5635 was indeed converted from a stock car, and as you can see from Doug's early photo it was a pretty hacked job. The Friends took that car down to the trucks in the mid 2000's and replaced the two center sills with some thick squarewall tubing so the car could be in any train with the heavier steel passenger cars. They then built up the car making it look more like a real caboose on the exterior and added a few extra small windows on the copula end and fancy doors and windows. The interior has polished wooden floors and has some really nice easychairs inside as well as a flush toilet making it a parlor caboose.
The car can either be used on a charter for people who want a fancy caboose, or used as a pretty spot on replica for photo freight charters. Don Atkinson has modified the exterior with wooden plugs that fit over the extra windows and our crew of Wayne Klatt and Roy Lloyd worked several days modifying the ladders with top handgrip extensions that can be bolted on the car so it can reflect different eras of caboose history of the Rio Grande. Don and Greg Coit spent an entire week fussing over the minor and major details of making that car look great for the charter two weeks ago. Here is a link showing some of the prep work on that caboose.
Session G work in Antonito on the charter caboose and new high side rider gon
Don has overseen the re-roofing of the real cabooses 0503, (long caboose), the 0579 (short caboose), now the 5663 (Bob Tully caboose) named after our projects leader whose vision led to that car's rebuilding. Next summer Don is leading teams that will replace the roof and siding on the remaining caboose (0306) a replica made out of a boxcar and do whatever repairs are needed as well. Don's goal is to have a caboose available that can go with any era train the charter operator wants to recreate for a phraud-o-graph.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2016 06:59AM by John Cole.
