We have recently started a restoration of our Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose, #75072. Earlier this week, member Tom Travis found this engraved into the frame of the caboose: GTW 515165. I believe that this might be the number of the boxcar that the caboose was made from. Does anyone know if the GTW had any boxcars in this particular series?

Thanks.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

per this picture: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=201073 They had at least 1 boxcar numbered similarly to your car, 515185.

Jeff

Jeff -

Thanks. Neat picture! But, a little hard to read the dimensional data on the boxcar, including the original built date.

Les

For the record, GTW #75072 was successfully operated today in the consist of the museums caboose train that ran out of Hanna, Indiana as part of Hanna's annual town festival. All of the brake rigging and hardware were put back on the caboose during its restoration, trucks were "turned around" and the air brake leaks were fixed. The caboose was given three coats of paint, including two coats of CN/GTW Morency Orange. All major lettering was repainted. Seats for 16 riders were installed on the two open platforms. A caboose whistle was temporarily placed on one end. The caboose rode very well on its original boxcar trucks and as just one car in the museums consist of 5 different cabooses and an open flat car, carried 31 riders on 4 trips today.

Some items remain to be finished including repainting of the interior, new windows, re-installation of the caboose's smoke jack, a replicated stove and new locks on the doors. These will be done in the near future.

Special thanks to HVRM members Ross Robinson, Tom Travis, Fred Boyer, John DeGan, Jason Annen and Todd Flanigan who worked hard to get GTW 75072 back on the road again.

Les

There are a couple of shots of the GTW caboose on a slideshow I put together:

http://www.trainbuffs.com/slideshow-hanna/

Les and others:

These transfer cabooses were all built using the frames and a portion of the carbodys from 40-foot boxcars by the GTW's Port Huron Car Shops in the early 1970's. I remember several of these being used in and around Port Huron as a kid, but particularly on the "Dunn Paper Job", which ran up to the North end of town. This same track is what runs past the Thomas Edison Depot Museum of my former employer, the Port Huron Museum. There are a couple of others preserved, and RailAmerica has one that is still station in the Bay City area, albeit in Central Michigan paint.

TJG

TJ -

Thanks for the info. I have found a few things out about these cabooses while searching for information on the internet.

First, there were apparently a number of different "safety slogans" on the sides of the cabooses. I have not found a photo for every caboose, so don't know what all of the slogans were. But here is what I HAVE found:

SAFETY IS PEOPLE on GTW #75050.

SAFETY WEARS WELL on GTW #75056 and #75061

SAFETY IS FOR YOU on GTW #75057

MAKE SAFETY FIRST on GTW #75059

SAFETY IS FOR TODAY on GTW #75063

TAKE TIME TO BE SAFE on GTW #75065

THINK SAFETY on GTW #75072 and #75073

I tell folks at HVRM that we are lucky that the slogan on #75072 was a short one meaning less hand painting of the lettering (I did quite a bit of it). As you can see from the above, there WERE some duplications of the safety slogans, and it IS possible that these are the only ones used. But, since I have not found photos of all of the cars, there may be other ones. If anyone has additional slogans, I'd like to know what they are. I did find some photos of cars without any safety slogan at all, but I think that these were probably cars that were repainted some time after being built. But maybe these cars did not have a slogan originally.

Secondly, I found a couple of references to the boxcars used to build these cars, besides GTW 515165 that was used to build HVRM's #75072. GTW #75055 was built from GTW boxcar #515478 and #75069 from 515468. I still would like to know when this 515xxx series of GTW boxcars was originally built.

And finally, the photos revealed that GTW #75050 (which reportedly still exists today in common carrier service up in Wisconsin) was built with square tubing for all of the platform railings. All of the other cars I have seen used round pipe for platform rails. Number 75050 was the first car built and I don't know if it was the only one built with square tubing as I have not seen photos of the next five cars in the series.

Les

Les,

I reposted your request on the Steam Era Freightcar List, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STMFC/
and had a reply in less than an hour. Ed Hawkins , who has done a lot of research on the output of the various builders, came up with this info:

Dennis,
GTW 515000-515499 were 40' all-steel riveted postwar AAR box cars with
7' door openings & Youngstown doors, 4/4 Improved Dreadnaught Ends, and
Murphy panel roofs. They were built by Pullman-Standard ca. 1-48 (lot
no. 5891). I'm aware of two in-service photos from the series. Richard
Burg has a good 3/4 photo of 515067 in original paint and Bob's Photo
has a side view of 515293 repainted 6-61 with a maple leaf emblem.
Regards,
Ed Hawkins

Dennis -

Terrific! Thanks very much for the boxcar info. And please express my thanks to Mr. Hawkins.

Les