Bath & Hammondsport caboose #1

A bit of conflicting info online. Is the side-door caboose former Erie #04951 or #04651? Thanks.

Nobody?

Charles, this is completely speculation. Erie had cabooses in both number series you mention. Since a side door caboose would seem to be older, and since numbers usually were assigned in ascending order, I would guess and 046xx number would be an older caboose than an 049xx.

Can you track down other Erie cabs with side doors? I looked on Elwood's site but found nothing conclusive.

Side door was most likely added by B&H-- never have seen a pic of that style Erie caboose (or any other in the "modern" era- 1930 on) with a side door.

Any idea what year B&H acquired that caboose from the Erie?

BR&P wrote:Any idea what year B&H acquired that caboose from the Erie?

1938

So it's possible that at that early date the Erie had a side door caboose available for sale, also possible as suggested that B&H did it themself.

Might be worth comparing ladders, steps, and other construction details between the B&H cab and pics of Erie cabooses in the series Charles mentions.

what would a caboose with a side door have been used for? I've seen photos of them mostly on Western and Midwestern roads but what are they used for?
Found a pic of that B&H Caboose

and plenty of pics of the B & H Cab here just scroll down to the b & h listing.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-b/misc-b.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A post by a Greg Dickinson reports the cab as - ex Erie 04651

scharnhorst wrote:what would a caboose with a side door have been used for? I've seen photos of them but on other roads but could not understand the idea.

Easy answer- the caboose was used for LCL shipments from 1938 to 1971. The wide side door facilitated delivery of large items that couldn't fit through the end doors.

Regarding what was carried in the caboose, when I rode the train fairly frequently in the '50s and '60s, among the shipments were
cases of wine, many going to various churches for communion. Some things were lcl freight shipments, others were Railway Express.

Lee Carlson

Just did a web search recently for info on this very same B&H caboose and came up with this thread.

A reprinted article I have from "Railroads You Can Model" (Kalmach Publishing, 1976) states that this was an ex-Erie (formerly No. 04651) that was purchased by the B&H and rebuilt into a side-door model for express and l.c.l. work.

As a teenager, I first came upon this book's B&H article and have dreamed about depicting it as a model railroad. Almost 40 years later, I am very close to starting; that's why I'm interested in the history of this caboose.

Kind of late addition to this thread but hope it helps out.

Thanks,
Mark

Hey Charles, the poster above woke this one up from the dead, and I did some digging on Ellwood's site. The answer to your question is 04651 beyond a doubt in my mind.

Get yourself a pic of the B&H caboose handy, then go on Fallen Flags and select some caboose pics in each series you mention. The 046XX series has a taller, somewhat rough-hewn look, while the 049XX series all have a smoothly rounded top to the cupola. Also, on the side of the cupola, all the 046XX cabooses - AND the B&H cab - have two windows, while the 049XX have one window centered.

I'm not sure I've described it well enough verbally, but compare pics and I believe the answer is plain.

PS - Mark - welcome, and good luck with the modeling project!

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=3480753" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I believe the Erie did indeed have side door cabooses. Though, I wonder what the point of a B&H's cupola over the side door would be for. Why not just remove the cupola? Light? As for the number....there is another Erie side door caboose in Arcade, NY. It is ex Erie #04923. It does have two windows on the side of the cupola. As mentioned, the car was used for LCL, even on the Erie. I had heard that this particular car made trips on the Dunkirk Branch in the end of it's Erie career. It was sold to the Arcade & Attica in 1949. I was of the assumption that it came with the side door in it already.... I would be curious to know if anyone has any construction details on these interesting cabooses.

I figured that the Erie just lumped the wood cabooses into the 04XXXX numbering. Not necessarily in any order, just as they were rebuilt or repainted at some point. The Fallen Flags site indicates some of them built as a group in the late 20's. We figured the 04923 was older....but don't know for sure.

Pat, the Erie cabooses like the B&H #1 seem to run as low as 04518 and as high as 04884 looking at Elwood's site. According to a description on that page, the newer ones began with 04926 and go up from there.

The ARA 303 does not look like either of those two series, and at 04923 would seem to have been in a third category. It has a few Erie features but also in some ways doe NOT resemble either of the other two classes. One possibility is it's a much older cab than the others, and another option would be the Erie obtained it from some small line they absorbed or bought out. What are the underframes on the ARA cabooses - wood, or steel?

And speaking of ARA cabooses, the other one - 304 - was also an Erie caboose, in that lower number series, like the B&H. Any idea what number THAT was and when ARA got it? I'm guessing ARA put the side door in.

It seems we drifted from the B&H caboose to the ARA cabooses, if the mods want to break off the later posts and make a new thread it's fine by me.