Click photo to enlarge and click "Back" to return
THE RESTORATION OF CABOOSE
ROCK ISLAND #17754
by Larry Taber
The Rock Island Caboose #17754 was originally a B-2 boxcar in 1915 and later converted to a caboose by Rock Island Lines. I assume this was done in the 1940 era due to the steel shortage. After decades of service, she became a victim of bankruptcy and the discontinuance of caboose service. She was pulled to Corpus Christi, Texas along with two others and sold to private individuals and moved to Sandia, Texas in the 1970 decade where she was used as a cabin and eventually left to mercy of the elements. I can remember driving around Knolle Farms (my favorite South Texas scenic drive) and seeing her sitting in the middle of a pasture across from the cemetery, looking homely and lonely, and not really making any kind of impression on me other than an odd sight.
In April of 2003, Mrs. Betty Box ( Orange Grove , TX Area Museum Curator) told me that she had acquired an old wooden caboose and was going to have it moved to the museum. Yeah, right! I can just see it now. I had little interest in this pipe dream.
In May of 2003, Mrs. Betty Box told me to come to the museum and see the caboose. I was working the day it was relocated, so I missed one of the most exciting event this little town has ever seen. The caboose was secured on tracks by a welder (Bill Hamm) under the direction of Sergio L. Rodriquez & Contractors and the whole thing was lifted by two cranes (Kuhn Crane) onto a lowboy trailer (Ainsworth Trucking) and transported from Sandia , Texas (another small town five miles north of Orange Grove) to behind the museum and set in her present location. Excuse my gender designation but beauty is typically referred to the female gender and #17754 in my opinion could be nothing but female.
After doing a drive by, my first thought was, “What are they going to do with that pile of _ _ _ _”. I did several drive-bys during the coming days. Something kept drawing me back. Finally one day I decided to stop in and see what’s new at the museum. Betty and I walked through and discussed future plans for the museum. At that time, I was a volunteer doing minor tasks associated with some of the pioneer exhibits which included the pioneer town behind the museum. As we neared the rear, I got that feeling again, “why does that thing attract me?” “It’s ugly!” So here we are at the caboose and I ask “what are you going to do with it?” She replies, “we’re going to brush, scrape, and paint it.” My reply was a spontaneous “No! You can’t do that, it’s all rotted and rusted“. That statement is what got me here today after a year and a half of working weekends and vacations restoring what I consider now to be one of the most beautiful railroad relics in the world. Betty’s reply was “OK it’s yours”. God, what have I done? Me and my big mouth, What am I going to tell my wife?
Coincidently, shortly after my meeting with Betty Box, I was
stopped by the Orange Grove police for not wearing my seatbelt and
ticketed. I appeared in Judge Reynolds courtroom and requested community
service. I was given 30 hours at the Orange Grove Area Museum. I now
jokingly tell people that I was sentenced to 30 years of hard labor at the
Orange Grove Area Museum. The young people (community servers) thought
that was funny as they would always ask "what did you do?" This
community service would serve as a kick off to my involvement in the caboose
project.
In June of 2003, I am still trying to figure out how we are going to complete this unplanned and difficult task. We need volunteers to do demolition of all the wooden components. We need to clean the steel components and paint. We need money for materials. We need to start requesting donations now.
So the quest begins. Community volunteerism is strongly encouraged at my workplace (Valero Refining) and would eventually become my base. A $500 donation came from them and gave me the encouragement to continue on. A generic donation request letter was produced and sent out to about 300 prospective donors. First reply and check for $250 came from an old friend who owns Production Equipment of South Texas, very encouraging. After the first donation, we seemed to be on a roll with donations coming from Onyx Industrial Services for $250, Bank of Alice for $250,
G. E. Betz for $250, Rock Island Technical Society for $1200, Farmers Mutual Protection for $100, S & S Services of Texas for $100,
C. C. Crane for $300, and Coastal Bend Community Foundation for $2000. The slew of volunteers never really came, community service ordered by Judge Reynolds did.
I made appointments with business people (mostly service type companies) and requested donations and / or services. At this time, I would learn that services are a lot easier to acquire than cash, which was suitable for our needs at this time anyway. By this time we have started the demo work using community servers (adults and teens). By the way, I met some really interesting people working on the caboose and gained respect for people from all walks of life.
I realized that accessibility was becoming a problem and requested a scaffold donation from Brand Scaffold. They were very eager to help and built a double-decker scaffold all the way around the caboose. This was a life saver for the next twelve months or so and professionally built to suit our needs.
The demo work continued slowly but surely for the next month with the help of Justin Box, Jason Box (Betty‘s grandsons) and community servers. Demolition tools consisted of hacksaws, sledgehammers, wrecking bar, crowbars, bolt cutters and anything else that could be used to pry or bust up the old wooden components. Knuckles were scraped, heads knocked, and sore muscles were frequently experienced. Surprisingly, few curse words were heard.
At this time I can’t stand the slow progression, so I go out and solicit sand blasting services from Brock Maintenance. They are very agreeable and generous in offering to sandblast, prime and paint. I decline the painting as I feel that should have a personal touch. After two days the caboose is sandblasted and primed and I’m feeling good because the hazards associated with this type of work are in our past and posed no problem.
Once the demo work is completed the caboose is looking like a skeleton and in effort to restore some of her dignity, I paint the cupola roof (black) and walls (red). The paint was provided by C.C. Gasket and Fastener who supplied all nuts and bolts, and paint. The bracing and all other steel (end landings, etc.) was painted black in preparation of erecting the exterior walls, which we had not yet acquired the lumber for.
The roof at this time is still wide open, so my next plan of attack is to acquire those materials necessary to complete it. After several attempts at possible donors, I finally get an approval from Bay Ltd., who purchased and delivered the 910+/- linear feet of 1x4 tongue and groove planks, tarpaper, composition rolls and black sealer. After a week, the roof is complete and looking good. While soliciting donors for the exterior wall materials, I use some of our funds to purchase the 2x6 planks for the rooftop gangplanks and the roof is now complete with stovepipe in place.
And by the way, if any of you young people think I didn't see where you put your
initials, you are wrong. I didn't have the heart to remove them, so they
will remain there until you come back someday to replace the roof.
After, discussing our financial situation with the Valero Human Resources Director and expressing my concern over getting the caboose dried in, he agreed to provide the necessary funds ($1100) to purchase 1300+/- linear feet 2x6 tongue and groove planks for the exterior walls. The elevator bolts and red paint were provided by C.C. Gasket and Fastener. The planks were painted red prior to bolting them in by Betty Box and community servers (the paint gang). So we begin the exciting task of bolting in the pretty red walls and planning out the windows and doors. My brother-in-law John Barnett was a big help in accomplishing this as were the young people (community servers).
After a couple of weeks I think I even developed somewhat of a taste for some of the young people’s music I was subjected to. About a month of this and the exterior walls are all in place and the windows are being cased.
By this time, she’s looking good and I’m seeing many more curious drivers come by. Some stop to offer compliments and some smile and wave. They are all encouraging. Some seem to be thinking “Wow, look at that fool.” The caboose has now transposed from a project to a labor of love. Judge Reynolds said it best, “that’s your baby ain’t it?” Of course he also made the statement “You must have a helluva wife to put up with this.” And yes, I do. Penny has been very patient and encouraging up to this point and continued to be so throughout the restoration.
At this time, I’m worrying again. We have no windows or doors and I’m not enough of a fine craftsman to build these. Mac Armstrong a local businessman and fellow museum member, who has been a major contributor to the museum since its conception, built eight nice windows for the cupola himself. They were installed the same weekend and looked great. The eight windows for the walls and two doors were precision built by a local homebuilder, Henry
Kraatz for a nominal fee. Now we are officially dried in and none too soon as winter 2003 / 2004 was very damp. The windows, window frames, and window / door trim was painted traffic yellow, which brings to mind a scary memory. I showed up late one Saturday morning to find Betty Box sitting on the top level of the scaffold, legs dangling over the
side (red shoes), doing touch up painting on the windows. Access to that level could only be gained by climbing the scaffold ladder and swinging legs over the rail, which was about ten feet above the ground. This has to stop, too risky, we talk and she promises to not do that anymore. The ROCK ISLAND logo and caboose number were painted by Noe Bazan, local painter who also painted a typical South Texas rural scene behind the caboose complete with wildlife.
The floor was tiled by the previous owner and the decision was made to lay the new flooring over it in order to provide more support. Funds for the 1x4 tongue and groove floor planks came from our caboose account and the following week 935+/- linear feet were delivered. My brother-in-law John Barnett came through again and assisted me in laying the floor as did the community servers and Jason Box.
With the flooring all in place, and preparing to lay the interior siding, Mac Armstrong offers to purchase the material which would consist of 1000+/- linear feet of 1x6 v-notched tongue and groove car siding and 990+/- linear feet of beaded ceiling. The trim was purchased using caboose account funds. Mac Armstrong also provided us with air-nailer and compressor, which would prove to be a necessity as we progressed with siding the interior walls. Tarpaper was stapled to the inside of the exterior wall planks in order to provide a vapor barrier between the exterior and interior walls. The car siding was placed at the upper portion of the walls at five foot from the ceiling line and beaded ceiling was used at the lower three feet to the floor and served as a wainscot, which Mac Armstrong had hinted at several times.
About this time in the project I am informed that I am now on the museum Board of Directors as Project Director. I decline and am told that the decision has already been made. That settles that!
The bunk room or big room was completed first, or so I thought until Betty Box showed up with a model train which was to be shelved around the entire circumference of the bunk room and used as a running display, which it now is and I gotta love it. We had begun to acquire some railroad artifacts and put them on display in the bunkroom. We now have several lanterns from different eras, tools, maps, typewriter, caboose stove, railroad depot bench, railroad police badge, hat pins, Rock Island stock certificates, locks, telegraph, tools, and last but not least, a late 1800’s newspaper with article about Jesse James robbing a Rock Island train. It seems as if we are adorning a beautiful woman with jewelry.
In June of 2004, we had a scare due to a question of
ownership. A gentleman showed up at the museum claiming ownership of the
caboose. He had apparently bought and paid for the caboose ($750) several
years ago and never picked it up. After seeing what we had done, he signed
it over to us. Whew!
The smaller end room was completed shortly after the bunkroom as was the cupola, which was a little more involved. The cupola platforms were similarly duplicated from the originals with ladder rungs for access and benches to come later. The under cupola area will have tabletops and benches. The small end of the caboose will have five-foot benches along each side and display more artifacts as we acquire them.
For all practical purpose, the caboose is now an open exhibit with stairs and platforms for access. Electrical outlets were installed by Nelson
Schroedter (thank you so much Nelson). Although not 100% complete, I feel a sense of sadness in that I will miss the curious visitors, the little boy who showed up with his grandmother several times and told me I was his hero, the daily “gooooood morning what are we doing today” from Betty Box, the variety of young people doing community service, the sense of accomplishment throughout the project, and the joy of giving back something to an otherwise dilapidated and lost piece of history. I will miss the personal experiences that have kept me coming back for the last year and a half. But I’m sure Betty Box can come up with another unusual project. A steam powered locomotive, maybe.
I have, after all this time, realized what brought on the desire and attraction for this caboose project. My childhood memories of the trains passing thru the railroad crossings with the friendly engineer in the engine smiling and waving, the variety of cars attached to it, and finally the caboose trailing behind with conductor smiling and waving.
Thanks to all those who donated their time and/or money, and offered encouragement.
Larry Taber