Hi All,
Big news coming out of the CRHS! Our bay window caboose, CR 21165, is almost done with our paint contractor! The black paint is still to be done, but we've come a long way! Here's a few photos:

The caboose in Enola Yard enroute to Topton, PA for paint


Sanding the paint from the car to reveal the Erie Lackawanna logos and number (Photos by Russ Swinnerton):




Photos of the car quite recently (Photos and captions by Kermit Geary, JR):


Conrail "Canopener" Logo


Removal of the trust plate masking

Wow Russ...that looks really great!! I can smell the new paint on her just sitting here. Way to go guys on making progress with your caboose.

Thanks!!

Steven Harvey

Thanks Steve! Give me a call sometime to discuss Choo Choo stuff.

I am not disparaging the group, nor their wonderful restoration, but it floors me that could be a "Conrail Historical Society", much less a "Penn Central H.S." I've always thought of those railroads as conglomerates of the best equipment of other historic companies. I guess it's a matter of chronicling how those companies moved and used equipment, then obtained more.

Great to see the Erie-Lackawanna caboose kept in a state of preservation, nevertheless.

So far so good on the restoration. How about preserving equipment specifically built for Conrail, not inherited from merging roads?

One Conrail piece is preserved and is operated on an almost daily basis, Naugatuck Railroad 2203.

It was built as Conrail 2798, the last U23B and last U-series unit built.

The Providence & Worcester purchased it from Conrail & renumbered it to 2203, retrucked from GSC drop equalizer trucks to the then-standard GE FB-2 trucks.

While not in the collection of the Railroad Museum of New England, it is nonetheless historic enough that it will be taken care of for the foreseeable future.

We're working on that. We almost had a deal on a B65A boxcar, which were bought new by CR. NS and CSX have just finished purging the class from their rosters. We'd really like to get one of the Hollidaysburg Coalporter rebuilds as those showed real Conrail innovation.
Thanks!

Did you develop a set of contract specifications for this work with your contractor? If so, could we see a copy? We are looking to hire someone to paint our caboose as well.

Thanks,
Paul

Paul Krueger
Secretary
Cascade Rail Foundation
"Remembering the Milwaukee Road in Washington"
http://www.milwelectric.org

kruegerp@nwlink.com

Is this painted in Ed Blossoms old shop in Topton?

Wesley

We did work it out. Mike (our contractor) and I sat down and hashed out the details while taking notes. Our contract basically just outlined those notes and the few minor repairs to be made. Following that, our expectations were listed and so were his. Would you like me to pass on your contact info to see if Mike would be interested in doing your caboose (if it's shippable)?
Thanks!

Our caboose isn't going anywhere, so unless Mike is interested in a working vacation in the sunny part of the Pacific Northwest we'll be looking for someone local.

A copy of the notes/expectations that went into the contract could be helpful, if you can share it.

Thanks,
Paul

Paul Krueger
Secretary
Cascade Rail Foundation
"Remembering the Milwaukee Road in Washington"
http://www.milwelectric.org

kruegerp@nwlink.com