Nostalgia & History > SP Roseville Caboose Deadline 1983

Despite the dominance of the bay window design, SP still had a good number of steel cupola cabooses in service into the 1970's, especially assigned to local service. A sizable deadline of cabooses had formed at Roseville's east end by 1983 showing a good variety of cupola, bay window and even wide vision designs.

The C-40-1 and C-40-3 steel cupola classes(built by Los Angeles General Shops 1937-1942) made up the bulk of these retired cars. SP1076, a C-40-3 built in 1941, is seen at Roseville in June 1983.

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SP1021 is a C-40-1, part of the initial group of 50 built in Los Angeles in 1937.

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At least two of the cars were recently repainted in plain boxcar red, including 1169 nearest the camera. Any Roseville vets recall why?

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Management in Pine Bluff had enough independence that they ordered 45 wide vision cars from International Car Co. SSW35 is a C-40-9 built in 1963. The cars roamed the system and were not uncommon on the Pacific Lines.

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The Cotton Belt wide-vision is an interesting shot. I never saw one operate in California. However, in the mid-eighties, I worked for Texas Instruments in Dallas and an SSW line ran right behing the plant in Dallas. The Cotton Belt cabooses (cabeese?) painted in a brighter red were the order of the day there.

john1082 Wrote:
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> The Cotton Belt wide-vision is an interesting
> shot. I never saw one operate in California.
> However, in the mid-eighties, I worked for Texas
> Instruments in Dallas and an SSW line ran right
> behing the plant in Dallas. The Cotton Belt
> cabooses (cabeese?) painted in a brighter red were
> the order of the day there.


I saw a few of them operate in California in the mid-eighties. There is (or was) one preserved and stores with equipment in the Redwood City Harbor area. - Tony J.

By 1985, SP had lots of cabooses for sale as they were being rapidly phased out, to be replaced by the cursed little box on the train's rear coupler, after union negotiated crew size reduction. As I recall, the prices ranged from $5,000 and down, depending upon condition. I can't recall any for sale at Oakland or in the bay area but I believe they were stored at Tracy. At any rate, the sale price certainly did not include delivery. You were on your own for the trucking and crane job to get your caboose into your lot or back yard. When the caboose came off the freight train, the train just never seemed right again to me.

As I recall, the entire Roseville hack deadline was moved to Tracy in late Summer, 1983. I lived there (Tracy) at the time and recall all of the cars in Shed's photos. Several of the cars had been gutted by fire by that time, but whether that was the reason for the move or not, I could'nt tell you.

John

Can anybody tell me the fate of caboose SP1148? I have a reason for asking. espeeboy?

steamjocky

Didn't the caboose come and go before espeeboy's time? lol

Yeah, but he's heard of them.

For a list of where many of the former SP cabooses are see:
http://cencalrails.railfan.net/cabooseS.html
As far as a Cotton Belt wide vision caboose, the SSW#40 is on the Niles Canyon Railway. It is operable but the lexan windows need to be replaced. The car does ride great - I rode it down from Oakland in the big move in 2005.
On the NCRY is also SP cabooses #1101 and #4691. The 4691 came out of the line at Tracy.

SSW41 is in Roseburg, OR.