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.
Both pictures are great (thanks for sharing)... but that second one of 368: Did you notice that well-traveled PLUG DOOR reefer 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 Collias' Frisco Power. It's labeled as being taken in St. Louis in 1951. Rich
Excellent detective work, pensive! I believe you're spot on! Still surprises me to see a plug door reefer car in 1951.
The 368 shot was taken from the Fyler Ave bridge at Lindenwood. First shot I THINK was somewhere in OK, 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 4402. I have also removed the ladder extensions from my brass cabooses. Best I can tell from photos they were added latter is folks become more aware of safety. Brad Slone
Thats a good catch Andre, imagine my surprise when I ran across this in La Junta CO, those reefers with the autoracks.
This is timely information for me as I'm building the AMB model of a Frisco caboose. I'm going for the older style to go with my steamers. I've seen references to "mulehide" roofs on Frisco cabooses. Is this a brand name or did it actually have something to do with mules? Rich
Rich, that's a great kit and I'm 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.
4402 was probably one of the engines that they were using on the "Pacific Switcher", which did a lot of switching the gravel pits around Pacific and most times got back in after dark.
Well, it is a brand name. On caboose's though, the mulehide roofing was canvas that was coated with asphalt/tar. I guess it looked like mule hide.
When I built my AMBs, I found that with the wood cupola models that if I replaced the thicker side fascia board with thin (.010) styrene, it let me reduce the width of the roof enough so that the wire cupola braces fit better and didn't "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 photos of the caboose roofs, but they're outstanding photos for the additional detail they show. The photo of #90 is maybe one of the first photos I've ever seen of a full work train. The 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 4402's tender on the second page. Great detail, fascinating backdrop of rolling stock, caboose detail and urban buildings. And that doesn't even touch the "Stag" billboard. I also have a panama hat very similar to the crewman's on the front platform of #368. I might have to start wearing it during late 40s/early 50s ops sessions when serving as a conductor/brakeman. Thanks for sharing, Don! Best Regards,
