Russo Loco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tomstp Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Your photo shows two Rio Grande cabooses on
> > that train. I know about 0503, what was the
> other
> > caboose number and is it still around?
>
>
> SFAIK the second caboose was on the August 28 &
> 29, 1967 trains to accommodate John Gruber of
>
TRAINS Magazine, Tom -
>
> As noted previously, I was using my dad's mediocre
> old Praktica 35mm camera, and in some cases adding
> even more fuzziness from a cheap 2X
> extender. I've looked back through my
> original high-res scans, but none of the negatives
> are sharp enough to clearly identify the second
> caboose. OTOH my photos do seem to indicate
> a longer string of numbers than 0503, and there's
> a photo on page 104 of Ernie's book* showing
> caboose 04343 – with the small DENVER & RIO
> GRANDE WESTERN lettering on the fascia board below
> the roof – in use for the break-in run of
> #476 & #478 in April of 1968, so #04343 was still
> in use right up to the end. Another caboose,
> #0584, was in use just a week or so before my
> August, 1967 photos, but it doesn't have the
> railroad name on the fascia board that shows in my
> photos.
>
> Two cabooses were on the 'hospital' train of
> December 5, 1968, from Alamosa to Chama, and since
> #0503 was turned over to the C&TS in 1970 I'll
> presume it was the one that returned to Alamosa
> with engine #483 on December 6, while the other
> – most likely either #04343 or #0584 –
> continued on to Durango with engine #476 pulling
> #481 dead-in-train. IIRC, nearly all of the
> D&RGW cabeese were sold off after abandonment;
> SFAIK there's only one still in use in Durango and
> of course there's #0503 on the C&TS.
>
> - Russ
>
> *
'Rio Grande Narrow Gauge – The
> Final Years, Alamosa to Chama' by Joseph P.
> Hereford, Jr. and Ernest W. Robart.
The second caboose on the Dec.5 train was 0505. It was a Durango-based caboose that came east with the National Parks Special and was being deadheaded home. The other caboose was for the regular crew and came back with 483.