 1950s operating sessions when serving as a conductor/brakeman. Thanks for sharing, Don! Best Regards,
