I went to see Paul and his caboose farm yesterday afternoon. He and a couple of other guys were working on the end platform of caboose SLSF 1288. They have done a fantastic job restoring cabooses SLSF 1288 and SLSF 1291. It takes a lot of time and energy to do such a project. I previously thought my dad rebuilding a metro bus into a recreation vehicle (RV) was a great project, but Paul has got that beat by a mile! I wish Paul all the luck in the future of his endeavor to restore the cabooses. Thank you Paul for taking time to show me around!!! Joe
These are before and after photographs of some of the under body hardware that supports all the brake rigging. All 6 rigging hangers are badly damaged. We are removing and replacing them only 2 at a time in order to prevent mass confusion when we put it all back together! If we took all of them out at once we would have a ton of hanging rods and levers with no contact points. And, we do not want to get anything out of order. The blasters completely finished blasting all the remaining green from the body and have primed the entire caboose. Looks like nice weather for this coming week. I will post a nice photograph with the sun behind me pretty soon.
Today was a great day. We finished replacing and installing all of the brake rigging brackets on caboose SLSF 1291, and then we hooked all the levers and rods together and made minor adjustments, and the hand brakes are working too. This is a milestone in that it was the last of the metal fabrication and replacement so I can finally stand back and say "the metal work is finally finished"! We are going to pressure up the air system tomorrow and see if the brake valve works. I have a feeling it will not, but hopefully it does. Just about ready to paint the chassis and then we can install the floors. We rolled caboose SLSF 1291 outside late this afternoon and coupled her to caboose SLSF 1288. The sun was in the right place for a nice photograph.
Yeah for sure Roger. A whole lot of maintenance. Wheels, bearings, springs, glass, brakes, air valves, cylinders, quite a lot of operating parts that wear out or just get tired. I am enjoying the work. It feels rewarding to see the noticeable changes in appearance and to see the brake system function. The work takes a lot of time, a lot of man hours, and a lot of money, and these are just cabooses. It is hard for me to imagine the amount of hours and men it t takes to bring a steam loco back to life.
Wow! That is some amazing work you have done, Paul! I was wondering, how do you move the cabooses around? Murphy Jenkins
Murphy, I moved them out of Missouri on trucks, the body on a special trailer, and the trucks on another trailer. When I am done with caboose SLSF 1291 we are going to load it back on the rails in Sapulpa on the Tulsa Sapulpa Union (TSU). From there it will be hauled by rail from Sapulpa to Oklahoma City via the Stillwater Central (SC) Railroad. In Oklahoma City it will cross over the Union Pacific (UP) yard up to the Oklahoma Railway Museum (ORM) to be used on the train there. After we run it a few times and get everything dialed in, I want to see about sending it up to the Arkansas and Missouri (A&M) to be put on that tourist train. I would lease it to them for a dollar a year if they promise not to change the paint. That way I could go ride it on a nice trip on original Frisco rails. I am not going to ask them until its finished. Do you think they would be interested?
Thanks for the information, Paul! I sent you a private message (PM) about the Arkansas and Missouri (A&M) Railroad's interest.
Joe, I have a long pry bar, about 6 feet, I put it between the rail and the wheel and give it a lift and they roll, then just push by hand. They are surprisingly easy to move.
WOW!!! I would have never imagined it would be that easy. That is a lot of mass to move. How much do they weigh? Do you keep track of the hours and if so how many have you put in so far? You have done a great job and can hardly wait to see them finished! Joe
Joe, The caboose series SLSF 1288-1292 weigh in at 53,000 lbs. The caboose series SLSF 1200-1274 weigh 63,000 lbs. I keep a close estimate on hours, from May of 2014 through September 15, 2014, 2 men worked a total of 10 weeks on the project, we were very busy then working oilfield so we were unable to dedicate a lot of time to the project. Since October 1, 2015 through today, after the oilfield work declined, 2 men have worked 40 hours per week on the project, minus a few days during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Also the 3rd party 2 man paint crew has put in a total of 34 hours on the project. I come and go during the day and have not kept track of the time I spend working on them. I really have no idea how many hours remain in the project, we have never rebuilt a caboose before these, but my target completion date is summer 2017.
Caboose SLSF 1291 is now sitting inside her shed, blasted and primed with all the metal work finished, and protected from the weather. Caboose SLSF 1291 has been in Tulsa for 20 months and I am happy with the rate of progress we have made in that time. I have some other obligations to tend to right now and we will not be doing any more caboose work until spring. Then we will pick it up and hit it pretty hard again. I have loved sharing these posts on here, thanks for the words of encouragement and support. Look for more updates this spring!
Spring is right around the corner, looking forward to getting back to work on caboose SLSF 1291 again. Next week we will be taking bids from a couple contractors for installing the flooring in caboose SLSF 1291. I am excited to get that done, I feel like it is a pretty big milestone. After the floors go in we can install all the steel cabinets, cupola floors, seats that were removed earlier and rewire for a 120 volt small Honda generator that will reside in the battery box underneath. Then we can paint the interior, paint all the exterior window and door jambs, install the doors and windows and have the ball rolling again. The plan is to get all the interior finished out and painted, and then paint the exterior.
Painted the frame on caboose SLSF 1291 today using Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) black urethane industrial enamel. It is the same paint that the Tulsa Sapulpa Union (TSU) uses on the frames of their locomotives, weathers very well and stays glossy for several years. Monday next week we are installing the wooden floors in caboose SLSF 1291. I am pretty excited about that. While the floors are going in we will send all the interior components to the sandblaster to have the old paint removed. Then we will be putting the interior back together. Enjoying the nice weather!
Floors are going in. After all the planks are in, we will sand it smooth and start replacing all the seats and cabinets that were removed earlier. Having fun.
