Hello All,
I volunteer at York County Parks in New Freedom,Pa.We got two caboose's sitting on a siding next to the station.The ticket office is also located in the same building for the Northern Central Railway


We are looking for someone to repair the roof and paint the exterior of both cabooses.Not sure what 's the best plan of attack should be.The boys scout did paint the exterior as a project.they did paint around the letters and #'s

EPDM: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=45099&hilit=EPDM

I'm not sure which cabooses these are. Two questions: Are the roofs wood or steel? Smooth or corrugated metal.

My opinions without actually seeing them:

If you have a smooth wood roof, then membrane roofing is a decent choice. You'll likely have fastener strips around the edges. The substrate needs to be in decent condition.

If the roofs are steel, you might look at RV/mobile home roof sealers. You "paint" these on.

In either case, the prep work is the most important step(s).

PRR and probably others used "car cement" on their leaky roofs. The N5C cabin cars were notorious leakers from the center seam. Car cement was a heavy, asphaltic goop, sort of like a thick driveway sealer. If you have that on the roofs, it's best to remove what's left of it first.

You might want to check if it contains asbestos.

True, that. It could be in there as a fiber reinforcement. Best to check just to be safe.

BTW, hobojohn - welcome to the Interchange.

Avoid spray-on "pickup truck bed liner". GGRM had this applied to the steel roof on S.P. 141 "Oakland" business car, and Niles canyon Railway had it applied to the steel roof on the heavyweight Pullman sleeper "Gothic Peak". Both coatings quickly cracked at the roof seams, leaked badly, and had to be replaced.

What did work well on heavyweight steel passenger car roofs, and would also work well on steel caboose roofs, is the Hydro Stop system. https://www.gaf.com/en-us/for-professionals/resources/about-hydrostop NCRy had it professionally applied during slack months for the roofing company. Many coats of elastomeric goop, then polyester fine-mesh fabric, then more coats of goop; maybe more layers of mesh too. This can stretch and contract enough in hot and cold weather to prevent cracking at the seams. It has held up well for many years now in the mild coastal California climate.

- Doug Debs