Re: C&S Railway Society Update

These are a few photos we took when we visited Silver Plume several years ago when doing research for our restoration of C&S caboose 1008. When you look at the photos you will see some broken, cracked and split frame members and also what appears to be some usable solid sections of sill, maybe. 1008 was in worse condition having been sitting in water, snow and mud for years not having wheels to keep her off the ground. At first we thought we could salvage much of the original material and in fact we began splicing in new material at the ends of the original center and intermediate sills replacing the tenons for the end beams. This required some careful cutting and fitting and finally we finished installing the new ends of the sills. Unfortunately, because the original sills had twisted and warped badly the ends were not square and fitting them into the new end beams, which we would have to make since the originals were missing when we got the car, would be pretty much impossible. The drag beams needed attention as well . Replacing these was not an unusual repair for the car shop because they are what carry the draft gear and are subject to some heavy pounding during everyday operation causing braking, cracking and splitting. They are made of solid oak and held to the center sills with long bolts which could be unscrewed when replacement of a beam was required. The cheek plates and coupler would be removed from the broken beam, the drag beam replaced and all reassembled. When we removed these from 1008 we discovered a real game changer. The bottom of the center sills to which the drag beams were attached were all badly rotted from the bottom of the beam into the center almost half way through. It is important to remember that looking at the sides of the beam everything looked good, this damage was not visible until things were taken apart.
I had understood that 1006 was to be made to run again with the intention of making appearances at some to the tourist railroads in Colorado. This is certainly a great idea but the car must be safe and solid. If the car will be placed in a museum, once the car is put back together saving all remaining original materials, not much additional work will be required (OK maybe some paint!).
These are photos of 1006 in Silver Plume.




Richard Farmer