QAP Caboose ID

Patrick,

In the book The Quanah Route, a Texas Short Line Railroad, by Charles C. Britton, Joed Books, Fort Collins, CO, 1990 there is one photograph of a Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway caboose.

Please see page 93, lower photo for caboose QA&P 49. The photograph is dated July 1949. The credit indicates the photographer is R. W. Richardson, and the image is from the Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden[, CO].

This caboose is not a standard Frisco design. The cupola is further toward the A end of the car, although still offset from center toward the B end. Also, on the car body side on the A end before the cupola there are 2 side windows and 1 window after the cupola near the B end. The caboose has an underframe with truss rods. The cupola has diagonal brace rods leading from near its roof to the top rail on the car body sides.

Another photograph appears in the Frisco Modelers Information Group (FMIG) Newsletter, for March 1985, Issue #36. For a photo of this caboose please the right hand column, 2nd photo down, on page 14 (a large fold out page). Unfortunately in my copy and the one scanned into this site's library I cannot clearly make out the car number. I believe the first digit is a 5.

The caboose in this photograph is one of the standard designs used by the Frisco. For this class of caboose the cars featured wood sides and a wood cupola with sloped sides and small end windows. On the car body side there were 3 windows toward the A end of the car before the cupola. The cupola has brace rods also and the ends have the Frisco standard end rails and ladder turn over safety grabs to the roof.

The photograph is credited to the collection of Steve Squibb. Unfortunately, I lost track of Steve years ago after I moved away from Springfield. If anyone knows how to get in touch with him that would be great. I know he had an extensive collection of Frisco materials, photos and knowledge.

The caboose in the image you posted also appears to be one of the Frisco's cars with the wood cupola. It looks like this is a cropped view of a larger photograph that includes the roundhouse at Quanah, TX. In that view the caboose is at the end of a work train also lettered for the QA&P.

This photograph is the lower one on page 163 in the book The Quanah Route, A History of the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway, by Don L. Hofsommer, Texas A & M University Press, College Station[,TX], 1991. This book does not include any caboose specific photographs. The photograph is not specifically credited so it must be from the company's files.

Looking through several Official Railway Equipment Registers (ORER) I found the following roster information:

January 1943 edition: 4 total cabooses - QA&P 46, 47, 48, 49

January 1953 edition: 5 total cabooses - QA&P 46, 47, 49, 50, 51

July 1959 edition: 4 total cabooses - QA&P 46, 47, 52, 53

April 1969 edition: Equipment: None

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Mark