Thanks for your useful input...

I think some have missed the point of what this group is doing, i.e. restoring a specific caboose that would have been lost otherwise. The fact that they probably could find a marginally better caboose to work on is irrelevant to THIS caboose. It also is doable for a group with a variety of skills, including transport but especially woodworking (which I am mediocre at but a lot of guys seem to innately be good at). The fun of this project is that they can see what it was, imagine what needs to be done, work through it and when it is finished see how far they have come. I personally am very excited to watch it from a distance.

Here’s a cousin of the PRR cabin car under discussion; # 981799, Southwestern Region, awaiting its fate in Brazil, IN in June 1962. Build date 3-14, N6B, PRR. The interior was complete including stove and large air line gauge.

My hat is off to the crew involved in making this project happen.
It is good to see a group come together and accomplish a save like this one.
I'm looking forward to seeing your continuing progress,

Grumpy Jensen

Updating both posting on this subject.....

Thought an update might be in order covering some of the twists and turns
that have come about on this project. As was noted, the wooden body was in
extremely poor condition and had to be dismantled on site before any move
could be contemplated. Over the course of about 4 weekends, the body
remains were removed, but we did work to save as much as possible for use as
patterns and such during the planned reconstruction of the body. Just about
all the metal elements were saved as well.

The plan had been to take it to a railroad in Pennsylvania, but the cost of
wide load permits (needed for NJ, DE, MD, and PA) jacked up the price of
trucking well beyond what anyone wanted to pay at the moment. So, on
Friday, 14 April, the stripped chassis was successfully moved to a temporary
home here in south Jersey where it can remain for upwards of two years and
where we can work to reconstruct the body of the caboose.

Really need to thank Rick Rowlands of the Youngstown Steel Heritage
Foundation (YSH) for handling the donation process. While not part of
Rick's YSH mission, we needed an organization which could move quickly at
the last minute to satisfy an antsy home owner. Again, this is a temporary
solution.

Also need to thank Allied Recycling for their support. A lesson learned
here is that if you need to find affordable trucking, then check with your
local scrap yard. They have trucks, experienced riggers, and are not afraid
of the unusual. The owner of Allied is allowing us to keep the chassis at
his winery here in NJ. It helps that he also owns a NYC bay window caboose
so has an eye for history as well.

Again, the plan is to begin the body work as soon as possible while looking
for that permanent home.

Have attached a couple of shots of the loading.

J.R. May

And exactly where were we going to find a better example? It's not like there are a lot of these around. Keep in mind that we put this group together to save this from scrap. We didn't go out looking for a caboose to save.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Just wanted to thank the Liberty Historic Railway (http://www.LHRy.org) for their generosity in awarding a grant supporting the restoration of PRR N6b No. 981775. Their support will cover the acquisition of the full dimensional lumber needed to begin the framing of the wooden body. Would also like to thank Scott Kwaitkowski for his support of the Project.

Attached photo shows progress with the frame work which is now ready for the wood framing to begin.

Mr. May - Thanks for the update. Frame looks great. How much prep did it require - any media blasting, needle scaling, grinding, wire wheeling? Any interesting markings/stampings on the frame? Great work.

You're doing fine. Obviously a plan is in action and you are making solid progress.

Its been a while, so thought an update might be of interest. This truly did become a kit of sorts, but progress has been steady. Working outside hampers things a bit, but with Ed Rizzo’s home wood working shop, progress can be made even during bad weather. At this point all the windows have been rebuilt or made from scratch and Ed is rebuilding the end doors. The heavy corner posts were also made in Ed’s shop.

New Douglas fir sill timbers were purchased from a local mill, supported by a grant from the LHRy, and installed. New sub floor was donated and installed which was a lot more work than one would think. All wood is sealed as well. We had most of one end wall from the original caboose so used as much as we could in the reconstruction of the first end wall as shown in the photos. It probably took longer to use the original lumber than if we have just built new, but we wanted to keep as much of the original caboose intact as possible.

Interestingly, the end wall is a good example of how these cars are built. With all the M&T joints, and long bolts, or rods, there is very little actually holding it together in the form of screws or nails. The 7 foot rods that hold the wall together were reused from the original caboose, but the rotted ends were cut off and replaced with threaded rod, attached using threaded couplings. Again, the goal was to use as much as possible from the original caboose. We are quite happy with the results.

Depending on the weather, we hope to have the other end wall in place by this fall and perhaps have the side walls started.

We have noticed that the PRR drawings of the body are probably best said to be “for reference only” due, no doubt, to many repairs and re-buildings over the years.

We have learned a lot so far and hope to apply this knowledge to other such projects in the future, so I tend to look at this as a test bed or a learning tool of sorts, not just the restoration of a PRR cabin car.

If anyone would like help out, feel free to drop me a line at jrmay@monmouth.com We usually meet on Saturdays, work for the morning, have a good lunch at the local diner, then head back for another hour or two. No experience necessary.

And, yes, it is being painted MoW yellow which is the PRR color of the car as we found it and will carry its PRR MoW number.

And I think I have been able to flip the photos.

Thanks for looking,
J.R.

It's progress, baby! Keep it going!

Thanks for the update. Looks great. Where is the job site - what town?