Re: The Strange Story of Sumpter Valley Caboose #4 / U.S.A. Caboose #909

For Caboose #5, you have to suspect that it may have been built up from the underframe of OSL&UN Excursion Car #57. These excursion cars had passenger trucks, and I suspect that the passenger trucks under all of the cabooses came from the OSL&UN excursion cars that the SV Ry. purchased in 1903. These cars had passenger trucks on the OSL&UN. Only a few of the excursion cars were put in use as such on the SV Ry., so there were plenty of spare passenger trucks. The excursion cars had been used on the narrow gauge line from Salt Lake City to the south side of Salt Lake. This line was not part of the Utah & Northern - it was called the Utah & Nevada. When the OSL&UN was formed in 1889, it incorporated the Utah & Nevada along with the original OSL and the Utah & Northern Ry.

Back on the subject of the brake system of Caboose #3, the 1907 Oregon Railroad Commission Report, at, [babel.hathitrust.org], might be of interest. According to the report, all of the other SV Ry. freight cars and passenger cars had Westinghouse brakes. All three cabooses were listed as not having any brakes at all (except maybe for the hand brakes). Whatever the original brake was, under the U&N underframe that was used to make Caboose #3, the SV Ry. probably left it there unused until someone made them put Westinghouse brakes on its cabooses. At that time, they probably retro-fitted whatever the U&N had, had under the car. If the SV Ry. never retro-fitted the car with a Westinghouse brake, then the Army must have in 1942.

It's a little strange that a railroad owned by the Union Pacific would be putting straight air on its cars. Maybe the underframe had come from the Utah & Nevada (the Salt Lake City to the south side of Salt Lake line).

Robert