This cabooose just came up for sale. It's a steel, streamlined cupola caboose, located in Indiana. http://discoverlivesteam.com/discoverfo ... #GTcaboose
It is lettered for the Grand Trunk and DT&I, but a bit of internet research reveals it was once Ann Arbor #2836.
Question: Was it built for the Ann Arbor or another road?

There seem to be a number of these steel Ann Arbor cabooses still around, according to this site. Perhaps that's an indication that they are durable and well built. That site gives the following information about about caboose #2836:

I contacted the owner about getting her secured for preservation on one of the local Michigan tourist lines. Here's to hoping.

For the record, the caboose was built in the Wabash Railroad shops in Decatur, Illinois for the Ann Arbor, which the Wabash controlled at the time.


Les

Thank you, Les.

I've noticed there are two different styles of cupola side windows on these Wabash/Ann Arbor cabooses. (I'm curious why that is, and will have to research that.) The photo below illustrates both styles. Just FYI, the caboose for sale has the rectangular style window like caboose 2794 below.


Image hosted from http://www.pwrr.org/prototype/Durbin/File0006.html

I'm not certain, but I suspect the rectangular windows are a later modification. The slanted versions seem to be prone to leaking and they're a bear to change out when replacing a window.

Also, for the record, although the Decatur Shops built cabooses for both the Wabash and the Ann Arbor, both railroads also had similar "slanted cupola" cabooses made by the International Car Company in Kent, Ohio.

Les

I believe my friend Tim Moriarty is correct (Les also!). The Adams & Westlake aluminum-framed slider windows were Wabash-installed on new cabooses, post #2830 in '51. Retroactively-applied to Wabash cabooses after that, replacing (what I believe to be) the original wood-framed sliding windows, all the way up through the N&W era. My guess is that it was an ongoing yearly project...although photographic evidence suggests that some WAB cabooses still retained their original wood-framed windows up through the WAB/N&W merger in '64. Even the addition of the aluminum A&W windows to cabooses 2770-2829 STILL did not prevent water ingress due to the elasticity failure of the weatherstripping between the window frame and the glass, as we found out during the restoration of our WAB caboose #2824 in Illinois.

Anyway, the vast majority of extant Ann Arbor cabooses are equipped with these A&W aluminum windows, since WAB built these cabooses for the Ann Arbor, which WAB controlled until the early 60's ('62?). The AA cabooses going to the DT&I seem to have been equipped with the rectangular "storm window-style" windows while the remaining AA cabooses weren't. But the question remains: why exactly did NS and DT&I replace the A&W slider windows with the rectangular storm windows? Was it problems with vandalism (the rectangular windows are built with heavy aluminum-mesh windows screens), an FRA regulation (in which case, why not the AA cabs, too?), or simply railroad preference?

I wonder if our friends at the Ann Arbor Historical & Technical Society know about the caboose for sale?

James Holzmeier
Wabash Railroad Historical Society

http://www.wabashrhs.org
http://www.facebook.com/WabashRHS
http://www.facebook.com/groups/WabashCaboose

For illustrative purposes, I posted a couple photos of both early styles of the cupola sliding windows on our Facebook group.

James Holzmeier

http://www.facebook.com/groups/WabashCaboose

Great Facebook page. The Wabash caboose owners fraternity looks
friendly.

Thanks for sharing your info on the cupola windows. So, if I understand, there are three
types out there: 1) early wood slider, 2) later metal slider by Adams &
Westlake, and 3) rectangular storm window retro-fit, found on DT&I, ex-Ann Arbor
cabooses, as well as NS.

I just ran across a classic photo of the Ann Arbor caboose that's for sale, while it was still
in service as DT&I #122.




http://www.carrtracks.com/cabgt8.htm

Thanks for your kind comments! I am proud of the Caboose Group, and would like to see increasing participation from the WAB/AA caboose owners/custodians. There are a boatload of these cabs out there!

Yes, there appear to be 3 types of windows on these cabs. Thanks to your wonderful research, we now have photographic evidence that 122 (2836) had been equipped with the second, Adams & Westlake aluminum sliders at least in July 1982, and was retrofitted with the third & final type (the rectangular "storm windows") after that date.

Thank you again!

James Holzmeier
http://www.facebook.com/groups/WabashCaboose