November 8, 2023 Restoration Update
Replacement marker lights have been acquired!
A small update today!
The 21292 has a damaged marker light on one end, and while the other one appears intact from the outside, the insides are badly corroded. These are still manufactured by Star, but…
We were able to source six originals for about the price of one new one. Two of these (the two red ones) will be donated to Operation Toy Train to replace the missing ones on their Chessie caboose 904059. Two of the amber ones will be installed in the original positions on the 21292, and the remaining two will be used as part sources for these two cars if needed.
September 16, 2023 Restoration Update
New door latches and door windows are installed!
Just one update today, but a major one!
The 21292 got new door latches and windows in its end doors today. The latches were newly ordered from Adlake, and were a slightly modified version of the original that now includes a lock mechanism. The windows were from a donor Chessie System caboose, and their purchase benefitted a non-profit organization.
May 25, 2023 Restoration Update
Fuel fill blanking plates are installed, and a new coat rack is built!
A small update today! The fuel fill blanking plates have been installed on the caboose. Yes, they’re lobsided, but they’re patterned after the originals… which were also lobsided!
We’ve also fabricated a new coat rack for the #21292 using cleaned and polished brass coat hooks salvaged from scrapped NJ Transit Comet IB commuter coaches. While they’re not original to the caboose, they’ll be a cool nod to railroad history while providing a good spot for outerwear!
May 13, 2023 Restoration Update
We’ve made blanking plates to cover the old fuel fill and vent pipe holes.
A quick follow-up to the fuel tank removal. The removal of the fuel fill and vent pipes left two holes in the side of the caboose. We’ve made steel blanking plates to replace the original mounting plates, and will even be able to reuse the original mounting screws.
May 11, 2023 Restoration Update
The interior fuel tank was removed to provide access to the interior walls.
As of today, GPCo has owned caboose 21292 for exactly one year. We’re continuing to work on the car!
Today, we removed the old diesel fuel tank that once fed the heater/stove. This will give us access to replace the interior walls. All of the related interior and exterior plumbing has also been removed.
April 27, 2023 Restoration Update
Spring cleaning has begun to ready the car for some serious interior work!
We were back at it today! The last new window coverings were installed, and we did some “spring cleaning” inside the car to ready it for additional work. With the car now watertight, we can start fixing the water-damaged floors and replacing the interior walls.
When the car was built in 1978, the builder (Fruit Growers Express in Alexandria, VA) used wide floorboards made by gluing/laminating together smaller boards. Over the years that this car had broken windows, the wood floor got wet as rainwater entered the car, causing it to swell and contract as it got wet and dried out. Eventually, the glue joints failed, causing the floor to de-laminate. There are two locations (near one bay window and at the booth/table) where this has become a major issue and will require replacement of parts of the floor. The photo included below shows the extent of the damage - this is why the booth was removed in March. While most of the other furniture is not being retained, the original booth will be reinstalled once the floor is repaired. The damage by the bay window is not as severe and will only require the replacement of one floorboard.
April 24, 2023 Restoration Update
New window coverings to make the car waterproof!
A couple hours of work make a big difference! Our caboose spent over a decade with broken and vandalized windows, open to the elements, before we put up some temporary wood coverings shortly after purchasing the car in May of 2022. These coverings were installed on the interior of the car, and over the past year, it has become evident that these temporary coverings are not keeping the water and snow out of the interior.
Since it looks like new windows might be several months or even a year away, we spent about four hours today re-engineering these window coverings to be more permanent. They are now designed to sit inside the recessed frames from the outside, while being firmly secured to additional support inside the car. We also painted them black so they’d be sealed from the elements and also not look as egregious - compare it to the earlier exterior photos of the car. With the way the windowframes are designed, this should preclude any additional leaks from these windows. We still need to re-cover the windows on the four corners of the bay window and the windows on the end doors.
In the process of boarding over the bay windows, we removed the two bay window screens to make room for the boards. In the process, we took the opportunity to fix some damage to one of the bay window frames that was present when we first inspected the car in 2019. The first photo below was taken on April 23, 2019 - four years and a day ago - while the other two were taken at home this evening before an after straightening out this trim piece.
March 24, 2023 Restoration Update
Some major disassembly progress has been made on the caboose interior.
Now that the weather has finally warmed up, we’ve made some great progress on the caboose interior. Some unplanned time in Port Jervis led to a productive work day yesterday.
Most of the interior seats have been unbolted or removed from the floor to allow for some floor repairs. The original “booth seats” will be retained, and possibly one or two of the original conductor’s seats. A section of wall was removed to assess the condition of the insulation and the walls.
The interior walls are made of a fiberglass material that absorbs and retains moisture - a known issue on Conrail’s N21 class of cabooses. Even if the panels do not directly get wet, they will absorb moisture from the air. Later cabooses built by FGE used metal sheeting or other material, which largely remedied this issue. The moisture is then held against the insulation, which causes mold and mildew issues.
To remedy this problem, we will be completely removing the interior walls of the car. The insulation will eventually be entirely replaced with foam board, and the walls will be replaced with high-grade plywood.
The car is kind of a mess right now, but it’s a sign of progress!
February 10, 2023 Restoration Update
This short update covers some door repairs and other access improvements on the caboose.
We were working on the caboose again on February 10th to make some repairs to various doors throughout the car, improving access as we begin additional interior work.
The west end door has been screwed shut since we acquired the car, and has not been open in over a year. We were able to move some latches around and get this door to both open and latch shut from the inside, so we now have access from both ends of the car.
Additionally, one of the closet walls had become disconnected from the floor, causing the closet door to swing freely and at an angle so it impacted the floor. This was fixed and the door latch was moved, giving us a functional closet and an out-of-the-way storage space for tools and other material while we’re working on the rest of the car.
Otherwise, we began preparations for removing the old oil-fired caboose heater, which will be replaced with either propane, wood, or coal (undecided). The stove has been unbolted from the floor and walls and will be taken out at the next work session, allowing us to start some floor repairs in the area around it and also giving us some more working space.
January 2023 Restoration Update
A short update on the current condition of the car and the beginning of our restoration efforts.
Caboose #21292 finally arrived at the Port Jervis Transportation History Center on December 11, 2022. While it’s been largely too cold to start any major restoration work on the car itself, we’ve begun laying the groundwork for work to commence in earnest in the spring of 2023.
On January 16th, we visited the car to take some measurements and photos of the windows and gaskets. Every window on the car - 15 in total - is either broken or missing entirely and will need to be replaced with FRA Type I and Type II glazing where appropriate. We also have the original 1978 window diagrams from J. T. Nelson Company, and we have supplied both the diagrams and our photos/measurements to Dynamic Metals LLC of Elkhart, Indiana. The folks at Dynamic Metals came to us highly recommended by DeAndre Walters, who used their services and copies of the original J. T. Nelson diagrams to have new aluminum frames, gaskets, and glass fabricated for his Conrail N7D caboose #21112, located on the Adirondack Railroad in Utica, New York.
While we were at the car, we took the opportunity to string up some temporary LED lights, which will be used until we get the car rewired for 110V AC and install some new permanent light fixtures. This gives us our first good look at the interior of the car since we boarded up the windows in May of 2022. We are planning on replacing all of the interior walls with a different material, as the current walls are a porous fiberglass compound that holds mildew and moisture.
While it has been too cold to work on the car itself, we’ve been able to start sourcing some of the smaller parts and pieces we need. In January, we acquired an antique caboose whistle for the car, and we also acquired and restored a replacement for the broken air brake gauge in the car. While the original was from New York Air Brake, our restored antique Ashcroft gauge will work perfectly in its place!
We also acquired a pair of Pyle National-style marker lamps. While Conrail didn’t use this exact spherical style of lamp (to our knowledge), the aluminum casings mean very limited maintenance. While these were originally 12V lamps, we were able to rewire them for 110V and install LEDs. We then built a handy wooden storage bracket for them, which is currently mounted on the wall in our house until we have a spot for it inside the caboose itself. These lamps fit the existing marker/flag brackets on all four corners of the caboose, and will be used on the rear whenever the caboose is in service on a train. (NOTE: We may also restore or replace the original large red Star marker lights on the car, but these give us an interim - and classier - option.)
Finally, we’ve contracted with Adams & Westlake Ltd. (better known as Adlake) to produce new door handles for the two end doors on the caboose. One handle was missing entirely, and the inner workings of the other was broken. Using the broken one, we were able to determine a suitable drop-in replacement from Adlake’s historic catalog, with the addition of a skeleton key lock for added security. Adlake is casting two new latch/lock/handle assemblies for us from their original 1960 patterns, and these parts should be arriving to us in March.
We’re hoping to start some more in-depth restoration work on the interior of the car in the spring - stay tuned for more!