We have been staying the course on 1291, working on her 5 days a week. We have one more sandblaster/painter to meet with Tuesday. We have both coupler pockets rebuilt and have the lift bars and couplers installed and working. The original man doors on 1291 are plywood with a thin steel covering on each side that wraps around the edges and seams together with solder. The original doors are in bad shape, plywood has drawn moisture and is rotting, solder seams are splitting because of the rotten plywood. We have been trying to build doors but are having a hard time. We tried to build a frame out of 1 inch square tubing and then put a sheet metal skin on both sides, problem is that when we weld the frame up the steel warps and loses its squareness as it cools. We even tried clamping all the pieces to a square table and welding, but when we remove the clamps the steel frame buckles and warps. I am not sure what to do. I thought about cutting the doors out of plywood as original, and then taking it to a metal smith to build and install the skins, but skilled labor is hard to find these days. Any ideas or suggestions are very much appreciated. Paul
When welding thin material, weld up smaller sections spread out so the heat doesn't build up. If it does, then spread out sections more or stop.
We spread out the sections, welded shorter beads, and used compressed air to cool each weld. The method worked very well, thanks Mayhem. We successfully built a door that looks good, but it has one problem, its way too heavy. We are designing a lighter frame and we will be using thinner sheet metal for the skins. The original plywood door weighs 53 pounds, the door we built weighs 91 pounds. The new doors we build should weigh about 57 pounds according to our material weight chart. Here is a pic of the "heavy" door.
Say Paul you might try buying one from one of the RR contractors like Midwest or Rail Merchants. Erman's might have some, a lot of Frisco waycars were scrapped there. Or maybe Hillsdale BBQ would let you swap doors with the 1292? I never looked at the BN's caboose doors when I was riding them, I remember they were heavy though. The only things I looked for was a) the stove worked b) hopefully it had 2 bunks so the brakeman & I didn't have to fight over who got to crash out on those long night trips. Roger
Roger, I will check into those groups and see what other parts they may have available, we built our new and improved doors this week and they came out beautiful. We took all the lessons learned from our pilot model and corrected a few things for the doors we built. Also good news we have selected a paint crew to do the blasting and painting. The paint gang from TSU railroad is going to do the job, 2 enthusiastic young men that are going to work on the project on weekends in the near future. I'm excited to have them on board as they have done beautiful paint jobs on the TSU locomotives.
Today was a big day in the restoration of 1291 because all the work we have done in Oct and Nov is completed. Our new doors were fitted on, all the rust replacement and collision damage was completed, couplers and lift bars were installed and working properly, all the safety chains and hooks have been installed. Now we are ready and waiting for the sandblasters/painters to show up next weekend. A long time friend and building contractor is set to start work next week on the shed to park the caboose in for the finishing part of the restoration. So basically its a waiting game for the next few weeks. So in the mean time, we have no oilfield equipment to rebuild for customers during the bust, we only have a few of our own producing wells to maintain so we will have a lot of free time. With that being the way it is, tomorrow we will start doing the metal work on 1288. I am excited about that.....but it when I look at 1288 it feels like a daunting task, both platform ends have damage, the grating all needs replaced, most of the railings are bent up, she needs new stairs built, has cupola rust, minor collision damage on one side, etc etc etc. But on the bright side, we did all those things to 1291 so we can do it on 1288. I will post before and after pics of 1288s end platforms in the next few weeks. Stay tuned !
The paint gang from TSU showed up today, a week earlier than they had planned. Interior paint is flying off with ease. The manufacturers stamp revealed itself on the steel panels, they were made by Bethlehem Steel. Fun stuff !
Interior is now blasted and primed with two part epoxy primer that is made for coating bare steel. This week we will be taking out all the wooden floor boards and then next weekend the paint crew will come back to sandblast and primer the underframe. After working on all the time consuming and tedious metal fabrication it is fun to finally see some major changes in her appearance. In the not too distant future all that cascade green paint will be gone too !
Thanks for the words of encouragement, it does mean a lot to me. Its been 18 months since this project started, moving the caboose, tearing down and repairing and rebuilding, and fabricating new parts, we are very happy to be at a point where big noticeable changes will happen in a quick manner. My goal by years end is to have the entire caboose blasted and primed, and to have the underframe panted black, and have her back on her trucks and parked inside the shed. My goal for Jan-March is to have the hardwood floors fitted and installed, Winter will be cold and work will slow to a snails pace. When spring rolls around we can work longer hours and weld all the furniture back in place and paint the interior. I want to paint the exterior on a nice day in early June when temps are just right for paint flow and adhesion, after that we can wire the interior for a generator that will be mounted underneath, install the stove, and finish her out with the new glass. Hopefully the project can be finished by fall of 2016. More pics to come next weekend. thanks again for your kind words of support. Paul
Paul, I applaud your work! Watching your efforts rebuilding the caboose makes one appreciate the work that Frisco's Springfield shops accomplished even more! Joe
Thanks Keith, I feel pretty lucky to have the opportunity to restore these 2 cabooses. Joe, if I had been an adult during the Frisco, and worked there, I would have felt right at home at the car shops, and would have enjoyed the work for certain.
This left side of the image is the wall of the cupola, sans the interior wall steel, the green is the lower portion of the cupola that sticks out over the body, sans the steel floor covering. This green area is 3 inches below floor surface, and its basically a trough and whan water gets in it cannot get out. We had to replace the lower section and the braces because of that problem. To help prevent future rust, we primered the new steel and painted two coats of high gloss industrial grade epoxy paint to protect the steel. We also drilled to 1/4 inch holes to allow any unwanted water to drain out. The green color almost looks Katy, but it was some leftover paint from some oilfield engines we painted last year.
