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Pre 1960s | 1960s | 1970s | 1977-80s | Still in Service | Preserved | |
T&P-Built C&EI-Built Transfer |
Bay Window Extended Vision |
Short Bay Window | Trace current Assignments & Locations | Elvin Klepzig's State-by-state list |
Cabeese,
Crummies & Hacks International Car had proposed to build 50 cars in 1976 at $41,887 per car. After making slight modifications to the blueprints, MoPac instead elected to build all of the platform-type, short bay-window cabooses itself. Both the MP's Desoto and Sedalia shops combined to assemble each car. The Union Pacific had tested one of these platform-style cabooses in the development of the CA-11 caboose, borrowing heavily from the MoPac plans for it's own CA-11, 11A and 12 class cabooses. The
State-of-the-Art By the 1980's, 350 Short Bay Window cabooses were being used by the MoPac. Together with the Extended Vision and Long Bay Window cabooses being used, the road had almost 550 cars for road servoce that were less than 12 years old. After the merger, with changing rail regulations and an over-abundance of cabooses at it's disposal, the Union Pacific decided to skim off the excess. Some of the short-bays were sold thankfully, instead of being shipped to the scrap heap. In 1994-95 UP repainted some thirteen of this series in it's MOW green, removed the interiors and installed benches for gang transport car assignments in mantainence-of-way work, still retaining their "MP" prefix. Curiously, what would have been MP #13099 never got to wear MP paint. The final home-built was instead sold to the Texas-Mexican Railway as TM 316. The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Loius purchased two of the shortys for transfer runs. At least one of these cabooses has been sold to the Nebraska Central Railway a company which with roots to the UP in Grand Island. This caboose has since been retired and residing in Louisiana.
It should be noted once again that NONE of the Short Bay Window cabs were ever assigned to transfer service, a common assumption mistakenly ascribed to them. The Shortys were all true Road cabooses and all were assigned as such in the 13000-series, the designation MoPac reserved exclusively for its Road service cabs.
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State-of-the-Art, the Short Bay-Window Caboose |
Series 13542,
13715-13814, 13815-13965 & 13000-13099
- Short Bay Window Caboose
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Plate - | AAR Class - | RR Class - | |
Former Series none | Built 1977, 1978 | Rebuilt - | |
Car Manufacturer Missouri Pacific RR @ DeSoto & Sedalia Shops | |||
Out. Lg. (ov. strikers) 39' 1-1/4" |
Outside Wd. (side plts)
9' 7-3/8"
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Outside Ht. 14' 4" | |
Body Lg. 17' 10-1/8" | Body Wd. 10' 7-1/4" | Outside Ht. to Roof 10' 11-5/16" | |
Cubic feet - | Load Limit - | Lt. Wt. - lbs. | |
Truck Barber Swing Motion | Wheel Diameter - 33" I-W Stl. | Hand Brake Ellcon-National 1600 | |
Heating Vapor "Caban" | Smokejack - | Radio Motorola Micor | Axle Driv. Dayco Drv. |
SBW Order 1 - #13542, 13715-13814 |
The A&S Doghouses, a Forerunner
of the Shorties? |
MP 13718 - A member of the first group of the short bay window (SBW) cabs to be built. - Brian Paul Ehni Photo or Collection, used with permission. |
SBW Distinctions There was only the one window on this side (opening to the lavatory), the opposite side didn't mirror this feature. Also, the small porthole windows on either side of the bay window had rounded corners similar to the lavatory window style, later deliveries were squared with aluminum sashes. Among other notable differences were the roof colors (see below) and walkway colors. The steps and deck flooring of the first group was painted red, later models were painted white, apparently for safety. |
MP 13725 - Brian Paul Ehni Photo or Collection, used with permission. |
Caboose Roofs From what is known, some of the first order of SBW's had aluminum silver painted roofs, others of the first oreder had white. All roofs of the second and third were painted white. The pattern for the red roofs is unknown, though there are confirmed cases for a few having this color. |
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MP 13731 - Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
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MP 13731 - from the opposite side, at Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
MP 13731 - at Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
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Braking System |
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MP 13796 - Brian Paul Ehni Brian Paul Ehni Photo or Collection, used with permission. |
MP 13807 - on the caboose track at Yard Center in 1986. The small lavatory window has been plated over by this date. - J.D. Santucci Photo |
SBW cabooses 13807 and 13920 - on caboose track at Yard Center June 1983. If you look closely, that is a C&EI high cube box car behind them. - JD Santucci Photo |
Other Features There was some plumbing running from the top of the fuel tank, down the side, under the floor and possibly connected to the plumbing that existed on both end frames. Just to the right of the air reservoir tank on the underframe were a pair of simple brackets, apparently for holding spare coupler knuckles. The caboose was electrically powered by batteries and an end-mounted axle-driven generator for the radio. Marker lights like those used on locomotive underframes were applied on these cabsto illuminate the steps. In addition to the smoke jack and the "firecracker" radio antennea on the roof, there was a toilet vent and a short black pipe(?) jutting up. The purpose of this pipe is unknown but immediately below it floorplans show that there was an unidentified object, perhaps a conductor's table. |
Detail of 13731 - "A" end detail, at Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
Detail of 13731 - at Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
Detail of 13731 - "B" end brake wheel, at Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
Detail of 13731 - from the "B" end, at Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
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Detail of 13731 - another view of the "A" end, at Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
Detail of 13731 - at Denison, Texas; 11/11/01 - © T. Greuter photo |
SBW Order 2 - #13815-13965 |
MP 13832 - From MP's third order for these cabs. Still looking good in it's original paint at Short Line Junction, Iowa. 8/13/97 - photo © RailArc |
MP 13847 - Still in red paint and in active service on a hot August day in 2002. It's sitting on what is believed to be Central Kansas trackage. - Nathan Holmes/ DRGW.Net |
SBW caboose 13866 - at 26th Street Yard, Chicago Heights, June 1992. - JD Santucci Photo |
Another view of the 13866. - JD Santucci Photo |
Another view of the 13866. - JD Santucci Photo |
MP 13920 - was part of the second of three groups of shortys to be built by MoPac. Currently located in north Fort Collins, Colorado. Car is visible from College Avenue. (US Route 287). It has been located there, unmoved for about a year now. Photo taken August 2002. - © 2002, Gene Fusco Photo |
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NOW AVAILABLE: HO model kit of a Mo-Pac Short Bay Window Caboose from Rail Yard Models. This model is a craftsman style cast urethane kit featuring a one piece body, trucks with semi-scale metal wheelsets and Mo-Pac decals. I can testify that creator Gene Fusco has taken great pains to assure this is an accurate and enjoyable kit. The detailing is excellent and the kit includes a detailed booklet with color detail shots. Please visit www.railyardmodels.com for more information. |
Nicnames Including the "Doghouse" nicname, "outhouse," "shack on a flat," "Jenks party barge," and the usual assortment of 'colorful' terms were used to refer to this caboose style on the MoPac and most other roads that used them. Other caboose nicnames include "crummies" (as some of them really were) "crumb box," "hacks," "brain box" (sic), "loony bins," "cabins" (a PRR term), "van" (Canadian origin) and "buggies" (a New England term). I've heard a few Conductors refer to the extended vision cab cupolas as "the Throne." And I always thought that was the toilet. (thanks 'Tuch' and R. Kirkpatrick) |
SBW Order 3 - #13000-13900 |
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MP Caboose 13033 - is brand new in 1977. It is seen on a Laredo bound freight in 1977. - Robert Pollard Photo/Jay Glenewinkel Collection |
MP 13046 - with GP-38-2 #2129 in Villa Grove, Illinois on July 30, 1985 - Photographer unknown/T. Greuter Collection |
MP 13060 - Shot at UP East Los Angeles in 1982, was of the third and final series for the MoP's SBW fleet. - Photographer unknown/T. Greuter Collection |
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Caboose #13099 |
Where Old Cabooses
Go To
Die
- T. Greuter Photos To find it, there is a tree-hidden dirt road which I assume is a continuation of 19th Avenue, running east of the BN tracks and 4th Street. Continued past the gravel yards and elevators... Êthere was a scrap-junkyard/trailer storage area down this road a bit. Anyway, there I saw it... just a glimpse in a clutter of tractors and trailers of a faded red box hidden in an overgrowth of weeds and brush. It was on the ground, in pretty ratty shape and from the looks of it, it had been rusting away there for some time. There was also a UP cupola caboose #25661 and an unidentified track inspection car(?) nearby. The weeds were growing high -up through the decking blocking access inside. The pics don't show much, but what's left of #13045 is there. |
MP Short Bay-Window to Gang Transport Conversions |
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MP 7504 - in MoW service with burro crane at Council Bluffs, Iowa; August 11, 2001 - © T. Greuter photo · |
MP 7509 - Ex-MP 13876, was in the middle of a train at Bond, CO, 8/13/2002. This MofW cab escaped the medicinal green paint used by Union Pacific. - Nathan Holmes / DRGW.Net |
Short Bay-Window Caboose Copies on Other Roads |
The Rest of
the "Short-Body Platform-type" Caboose Story MoPac's "Party Barges" must have struck some other roads as being a move in the right direction; Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, and the Louisville & Nashville all copied the MoP model. TexMex bought one directly from MoPac's production line. International Car put out their new platform-type, short bay-window cabooses design in the mid-1970's, and the Missouri Pacific looked to be a prime client. I.C. proposed to build 50 of these cars in 1976 at $41,887 per car, but the interested Missouri Pacific opted to produce the car at their own Sedalia and DeSoto Shops, which had a long history of producing freight cars and cabooses for the company. Both shops combined their efforts to assemble each car. In turn, the Union Pacific tested one of these platform-style cabooses in the development of their own caboose, borrowing heavily from the MoPac plans for it's own CA-11, 11A and 12 class cabooses.
Southern Pacific also
produced thier own version of the Shorty, SP #1, built in 1980. (Whether
this was a direct copy of MoPac's Shorty or International Car's version
is hard to say) This caboose would truly be one-of-a-kind. SP #1 was the
only short-bodied car to be built by the railroad. SP deemed the effort
too costly. Shortly afterward cabooses as we knew them were being phased-out.
The CSX / Family Lines System / L&N also copied some of the SBW cabooses in the 1980's. See page 66 of Volume II of Cabins, Crummies, and Hacks by John Henderson. Ê Ê(Jim Ogden, MOPAC@YahooGroups.com) CSX shoving platform - http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?january03/01-13-03/shove.jpg The model CSX has (use link above) was inherited from Seaboard System whom acquired them with the consolidation of the Family Lines System in to Seaboard. The FLS cabooses came from the L&N. They were built by FGE in Alexandria, VA. If you look closely at them you will observe differences from the MoPac version. The overhangs at either end over the doors are a little bit shorter on the CSX one shown in the photo. The handrail layout is also a bit different. Having been inside several of them during my career, the interiors were a little less quality grade in construction as well. They were painted a light green inside as opposed to the MoPac's use of industrial gray. (Tuch Santucci) |
UP 25892 - a CA-11 class caboose at Council Bluffs Iowa, 8/11/01 - T. Greuter Photo |
SP subsidiary Willamatte & Pacific caboose #1 - is a former Missouri Pacific caboose (not the same car as SP #1). Original MP number not known. It is seen at Union Station in Portland, Oregon in 1997. - Steve Schuman Photo/Jay Glenewinkel Collection |
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