Available: Cotton Belt branchline caboose 2305

SSW9389 · **Joined:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:45 pm **Posts:** 10

This Cotton Belt long caboose will be on the road this week from Old Saybrook, CT. Mr. Gary Powell has bought his third caboose and is having it shipped to Cedar Park, TEXAS and the Austin Steam Train Association Shops where it will be restored. This is Mr. Powell's third caboose project after SSW #37 and AT&SF #999348.

Notes on a Cotton Belt Group detail that the car was built in 1914, not 1920. If anyone has information on how this car spent its time while on the east coast from 1964 to date please contact me.

Ed Cooper
Cotton Belt Rail Historical Society #114
Pine Bluff Chapter

Newriver400 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:14 pm

That's great news for this neat car!

Best,
Mike
Mohawk, Indiana

robertjohndavis · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 am **Posts:** 2499

Glad to hear it! Even though the thread got hijacked, the caboose found a home.

Now back to GG-1's.

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

robertjohndavis wrote:

Glad to hear it! Even though the thread got hijacked, the caboose found a home.

It really IS fantastic that St. Louis Southwestern 2305 is going to be moved and restored down in Texas. But I seem to recall that there is another one of these Drover/Branchline Cotton Belt cupola cabooses existing somewhere. Anyone know if my thinker is still functioning slightly, or if I am just all wet? Or maybe I'm thinking of a similar caboose from another railroad.

Les

SSW9389 · **Joined:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:45 pm **Posts:** 10

Sister car Cotton Belt #2304 is in Ashdown, Arkansas. See http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rspict ... ?id=374977 for photos.

car57 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:18 am

I would love to see UP GTEL turbine back from Illinois to Cheyenne, and UP 4-12-2 back in Cheyenne too.

Dreaming on...................

Mike Pannell

Howard P. · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:47 am

"If anyone has information on how this car spent its time while on the east coast from 1964 to date please contact me."

I suspect that the individuals who know the details of how and why this car came North to Middletown, NY are all deceased (Steve Bogen, Oliver Jensen). There may be one person in Middletown who has info, if he is still with us.

The caboose arrived for use on ESRM's operation on the Middletown & New Jersey, about 1964. That early steam operation, using 2-6-2 #103, lasted from 1962 to 1966. The equipment was stored at M&NJ from October 1966 until a late 1970 "hospital move" over EL and PC brought the Cotton Belt caboose and a number of other pieces to Valley Railroad at Saybrook Jct. CT. The caboose was never used in service at VRR; it was stored for years and was rebuilt in the early 1980s for use as "shoppes". Transferred to RMNE ownership in 1985, it was RMNE's Museum Store at Essex for a few years (1987-90) and then was stored at Saybrook Yard ever since.

It is nice to see this car returning to home turf, where it will be cared for.

Howard P.

Higherspeedrailnow · **Joined:** Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:09 am **Posts:** 130

Howard P. wrote:

RMNE has made Cotton Belt branchline caboose 2305 available. It does not fit our scope of collection, and needs an appropriate new home. As best as we can determine, it was built by SSW's Pine Bluff shops in 1920.This car is 50 ft long and contains a small coach compartment, a baggage compartment and a caboose cupola. It is a wood car with a steel center sill and steel bolsters. Has 4 1/4 x 8 plain bearing trucks, cast iron wheels, AB brakes. Interior has partitions (including toilet room) but no seats or stoves (there were two stoves originally). It was extensively rebuilt in 1981-83 and was last repainted in 1991. It cannot ship on own wheels and will have to be trucked. Located in Old Saybrook, CT.No photos available right now, but we might have some as early as end of this week. On-site inspection is suggested, contact me to make arrangements. Interested and serious parties should contact me at: hpincus AT mindspring DOT com or by telephone through our Thomaston office number (860-283-7245).If this car is of interest to your group, contact me. You might be surprised at how flexible we are on making a deal for this car!HP

Gee, that's one long Mixed train caboose! How long is that?

Howard P. · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:43 am

It's a 50 foot car. These were probably the longest cabooses of all, a branchline train all in one car. Just add some 40-ft boxcars and a 2-8-0.

Howard P.

G. W. Laepple · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 5:10 pm **Posts:** 1182

Don't you mean stock cars, Howard? After all, it is a drover's caboose. :-)

Howard P. · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:00 am

We used to call it a drover's caboose, but were corrected by some SSW experts. SSW had shorter versions of these that were drover's cabooses. I'm sure there were some stock cars in that branchline train, along with a black UTLX tank car or two, and flat with some nice new John Deer tractors!

Howard P.
Gotham City, NY

SSW9389 · **Joined:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:45 pm **Posts:** 10

The 2305 should be travelling through Virginia today and Tennessee tomorrow. Will post more as the days progress.

Cotton Belt did not have much if any stock traffic in the Missouri Bootheel or Arkansas branch lines where the "combooses" ran. But saying that they were also used on the run to Gatesville and Sherman, Texas branches where livestock moves may have been made. If I remember correctly Cotton Belt had 50 stock cars on its roster at one time.

Ed in Kentucky

G. W. Laepple · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 5:10 pm **Posts:** 1182

I stand corrected. Thank you, Howard and Ed, for adding to the trove of useless trivia between my ears.

I'll go back to daydreaming about Iron Horse Rambles now.....

frisco telegrapher · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:08 pm

The 2305 was the caboose used on the Cotton Belt RR local that passed through my hometown of Arbyrd, Missouri 5 days a week when I was growing up. The local ran on the Paragould Southeastern branch line between Paragould and Blytheville, Arkansas through the Missouri Bootheel towns of Cardwell, Arbyrd, Hollywood, Hornersville, and other little wide spots in the road.

It was good, several years ago, to discover that the 2305 was in Old Saybrook as opposed to having been destroyed or left to rot in some ignominious backwater. It would have been nice to have had a chance to have seen 2305 as it was passing through northeast Arkansas on its way to Austin, but on the positive side, I at least know where Austin is, and a visit to 2305 is not out of the question.

This is a great board, by the way. Thanks to the owner and the moderators for keeping it up.

Erik Ledbetter · **Posted:** Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:57 pm

Lone_Star wrote:

"Age of Steam" isn't really an appropriate name for the Dallas collection now that diesels have been added to the mix, but it was a convenient title for the State Fair of Texas exhibit forty years ago that was the genesis for today's museum.

They are changing their name to Museum of the American Railroad as part of the move to Frisco.