Happy New Year folks, and happy (nearly) 19th anniversary of this thread, I've come to revive it with an update if anyone involved here's still interested after who knows how many years...
I came across this thread last month and immediately took attention to it as I live quite close nearby and had never known this existed as long as I lived! Given how this was the only thread that had had any reasonable amount of activity since 2006-2009, I started doubting the caboose was even still there, that it had been broken to bits by the owner of the property or burned to the ground or any other awful idea. A couple of weeks ago, I returned home from school and decided one of the first things I needed to do was to see this caboose (remnants or not!)
As of the writing of this post, I can indeed confirm that this caboose still stands on the short section of track it's always been on, and that it remains in one piece!! Since the last photos taken of the caboose in 2008, the condition has gotten slightly worse for wear, though it's still pretty sturdy and seems to have been cleaned out since then. That being said, I am now the man with the most visual documentation on this piece of railroad equipment in almost 17 years! I am currently working on getting all these photos into an online gallery and will update with that link when I have it.
Aside from checking to see if it was still there, my other intention with this trip was to try and figure out the ID on this caboose. A few users on a different railroad forum were able to narrow down the identity of this caboose to that of the L&NE cabooses #571-578. Most of these were given to the B&M sometime in the 60s and renumbered to C-90 - C-95. 571/C-90 survives today on the Conway Scenic RR in NH, and a couple others seem to be floating around as well elsewhere in the northeast, though this one here seems to have slipped through the cracks and gone unnoticed until now. Stamping on the trucks that I observed does confirm that this is of L&NE origin, so that confirms the class at least! Additionally on that other forum, a distinction was made about half of these cabeese (574-578) having different shaped steps from the first 3 of the class (571-573). Having checked for myself, then comparing with images, I can confirm that this caboose falls within the latter half of the class. Thanks to some recent uploads from the B&MRR Historical Society, I was able to compare my pics with older pics of
C-93 and
C-94 (which I had assumed were 574 and 575, though inconsistencies online are making me a little unsure of that) and found the shape of those steps to match up just right (surprisingly, the most telling sign for identification!)
According to this same forum, 576 is currently in New Hope, PA, which rules that out. 574 was noted to have some strange "side window rain deflector" plus an extra stove/heater, which I could find no signs of on our mystery caboose. Thus, the identity of the caboose is a toss up between L&NE 575, 577, and 578. Of course, of all the pieces of railroad equipment that could have been sitting such an odd distance from any active rail line, it had to be something with only
just enough information to confirm that it existed at all...
All this to say, the caboose is still there, I can confirm part of the identity, yet still more to figure out... I'll post my pictures in my next message here so you all can see what exactly we're dealing with.
Regarding who may own this caboose, that is still unclear. The development it sits behind looks to be unlived in, yet someone seems to have been taking care of it every now and then (once again, interior cleaned out within the past two decades, as well as the addition of a couple small tarps here and there). This may involve some local asking around, and possibly some more online digging (though I've hit quite a few dead ends already here so it may have to come down to word of mouth).
For those who may be interested in seeing the caboose like I was, do note to tread with caution, as there are posted signs warning against trespassing. As it happens, I went back for a quick trip to show my friend yesterday and was immediately told that it was private property by someone inside the house (property owner? developer?). Regardless, please be smart about it if you do decide to go.
Will update soon,
- Joris
