Hi group, my name is Greg Kennelly and my interst in the Frisco comes from the fact that six ex-Frisco cabooses were sold to the Pacific Great Eastern in 1957. My modelling efforts are confined to the PGE in the 1950s and I am currently developing a Clinic on the PGE's caboose fleet for presentation at Trains 2008 in Vancouver in November. I have posted a photo of the six in an album "ex-Frisco cabooses on PGE". Two of the cabooses were numbers 392 and 898 and based on the window arrangements visible in the photo, I believe one of the others was a sibling of 898 and the other three were sibs of 392. The PGE kept the window arrangements but majorly re-built the cabooses with plywood sides, the PGE's own standard steel cupola, end platforms, steps and ladders. Can anyone here provide any information on these caboose such as a Frisco folio sheet, equipment diagram or a list of dimensions including the truck centre-to-centre distance? Thanks, Greg Kennelly Burnaby, BC
Welcome, Greg! I believe someone had posted some caboose drawings here but I am not sure if they showed the dimensions you need. I also think there may be some info on SL-SF caboose dispositions but, likewise, it's been a few years since I looked. Best Regards,
Greg, there is an excellent string here on frisco.org with these dimensional diagrams. http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?forums/caboose-diagrams.118/ is a good starting place. I also have large-sheet drawings of these early double-sheathed wood cabooses in the basement - although they've been copied so many times that the lines are quite faint. Both the even-spaced and uneven-spaced three-window caboose drawings are included. The difference is location of the diagonal steel braces. The windows have to fit between them. Doug
Thanks Chris & Doug, I found the caboose diagrams area last night and the 5 wood cars in series 1102 - 1179 look very similar. The small size of the scanned image makes it difficult to read some of the dimensions, but I did manage to read a truck centre distance of 20'-0", an eave width of 9'-7 1/4", and a carbody length of 30' - 1 7/8". Working from a black and white 3/4 view photo of PGE 1844 (one of the uneven window spacing cars) and using the known diameter of the PGE's logo as applied to house cars, I had determined the carbody length to be 30' - 1 1/2". Darn, out 3/8" in 30 feet. Actually not too shabby! Doug, would you be willing to check a few dimensions for me on the larger drawings? On the scanned diagram, it looks like a side sill height of 3' - 6" plus a fraction that I can't read and a floor height of 4' 1 1/2". An eave height would be a real help also. Working from the cupola (or B) end, I have determined window centres at 12' - 8", 19' - 8" and 24' - 2" which would be 6' - 0", 10' - 6" and 17' - 6" from the A end. Do these match up with any information you have? Incidentally, in my original post I see I got 392 and 898 reversed in terms of the number of apparent siblings. 898 has the even window spacing and 392 has the uneven spacing. Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide. Greg Kennelly Burnaby, BC
The Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) Railway in Canada acquired in the late 1950's at least 6 wood cupola cabooses from the Frisco. Two of the Frisco cars involved were SLSF 392 and 898. What were the other cars? On that line at least 5 of the cars were rebuilt in 1958 to become PGE 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844 and 1845. Three of the cars featured evenly spaced car body side windows, PGE 1841, 1843 and 1845. At least one of the cars, PGE 1844, and possibly PGE 1842, featured car body side windows that were not equally spaced. Don Wirth was kind enough to post a photograph of a line of former Frisco cabooses that were sold to the PGE. He also included a photograph of one that was rebuilt as PGE 1843. Please see http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index....d-cabooses-on-the-pacific-great-eastern.8833/ One of these cars is preserved at a museum in western Canada. It is former Frisco caboose SLSF ???, rebuilt as PGE 1845. Please see http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1329189. It is located at the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum, 850 River Road, Prince George, British Columbia, C V2L 5S8, Canada. Please see http://www.pgrfm.bc.ca/index.html. Does anyone have additional photographs of either the Frisco cars involved or the PGE cars as rebuilt? It is quite a tribute to the skilled craftsmen in Springfield that other roads were acquiring Frisco cabooses at retirement for use on their railroads. Second hand users include at least the Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) Railway and Santa Maria Valley (SMV) Railroad (please see http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index....d-cabooses-on-the-pacific-great-eastern.8833/). Do you know of any other second hand users? Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Don, Thank you for the prompt. The Mississippian is both a second and third hand user of former Frisco cabooses. The Mississippian Railway is a short line in Amory, MS. They acquired a steel under and upper frame, wood side, wood cupola Frisco built caboose, SLSF 630. It was lettered and renumbered as MISS 630. Please see http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/001-999.133/page-2#post-1408 Later they acquired one of the former all steel Santa Fe cabooses that was acquired by the Frisco. This was an American car & Foundry built caboose SLSF 1103. Please see h http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/caboose-slsf-1103.3468/#post-22895 Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
