Steve Goen is quite close to the truth of the matter, at least as it was told to me by FW&D mechanical department personnel involved at the time. The two were indeed converted at the Childress shops during 1968 from box express cars 109-110. They were built to fill a desperate need for cabooses for local service, as the FW&D's fleet of aging wooden cars was in poor shape, and while the company had been allowed (by the Q) to purchase a dozen modern extended vision cupola cars (at the same time the C&S got an identical batch), these cars were strictly for mainline service, and the cars released by their arrival were in as poor condition as those already in local freight service. So the mechanical people took matters into their own hands, and without approval or authority, converted the two former troop kitchen cars, one -- the 102 -- a copy of the new extended vision cars (though without the wide cupola) and the other -- the 82 -- a bay window design concocted by several Childress shop personnel. This latter car, with its Jeep Wagoneer doors incorporated into the bay window to provide an opening window, porthole windows in each end, and old Andrews trucks from the car it replaced, is a real "classic." Both of the existing cabooses carrying the numbers 82 and 102 -- the latter a former Q car -- were quietly scrapped and no record made of their scrapping. A thorough search of company records would seem to indicate that the two old wooden cars were still in service -- I know, because I made that search when working on the roster for "The Colorado Road," and before I was aware of the existence of these two oddball home-built cars. Thus they did not appear in my FW&D caboose roster when "The Colorado Road" was published in 1970.
That the new 102 was painted aluminum like the extended vision cars it copied, while the truly odd second 82 was painted Chinese red is unexplained. I would love to see a photo of it coupled to one-of-a-kind Chinese red NW2 605!
We have the FW&D AFE files at the Colorado Railroad Museum (along with those of the C&S and CB&Q), and there is absolutely no record there of the existence of either of these cars.
In a somewhat less blatant example of taking matters into your own hands to get what was needed, the "Denver" removed the cupola from caboose 63 in 1976 or '77 to create a yard service/transfer caboose for Fort Worth. This, too, was done without formal authorization. The farther from the general offices you were, the easier it was to get away with such things! Maybe that's the real reason BN moved its headquarters to Fort Worth! (JOKE! Please don't take that comment seriously!)
Hol
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com From: wgcrush@swbell.net Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 23:37:54 -0700 Subject: Fw: [CBQ] Re: FW&D Cabooses
Mr. Goen's response...
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: texaszephyr <texaszephyr@sw.rr.com>
To: Skip Waters <wgcrush@swbell.net>
Sent: Sun, August 19, 2012 6:21:07 PM
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Re: FW&D Cabooses
Unlike the Q, the FW&D only owned two ex-WW II Army kitchen cars which had been purchased for express service. Both had became surplus after the TEXAS ZEPHYR was discontinued on Sept. 11, 1967 and both were converted in waycars circa 1968 at the Childress Shops. I suspect that the Childress Shops used their newly delivered 151 class as patterns so its my guess that the two home builts came shortly after the 151-162 class arrived.
I'm not sure why the numbers that they received were chosen. All I can figure is that FW&D book-keepers were attempting to reuse old numbers as to not show a piece of new equipment being added to the roster. That being said, it is extremely odd that the two did not receive consecutive road numbers.
I'm not sure how much of the cars were actually used. It looks like the frame and sides and possibly some of the roof. The FW&D would have had to fabricate ends and cupolas. You can clearly see where the large side doors were plugged during the conversion.
Steve Goen
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 12:28 PM
Subject: Fw: [CBQ] Re: FW&D Cabooses
Care to respond?
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: William Barber <clipperw@gmail.com>
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, August 18, 2012 9:13:49 AM
Subject: [CBQ] Re: FW&D Cabooses
In the new Way car book, there are several photos of FW&D caboose no. 73; one a wood caboose which I think is the original #73 built in 1925, and two of a steel caboose. The steel caboose is obviously built from a WWII troop kitchen car (jeep) which can clearly be seen in the photo of the car in BN paint. No mention is made of the troop car conversion. A few pages later, 600 and 601, another steel caboose, no. 102, is shown which is also a converted troop kitchen car. There one caption acknowledges it as the 2nd converted troop car.
It appears that these were the only two cabooses converted from troop kitchen cars. In the roster on page 579, it notes that no. 102 was converted from FW&D baggage express car no. 110 which I assume was one of the troop kitchen cars. On page 578, the data for caboose no. 73 is more confusing. It shows the original no. 73 as built in 1925. I believe that is the wood car in the photo at the bottom of page 589. Much later, the roster data states that original no. 73 was replaced by caboose no. 109 which was a former CB&Q NE-9 caboose no. 13807 renumbered to 73. No mention of a steel no. 73 is made in the roster.
my questions are:
1. Were these two steel cars the only ones converted from troop kitchen cars?
2. Was this work done at the Childress shop?
3. Was the entire car used or just the side sheets?
4. It appears that both cars were converted in 1968?
5. Wood car 109 renumbered as no. 73 was apparently scrapped in 1968, so it seems that the steel no. 73 entered service in 1968. It's silver Q paint scheme would tend to confirm that.
FW&D obviously had an eclectic fleet of cabooses. In some cases, tracking their history seems to be a challenge. The Way car book certainly highlights some interesting oddities that occurred in the Q family of way cars.
Bill Barber
Gravois Mills, MO
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.2197 / Virus Database: 2437/5204 - Release Date: 08/16/12
__._,_.___
![]()
__,_._,___ |
|