Good evening!

Southern Railway's caboose X423 currently resides in the city park of Brunswick, Missouri. The caboose is lettered for NS, N&W, and Wabash. Brunswick received the caboose from the Norfolk Southern. The city requested the caboose to honor its heritage with the Wabash and successor railroads. I have attached pictures showing the condition of the caboose.

The Chamber of Commerce intends to repaint and repair the caboose. I offered to research information to help the Chamber. My questions are:

Can anyone confirm that this caboose was never painted or lettered for Norfolk Southern (NS)? The internet and Southern Railway group did not provide an answer to this question.

If it was never painted for NS, what are your recommendations for painting and lettering in view of the city's desire to honor its Wabash heritage?

What are your suggestions for replacing the broken glazing?

What are your suggested steps and supplies for repainting and lettering?

What is the best way to tackle the repair of the door?

For now, I am interested in general guidance that can be forwarded to the Chamber. I will probably be requesting more detailed information as the project progresses. Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Gary Drag

One more photo.

Sincerely,
Gary Drag

In general terms, anything left unsecured and outdoors will need to be made as robust as possible to last as long as possible with minimal maintenance before another complete overhaul is necessary........

So, you will want to remove the paint layers down to bare metal or as close as possible, then using a high quality industrial or automotive grade of paint, and a matched paint system, prep and prime and cover during good weather exactly according to the paint manufacturers specifications. Home Depot paint won't give you a job that will get you through a couple years without failing. If you can install glazing that rocks bounce off rather than penetrate it will save you a lot of hassle over the years....especially if you do not permit things like rocks, sticks and other things vandals like to use from accumulating nearby. Constant lighting during the night, and being located in plain view in a frequented area also helps.

The door is a composite of metal sheathed plywood. You can probably remove the worst of the bad metal, kill the rust with a good brand of phosphoric rust converter on what's left, and install a new piece of sheet metal at the bottom, soldering the lap seam where it overlaps the existing.

Maintenance will make any finished product last longer. Keeping the roof leak free with elastomeric coatings, preventing people from climbing up on it, making sure the window sills and window frames stay watertight, and allowing for plenty of ventilation around and underneath where the floor meets the walls will help preserve your work and the caboose itself.

Don't skimp on prep or using the best quality paint systems and other products you can.....the few dollars saved now by going cheap will cost you much more when it fails sooner and needs to be done again than doing it right at what a good job costs in the first place.

Maybe some people reading here live in your community, and will volunteer to keep it up by making frequent maintenance sessions when the job is done and ready for the public.

Best wishes with your project.

dave

Take Dave's comments to heart. The condition of the top layer of paint suggests inadequate prep work on the last paint job. After hours, no weeks, of careful preparation we use Awlgrip paints for both primer and final coats. They are two-part epoxy paints designed for marine application by professionals.

Gary Drag! The other 2007 graduate of Saint Louis University School of Law on RYPN!

The door is a "sandwich" of plywood and wood in between sheet steel. It may be as easy as doing partial steel replacement after using expoxy and other stabalizer.

The "quick and dirty" window replacement would involve plexiglass or Lexan. However, those tend to fog up with age and UV exposure.

By the way, Brunswick is the self-proclaimed Pecan Capital of Missouri. This is not to be confused with Blaine, MO, which is the Stool Capital of the World.

So what is a good, readily available, rock-bouncing glass product that could be used for window glazing?

Thanks,
Paul

Paul Krueger
Seattle, WA

Thank you for the recommendations concerning the repairs and painting. I will pull some prior posts regarding surface preparation.

Do you have a suggested source for FRA glazing? Also, the town has the following options for painting and lettering:

1. Southern Railway colors, logo, and number as shown on http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3284641.

2. Wabash colors and logo but no number as shown on http://www.pbase.com/sanoyes/image/79194110 or http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=436769.

3. Norfolk & Western colors and logo but no number such as N&W 557519 shown on http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/nw/caboose/.

4. Norfolk Southern colors and logo but no number such as NS 555553 or 555682 shown on http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/ns/caboose/

Option 1 is probably not viable since the town is located along the former Wabash mainline to Kansas City. The Southern Railway history of the caboose could be accommodated by a plaque. My preference would be option 4. What are your thoughts or recommendations? Thanks!

What is the strange angle iron "cage" from the coupler? I would suggest getting rid of this.

You mean the handbrake support frame?