I was wondering if anyone here might know who bought the former Kaiser caboose which sat Desert Center, CA for many many years? It was sold for $7500 in 2019 at auction. It's not on google street views anymore, so it was hauled... somewhere.

This caboose was original Kaiser caboose #1905 which is not the same as the ‘new’ 1905 that is at Pacific Southwest Railway Museum (Kaiser reused the number after a wreck).

For context, I’m slowly working on a book documenting disused/repurposed rail cars - I’m just curious what became of it so I can get the story right.

Looks like someone in Littlerock, CA (correct spelling) bought it for their private residence at an auction in 2019, and was looking for a shipping quote:
"Delivery
Littlerock, CA 93543 US
Residence / Home Business"

https://www.proxibid.com/lotinformation ... 05-caboose
https://www.uship.com/listing/236443017 ... e-Caboose/

Can anyone supply information about a Kaiser Steel Corporation wooden caboose #1904 that was used on its Eagle Mountain Railroad during the 1950s? Photos show it carrying that name and road number, and with a 2-foot high, yellow band painted around the caboose's bottom edge. Another photo shows #1904 at the end of an Orange Empire Traction train in 1954, and one dated 1963 shows this wood caboose in rotting condition with most windows missing.

The #1904 looks exactly like one of 95 former Wheeling & Lake Erie cabooses (and, later, owned by Nickel Plate Road) constructed by the W&LE in its own car shop in Toledo, Ohio. The #1904 had all W&LE wood caboose dimensions and features, including standard "caboose boxes" applied to both ends of cupolas to indicate train and section numbers. Photos even show the #1904 still had these boxes' tiny chimneys for nighttime illumination by kerosene lamps.

If this was a W&LE caboose, how and why did it find its way all the way out to California from an Ohio railroad? What was its W&LE or NKP road number? This curious mind wants to know! Thank you and Be Safe.

John B.

"This wooden caboose, Kaiser Steel Corporation 1904, was found near the company's steel mills in Fontana, California, in April 1961." Frank Woodburn photo. No clue where it is now. This pretty good history doesn't even mention it: https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/Eagl ... n_Railroad

There was a wooden Kaiser Caboose that was given to the California Southern Railroad Museum in the 1960s. California Southern Railroad Museum was incorporated in 1964 and shared the site in Perris with Orange Empire Trolley Museum. The two organizations merged in 1975 with OETM, the surviving corporation, changing its name to Orange Empire Railway Museum.

I have a copy of a draftsman style internal OETM Mechanical Department roster sheet from 1972-74 that list the Kaiser caboose as wooden with a steel centersill and owned by California Southern RM. The number shown is "1604" which may be a clerical error for 1904.

The car at one time sat at the north end of the vacant right-of-way leased to the museums. This was the result of squabbling between the two organizations. The car burned in a fire apparently set by some juveniles trying to smoke out a colony of bees. The frame and trucks were moved onto the land owned by Orange Empire and I believe it was disassembled after the 1975 merger.

I joined the museum (OETM) in 1967 and over these 56 years I have been involved with various activities of the museum.

Thank you for this - I clearly didn't think to look up potential shipping bids.