Hey Paul, That caboose that was at Parachute, CO is gone. Did you get it? Was it the 12575? Or was that the one that got bent?
Hi Tom. The caboose that was at Parachute, CO is 12517. I saw a photograph of it a few weeks ago at Denver, CO and now the windows in the cupola and on the end platforms have been plated over. Perhaps it is now a shoving platform? Looks in sad shape really.
Yea, I was afraid of that. The caboose 12575 was the one bad ordered in Grand Junction, CO. You could still get into the doors and all on that caboose, inside it was not too bad. When I was a brakeman on the road switcher we used that caboose every day, all day. We had a griddle and cooking stuff in there, several paper towel holders scattered around inside. I do not know how many rolls of paper towels we used to clean it up the first time. Fred was the conductor, and you did not go inside with muddy shoes, without wiping your feet, you would get your hiney chewed out. LOL. It had some of the squarest wheels under it I ever rode on, wow was it noisy at 60 mph. I liked every minute of it. Always wondered while sitting in the cupola with the windows open rolling down the tracks, if my grandpa ever pulled it too. When I went into engine service I got to pull it around too. So the circle goes. Now with its windows plated over, doors welded shut, you cannot even get in out of the rain and snow.
The painting has begun. After the yellow dries, we will mask it and apply the black paint to the end platforms and frame extensions, and then mask the black and lay down the red. Exciting to be doing this after 3 years of prepration.
Today we painted the black. It is still very wet in the previous image, but will dry with a little less gloss, very difficult to photograph as it seems to swallow light. The red paint will go on later this week!
Now were talking!! Whew! That looks just fabulous. Cannot wait to see some reporting marks and a couple coonskin heralds on the caboose now. Great job Paul! As well as the other folks working on this project too.
Sometimes things do not go as planned and you just have to deal with the outcome. Case in point is the red color of our caboose SLSF 1291. I can say that color samples on a one inch square are not accurate for representing the outcome on a large scale. I chose a red paint that I felt like copied the freight car caboose color on a sample, and it looked good in a can with the lid off, looked right. When I painted a test area it looked intensely red, so I added some yellow and this is the result, the top image is caboose SLSF 1291, the lower image is caboose SLSF 1206 in 1972. Not freight car red as I intended, but very close to the caboose red color worn by some Frisco cabooses, so we will just have to live with it. The sun and time will fade it to a more favorable shade of reddish orange. After the color went on, it really bothered me for a couple hours. I did not know if I could accept it. After some time to think about it and some reasoning, I have decided to love it as it is. It will be okay and when she is finished and detailed out it will be fantastic.