We all see RR equipment scattered across America in various condition from restored to pcs. of equipment that are rusting away that often seem to sit for years.Today while on NS train 218 passing thru Ashville,Ohio as i have done for the past 17 years as i blew the horn for the multiple road crossings in town i looked over towards the restored N&W Ashville depot and N&W caboose wich sits or should i say sat just east of the depot in a grassy area and looked in horror.

Scappers had torched the caboose into a bunch of small pcs. of steel.I still can't believe what i saw!!!! There was absolutely nothing wrong with this caboose wich i think was a ex Virginian cab.The caboose was just freshly painted last year and was painted at least 2 other times in the past 17 years i have been going by it.It didn't have any broken windows or major rust and looked nice.I'm totally dumbfounded as to why this caboose was scrapped? Anybody know any of the specifics on why this caboose was scrapped today? It was in area that would have been very easy to load on a truck to move.I even wonder if it was offered for sale or donation to any museums or RR groups as it would have been a nice caboose.Roger you can mark this one off your list as being gone for good as of 8-12-2010!

Did the NS or city have anything to do with this? Or was it a bunch of metal thieves who have progressed from steeling copper pipes to stealing whole RR cars????? Just look like you know what you're doing, do it in broad daylight and nobody bothers you.

Tom

Tom, I doubt if NS had anything to do with it as the caboose and depot are situated on land a good 100 ft.or so from our mainline tracks.I assumed a local historical society owned both the depot and caboose and the cab may have even been donated by the RR back in the late 80's when cabooses became surplus on the N&W.

All i know from going by at 50 mph is that i saw a semi tractor and trailer partly loaded with pcs. of cut up N&W caboose and 3 or 4 guy's around with a torch outfit and many pcs. of red caboose metal cut up laying on the ground.If the caboose had been in poor condition rusting away i could see maybe a chance of the town wanting it fixed up or disposed of but this caboose was damn nice looking! I still can't believe what i saw as the caboose and depot went very well together.

It is sad to say that this may be the fate of many more old railroad equipment. It is a darn shame of all the stuff we just, through away, eccentually.

My two cents as always.

Martin

Looked pretty good a little over a year ago. That's a real shame. Must have been something out of the blue since nobody on here had any wind of it. I'm sure it could have found a nice home.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 052&nseq=0

What a shame. There are cabeese at museums in far worse shape than that was. How many other former Virginian cars are left?

While on the subject of cabin cars in danger, there is a former Conrail, nee New Haven cupola and bay window car that has just recently been put out of service at CSX's Acca yard in Richmond, VA. This car has within the past month or so been pushed all the way to the end of an unused siding along with a couple of retired boomless Burro cranes. Considering the location I doubt it will leave that track in one piece. Just figured I'd give you New Englanders a heads up.

Kevin O

An earlier photo:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=223411&nseq=206

I wonder if the scrapping was an accident? Not exactly concerned enough to subscribe to read the rest of this article:
http://www.circlevilleherald.com/articles/2010/08/13/news/doc4c64a918093be929403518.txt

It's a shame to see a fairly nice looking caboose go, but historically it's not a huge loss. There were several hundred of these cabooses built in both wood and steel by Roanoke Shops, St. Louis Car Co, and the Princeton Shops of the Virginian. The design dates to the N&W "CF" class wood sided cabeese from the WWI era. Production switched to steel sided in 1927, and the Virginian adopted the design for it's steel cabooses, aquiring or building 50 between 1949 and 1959. I can think of close to a dozen preserved within a hundred miles of here, including 4 in Roanoke. There's probably at least another dozen of the series spread out all over the place, including a wooden one on the West coast. We have N&W built 518409 and St. Louis built VGN 322. If the folks in Ashville want another N&W style cab, they could probably find one.

I hope the story eventually emerges in the general news so we can find you how it was unintentionally scrapped.

I just read on another venue that East Penn 44, one of the old New York Dock GE 50-tonners, was scrapped, the scrapping taking place today. Was this unit ever advertised for sale? I'm sure someone could have found a use for it. Or did management just feel the need to raise come cash quickly?

East Penn 44 was advertised for sale earlier this year by Sterling Rail, a broker in San Antonio, TX. The asking price was $25,000. I visited the railroad in March 2007 and the locomotive was not in the best shape. The crew said that it had been running with only one engine and, not long after the faulty one was repaired, the other one gave out, so they were back to running with just one engine. They now use heavier motive power and sought to sell the old GE. Apparently there were no buyers at the price being asked.

Found this photo while surfing this morning.
http://www.circlevilleherald.com/articles/2010/08/13/news/doc4c64a918093be929403518.img
Link to the article a few posts ago is unlocked and gives the entire story. Was given to a local resident for free and was to be moved in 3 pcs, but the company involved deemed in to unstable to move so they cut it up instead.
Rob

I wonder if legal action will be taken?

I wonder if the company that was supposed to have moved the caboose had any experiance what so ever moving railcars period? Perhaps they had no intentions in moving it to begin with and only saw the scrap value in it and used the term "to unstable to move" to their advantage?

When i made my return train trip by Ashville yesterday evening all the cut up caboose pcs. were on a flatbed semi trailer.I could not make out the name of the company on the semi tractor or the excavator parked nearby.I just don't see how moving a steel caboose would have been that unstable to begin with? I myself have been thru the process and know others that have moved cabooses.Why would someone want to disect it into 3 pcs. for the move anyhow? unless they were talking about the body and each truck being 3 pcs.? Even if you had to cut and remove the cupola off for clearance issues i still don't see how it could be that unstable.

I guess the whole issue boiled down to liability concerns just like any other pc. of rail equipment sitting in some park or on city owned land or some place where the public can climb all over.You'd think that if they wanted the caboose moved and to give it away free to boot they would have at least approached some RR museum or group that may have been interested in it or had some stipulations that any individual wanting the caboose would have a mover that had some experience moving rail equipment.Cutting it up they lost a nice caboose and also even parts that could have been used to restore other cabooses.Theres people out there with backyard hacks minus trucks that could have at least used the wheels and other appliances from it.I know of a old wood N&W caboose sitting on the ground north of Portsmouth along the west side of Rt.23 minus it's trucks.

Historically it may not be a huge loss if there are other cabooses still left like it,but now it's one less preserved caboose that used to be around.If this continues to happen across the country then were not doing a very good job at preserving what has survived so far.

Well that seems really squirrelly on so many levels. It sounds like the owners gave it away with some kind of informal string attached stipulating that it be preserved. I get the impression that there were a lot of people pulling in different directions.