Western Railroad Discussion > Google's caboose in Kirkland, WA

So I was driving through Kirkland, Washington this morning. I'm not familiar with the area at all but at one point I crossed a trail that clearly had been a railroad ROW at one time. As I crossed the path I looked to the right and momentarily spotted what looked like a caboose in the distance. So after a rather circuitous route to get to where I thought I saw it, I stumbled on a very new Google campus where the caboose is on display in front of the main building.

It is painted in a faux Northern Pacific scheme, but it clearly of Santa Fe provenance. When I got back to my hotel I did a little digging and discovered the car was former ATSF 999619 and was bought from a private owner in Bakersfield, CA. This apparently occurred in 2015, hence the car's "NP 2015" number. After Googling around a bit (yes, I get the irony), I found a few news articles on it such as this one.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2015/05/all-aboard-google-gets-a-retired-train-caboose-for.html

There is also a video of it being put in place at it's current location on the Tube site.

Here's three photos I took this morning.

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The old yellow paint in the holes of the roofwalks is a dead giveaway for the CE-3 Class!

Posted from Android

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> So I was driving through Kirkland, Washington this
> morning. I'm not familiar with the area at all but
> at one point I crossed a trail that clearly had
> been a railroad ROW at one time.

That is the ex-NP Lake Washington Belt Line that extgended between Woodinville and (NP) Black River (under the 405 bridge between the Tukwila interlocking and the Tukwila station. I was employed in three separate feasibility studies for commuter or transit service on the line, but yes was not the correct answer.Finally, the highway side of WSDOT told BN that they needed to widen 405 and the railroad was in the way, so that part was torn out. No more feasibility now; no more railroad. It's a trail, just as the desired answer was in the first place.

TAW

Curious. Is the car listed on Calender as a meeting room?

Numbering for the purchase year is a common theme with regional and logging roads, Weyerhaeuser for example. The caboose in Dunsmuir is an ex-NP caboose, used on the McCloud at some point and then painted in SP colors.

At least they saved a caboose and fixed it up really nice albeit wrong railroad. I forgive them. Go Google.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

That's cool!

Posted from iPhone

Bob3985 Wrote:
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> At least they saved a caboose and fixed it up
> really nice albeit wrong railroad. I forgive them.
> Go Google.

Notice the brake wheel is facing out instead of in.

70ACE Wrote:
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> Bob3985 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > At least they saved a caboose and fixed it up
> > really nice albeit wrong railroad. I forgive
> them.
> > Go Google.
>
> Notice the brake wheel is facing out instead of
> in.

Not hooked up either.

Con-Agra Foods in Richland WA. also has a steel caboose in their entry way that's used as a conference room. Interesting 2nd life.

70ACE Wrote:
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> Notice the brake wheel is facing out instead of
> in.


Perhaps this was done for ADA compliance? I imagine it would narrow the access to the door if correctly oriented. It's still good to see some effort at using a caboose instead of turning it into scrap for China.

boxcab Wrote:
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> 70ACE Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Notice the brake wheel is facing out instead of
> > in.
>
>
> Perhaps this was done for ADA compliance?

Probably. Although getting a wheelchair up there in the first place would be a trick in itself.

Actually, in late 2014, JFS Railcar, LLC agreed to purchase 999619 from it's long-time owner in Bakersfield, held it in inventory for a few months, then sold & moved it to the Kirkland Google campus. The handbrake's position was changed decades ago, when the caboose was used as an office.