Re: Japan NG Caboose(s)

I was able to get in touch with my friend Tatsuhiro in Japan by IM chat the other day. He couldn't tell me much about the equipment at Western Mura in Nikko, but he confirms the site has been cleared, so whatever wasn't removed first has been bulldozed/trashed. The two locomotives apparently remain in Japan, but he doesn't know where. Intriguingly, he said the tender for the Porter 2-4-0 'Virginia' was recently offered for sale (just the tender by itself) in a Yahoo online auction. (I hadn't known that Yahoo does auctions, but apparently they do in Japan...) He has no information on the disposition of the open excursion car from the Roaring Camp & Big Trees, or more importantly for this discussion thread, the caboose carbody.

In the photos I've been able to find of the caboose at Western Mura, it appears to be numbered 0505. This clearly can't be correct, because the real D&RGW 0505 is at the D&S.

There appears to be a second NG D&RGW-style long caboose in Japan, this one at the Otaru Synthesis Museum in Hokkaido where the Porter 2-6-0 from the Camino Cable & Northern now resides. This caboose is numbered 0503, which clearly can't be correct either, because the real D&RGW 0503 is at the C&TS.

These two cabooses are a mystery. Could they possibly even be one and the same car? I believe the Otaru Museum is relatively new and opened after Western Mura closed.

What is definitely known is that the NG caboose at Disneyland Tokyo is RGS 0409, which was formerly at the Narrow Gauge Motel in Alamosa, CO and later Heritage Square in Golden, CO. (What a long strange life it's had!)

-Philip Marshall