What would you do?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I recently pointed out to the local High School administration that the condition of the caboose that sits at the football field is rapidly Deteriorating. It is an old Wood-side caboose, former B&O, Donated by the late B&O to the Brunswick Museum, but later donated tot he HS because of…upkeep difficulties caused by drunks.

Today the Vice Principal called me to tell me that they wouldn’t mind having the caboose restored, IF I WANTED TO DO IT!!![:0] What would you all do. Id be spending MY money on keeping the only historic piece of rolling stock (As of right now) in one piece. I want to, but I don’t think I could afford it.
This has me so [:(][V][:(][V]
What do you all think?

2

Sounds like time for an appeal to the various clubs at the high school for labor, and local merchants for materials. If you can allow a little license, say lettering it for the school, and perhaps painting it in the school colors, then support may be even more forthcoming. It can still look very prototypical, especially since there appears to be a Pennsy cat-whisker F on the high school home page and the sports teams are called the Railroaders. Give it reporting marks of “BHS” with the year the school was built (or maybe the current grad class - annual maintenance, tho) Letter it with a nice script reminiscent of the glory days of RR’s, with “Home of the Railroaders” or something like that.

If it is clearly visible to the public, consider adding a sign holder (a la safety signs) that can be used to advertise school events.

Get one of the clubs, or perhaps the athletic boosters, to adopt it.

It can happen, and you won’t have to do all the work!

3

The one problem I have with that: the school colors ARE the pennsy Colors. Pennsy colors on a B&O Caboose in former B&O Territory and a city built by the B&O won’t work with local railfans (If I had the choice id force the city and schools to use Blue and white, and give the caboose its rightful brighter red.
Here are two pics I took, one of the caboose from the end, and one of some of the damage and wear:

4

Just a tip - look beyond just the school for help…

There are bound to be RR specific interest groups out there that would be interested in helping - if not groups, there are bound to be individuals - create a new group!

Most of the time there are lots of people out there that would be interested in this kind of thing, the problem is people simply don’t know about!

Writing letters to the editor of the local paper, and bringing it up at local government meetings would be a good start -

Get the word out!

5

A wood-sided car out in the weather is WORK. The split, rotten sheathing is just on the surface; all that rain has been running down in the walls. Once the car is resheathed [I recall that siding is available only as a custom cut job; you could also replace it with marine plywood just like B&O did in later years. ] and the rotten bracing has been replaced, the car will have to be repainted to protect all that new lumber. Then the work is just starting! If the car is to stay out in the weather, the siding will need to be repainted ABOUT YEARLY! The roof, it goes without saying, is ditto. Try to talk to somebody at B&O RR Museum or Ellicott City Museum, as they both have done just the thing you are thinking of doing. You might want to contact the B&O Historical Society to let them know what’s up; they may have some interest in helping to some extent. Good luck.

6

Just another thought…You gotta have just a few retired cabinetmakers that could be paired with local low risk prison trusty’s on the look for vocational training? Manitou & Colorado Springs Trolley people (PPHSRF, Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation) has used this method to their advantage…

Skeets admonition is realistic, if not a little overbearing. Cars in service on local tourist lines do not see the yearly light maintenance that he describes - but some should!

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I would…PRESERVE RAILROAD HISTORY!!!

8

Depends on what you want to accomplish.
If all your after is to make it look nice on the outside, you can do that on the cheap, marine plywood beaded by your local lumber mill, lumber yard, some simple casings for the window, and a good coat of paint.

If, one the other hand, you want to restore it, and put it to use as a open to the public display or a office, your in for a world of hurt.
That sheething is either ash or oak, not cheap.
Skeets was right on, count on whats under that old stuff being in sad, sad shape.
Which means if its a steel frame and sidework, you need to hire a good welder, and they aint cheap by the hour…unless they are a railfan too.

Here is a idea, go back and take a good look under the sides, then decide.

Keep in mind you can form a tax exempt non-profit group to do this also.
The “Save the Caboose” fund…you can get the paperwork from the IRS website, free download.
Then get the schools woodshop and metal shop teachers to take a look, they make be able to help make it a shop project.
Heck, get the cheerleaders to have a car wash, split the proceeds, hit up local merchants for suppliesand donation, they can write it off their taxes, you can put their name on a comemorative plaque on the side, you might even find free labor that way too.
Hit up your local NHRS, they may be able to pitch in knowledge and labor.

But be prepared to spend a lot of your time on it, every time you take some thing off, you will find the part that it was bolted to needs to be replaced/repaired also.

Did way to many 1950s cars, I can promise you the damage is a lot worse on the inside that it looks like from the outside.

So, the real question you have to ask yourself is, how valuable is my time, and how much of it do I want to spend on this.

If all you want to do is make it pretty, you can do it in a month of weekends.

If your trying to restore it, and its just go

9

This sounds like a potential local icon. And as an athletic booster club member who just got through with an $800k baseball/football stadium for my daughter’s school (we donated some of the engineering), the team angle is a likely genuine winner, particularly if Brunswick is a tightly knit community, as I get the impression it is, and the caboose is parked at the stadium as you say. GO TO THE BOOSTER CLUB!! I suspect you’ll be amazed at how many people will likely come out of the woodwork to create one of the biggest high school mascots around. You’ve got a centerpiece there!

And don’t worry about a small bunch of railfans who may or may not support the school. If you paint it in school colors with the school logo, etc., as suggested, and don’t put PRR on it anywhere, they’ll get the message. If they don’t and they really want to be that trite and childish, what do you care??Are you doing it for them or for the kids?? And you