While on a recent trip to Lancaster I had a few extra minutes and talked my wife into stopping at the Red Caboose Motel, so I could get a few photos of their Southern Pacific Lines Bobber Caboose, for use in the book about the CP&W I am working on. If you look at the tracks it is sitting on they are noticeably narrower than the tracks of the car in front of it. From what I’ve been able to find is that it was sent to the Red Caboose Motel in 1979 after the CP&W had stopped the train operations. Does anyone have any other info on the caboose once it left the CP&W or have any photos after its arrival to the Red Caboose Motel up until its current state? I have contacted the Red Caboose Motel by old fashioned snail-mail, but have yet to hear back from them.

Another piece of information on the caboose I am having trouble tracking down is its history before the CP&W. I know Carroll Stahl purchased it from the PRR around 1960, supposedly from the Northumberland Yard. I have conflicting info on where it came from before then. One source has it being built in Altoona and used on the PRR Middle Division. Another source has it belonging to the Long Island RR and became part of the PRR when they took over the LIRR. Does anyone have any other info that might confirm either of these stories as to its heritage. I’m also looking for its road number before coming to the CP&W if anyone might know it. Once it came to the CP&W it was changed to the CP&W’s 4 ft gauge.

Thanks in advance for any information you might be able to provide.

I will propose that the allegations of it originating on the LIRR stems from the fact that it was originally painted as a "Long Island RR" caboose at the Red Caboose Motel, as documented by earlier mentions of the car at said Motel, not because it actually necessarily came from Long Island.

The preponderance of the evidence suggests that this car originated somewhere in central Pennsylvania, but specifically where I do not know. The PRR fanatics seem to indicate that the last of these wooden four-wheel bobbers was either retired or demoted to work train service, or in a couple cases sold off to short lines, during or immediately after the World War Two era, so there is a probable gap between PRR ownership and CP&W acquisition that has to be investigated. That gap is the probable reason I/we can't locate a confirmed ex-PRR number for this car, in spite of the thoroughness of PRR obsessives.

Dang it, this is NOT the day to get me interested in another mystery like this...... Brother Laepple? Any help?

Yes, I have heard the same storeis. I'm going to have to give the Red Caboose Motel a phone call one of these days to follow up on my letter and see what they can tell me about it.

In providing info on the equipment that was at the CP&W I'd like to document it's history both before and after it's service at the CP&W as acutatly as possible. I didn't think it came form the LIRR as that was a paint scheme applied at the Red Caboose Motel, but I needed to check into it. Anyone have any photos of it in other paint at the Red Caboose Motel?

In the brochure from 1964 for the CP&W it states that it was used on the Middle Division (see attached). But I can't make an actual confirmation of it through records or photos.

Steve Lynch's LIRR site has a page on LIRR bobbers that may be useful here:

http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/caboose/lirrbobber.htm

All were retired by 1927, so it seems highly unlikely to me that the Red Caboose Motel car would be one of them.

-Philip Marshall