Please see the following link for a photograph of Frisco caboose SLSF 1248. http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/834720d7-ad80-45db-aa04-ad3d8b599be6.jpg (9/18/2007) http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/712c72a9-5622-4fa6-9030-5702fbc0f49c.jpg (9/18/2007) http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/57d37989-7449-4215-bf92-39955f877d5b.jpg (9/18/2007) http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=751416 (5/13/2007) http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanniesnider/3316927515/sizes/l/ This caboose was constructed by the International car Company during 7/1957. It originally was numbered 248. In April 1968 the car was renumbered by adding 1000 to the original number to prevent conflict with locomotive numbers when the railroad added a new computer tracking system. This car was part of the original order (SLSF 200-274) of all steel extended or wide vision cabooses for road service. These cabooses road on distinctive General Steel Castings (GSC) swinghanger-equalized truck. The caboose in located in a city park in the central part of town. The park is bounded between Frisco Street on the north, 1st Street on the south and Ozark Street on the west. Also on display in the park, just to the northwest of the caboose, is the Frisco depot. The caboose and depot are adjacent to the Frisco's main tracks on the Winona Branch of the Willow Springs Subdivision. The location address is 368 Ozark St., Birch Tree, MO. Please see http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...=Ni4c0tGgtTgxVKB5NdxA1Q&cbp=12,265.81,,0,4.76. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
I went to visit 1248 on August 10, 2017. The caboose is completely neglected and literally rusting away at the seams. I went inside to have a look around through a hole in the bathroom floor. The interior window frames on the long walls, and the structure in the cupola has significant rust as should be expected with the open windows and nobody to care for the poor thing for the last 30 years. There are rust holes in the interior big enough to put my fist through, pretty sad state. One bit of good news is that the interior paint is completely original with the stencils and lettering still intact, so it was valuable to photograph all of it for a reference for finishing out 1291. I took quite a few photos, and was unable to post because it said the image was too big. Will compress them and post in the next few days. The sad reality is that this is the fate of most of the old first generation Frisco EV cabooses (1200-74) and it is not likely that anybody will ever restore them. They were in service for 25 years on the Frisco and were loved by crews and kids all over the system, but they are all in various stages of decay today.
