JR - My sincerest condolences on the loss of your preservation colleague and good friend, Ed Rizzo. The progress that he and your team made during this year of the pandemic has been nothing short of amazing and will stand as a lasting testament to his skill and truest sense of what preservation is all about - teamwork and the kind passing on of knowledge so that history and humanity are not lost.

This photo by Bob Losse Sr, depicting a PRR N6b en route to a new home in "Mt. Holly, NJ in the late '60's" surfaced on a PRR-focused group on Facebook today.

Is there any chance this is it, and might we finally have more numbers and history?

The stencils on the air reservoir seem to match the photo on the first page of this thread--but that could be coincidence.....

No mystery here at all. Its the same caboose. We have wood from the interior with that number on it. Its an amazing shot, a needle in the hay stack. We will be making a few minor changes in the paint application. I do wish Ed was here to see this shot. Damn.

The number difference is easy to explain. #981775 is its general service number and #492406 is its reassigned MOW number.

Tough pic to work with but I got it somewhat fixed up for you guys...

That is a fantastic find for you! I've been watching this thread from the beginning and you guys are doing an amazing job restoring the caboose. It will be a fine memorial to Ed.
Michael

I've been watching it too, Michael, even before I joined the site. I'd like to offer my condolences as well but take solace in the fact that Ed's still close by and keeping an eye on you guys. Don't be afraid to let us know if anything weird happens. LOL

It wasn't hard finding the matching DuPont paint chip, either...

Fantastic photo. You never know when something like this will pop up. Having an appreciable historic photographic archive that is still in private hands, often neglected and forgotten, is one of the challenges of rail preservation/restoration. It would be great to get a high resolution scan of this image, know if the processing date is stamped on the back of the print (if it is a print) or the date as noted by the photographer, and know what film/slide film was used to get a better understanding of how the colors have faded/shifted. I wonder if anyone who is still in the neighborhood from that time in the '60s has similar photos lying around in the basement or attic. The local newspaper probably took some shots. I have to imagine it was quite the spectacle at the time.

One thing I notice: on the before photos on page 1 it looks as though the ends were boxcar red, while clearly they were yellow when the caboose was delivered. I wonder if that was fading of the yellow, or if the original colors were showing through, or if the homeowner actually slapped some paint on the car at some point. Otherwise it looks as though the person who went to the trouble to bring the caboose to his home (and possible other owners) didn't bother to do any work on it at all in all the 50 or so years it was in his backyard.

PMC, the one end wall that survived with some exterior wood essentially had no paint on it at all, so perhaps what you are seeing is a tinge of red that perhaps survived deep in the wood grain. The other end had no exterior boards left as did most of the body so you will see the inside of the interior boards. There was the small section which was yellow on the far side, protected by trees and a fence, which survived. The cupola had some paint also, but that was it.

As to what kind of care the cab received from the 1970 time frame to 2017, safe to say it was not touched. Not at all. We did find some HO trains in it, I think some beer cans, but that was it. What we did find was truck brasses, two sizes, brand new, stamped PRR, plus other spare parts that I guess you might find in an active caboose. Based on condition, based on what we found in it, it just seems it was moved in and forgotten. Its one reason we pursued the effort - it was a time capsule. Untouched. A barn find without the barn. We were able to save all the windows, doors, cabinet parts, lego iron blocks, down rods, hardware, etc. It became a kit caboose. We did use one original end wall, although it would have been easier to make a new one. The trucks were OK, the brasses were there. It rolled nicely onto the truck.

I'm guessing the roof went first and did the walls in, not so much the sun, a few rolls of tarpaper thrown loosely up there and held down with bricks might have saved the body. It will be a remarkable achievement when you complete it.

Here's where I robbed that pic of #492401 from, BTW...

http://www.whippanyrailwaymuseum.net/ex ... -cabin-car

Digging into and establishing the complete history of this car would be a fun little project all on its own.

A milestone reached! Yesterday the crew, with the assistance of some heavy equipment from the farm/winery placed the body of the cabin car back on its trucks. It’s the first time that anything that looked like a body has been on these trucks in about five years. Gosh, how time flies! Next up is siding which is actually under way now. The next photo will hopefully be of the body with siding in place. Stay tuned.

Terrific! I was just thinking about this project. I'm guessing the cupola will need to be built from scratch, too?

> I'm guessing the cupola will need to be built from scratch, too?

We have about 30% of the original cupola but will replace it in total, although using the original steel frame work and some of the windows.

Having such sections, as we have with the main body, really fills the knowledge gap, especially when looking for details internal of the wall structure which is not always shown clearly in the drawings and that is covered up by siding in most surviving N6b's cabin cars. The photos we took during disassembly help, but nothing like the real thing to tell the full story.

Just saw on the Ahead of the Torch (AOTT) website, that new tongue and groove siding is being installed. PLUS, one end of the caboose has gotten some new yellow paint. This has been one remarkable restoration!

Les