I had a inquiry from Jay Cox about Kansas City area transfer cabooses and I found my only two photographs, attached. The first photograph shows two units at Rosedale Yard, Kansas City, KS just west of the car repair shed. I believe this photograph was taken in the summer of 1980 with my trusty Canon AE1. Not sure of the entire Kansas City roster of transfer cabooses but SLSF 1337 and SLSF 1341 were certainly assigned to KC. Sorry the light and my photographic skill were not better at the time. The second photograph is BN 11626 on a spur in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, MO. I think this photograph was shot either in 1981 or 1982 at the latest. I do not have the SLSF number for this caboose but maybe someone out there has the number and can let us know. This photograph is a better shot showing the details on the caboose.
Very interesting! This means that these were being used much later than the research in the appropriate section on this site would indicate! Being ostensibly a BN modeler modelling the period 1978-1982 this is very welcome news.
Colin, That is some mighty fine railroading in your photo stream. That steel trestle is magnificent! Very nice touch of weathering on the rail as well.
Tom, The terminal and transfer cabooses on flat cars were constructed in 1968. There were several single units of various designs that predated the 1300 series cars. These were retired around this time as the more standard car was brought on line. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Thanks, They are neat little cabooses. Nice and easy to model, but they are outside of my modeling era. Tom
Tom, If the 1300 series transfer cabooses are outside your era, consider some of their predecessors. On this site check out photographs of cabooses SLSF 45 and SLSF 375. You can use the search option and look by the car number. These are also transfer cabooses with images that are dated 11/66 and 7/67 respectively, closer to your profile's target time frame of 1964 and before. In Model Railroad Planning 2002, page 72, there is a photograph credited to Arthur Riordan of caboose SLSF 150. This home build car similar to the 1300 class but is one that has a smaller crew cabin on a shorter frame. Another resource is Mike Condren's Frisco site. He has a photograph of caboose SLSF 73. This is a slightly different design with a full car body width cab with roof overhangs toward the car end. It too falls into the same general design. That photograph is dated 5/66. Please see the following link. http://condrenrails.com/Frisco Catalog/Caboose.htm. Each would make a great scratch building project. And there are sure to be others. Hopefully this will prod folks with other caboose photographs to add them to this site. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Thanks. I have all the caboose data I am needing. In the 1959-1960 period at Springfield, MO the "transfer" from the North Yard to the South Yard beside the passenger station was achieved by pulling the string of cars with a single Baldwin VO-1000 and no caboose of any kind. The transfer was the only one around Springfield of which I am aware. I have seen them do it with 75 cars. They had another switcher push until they started downhill. It was all downhill from the east end of the North Yard until way down in the middle of the South Yard. The grade extended from Pacific Street Jct. near the intersection of National Avenue and Commercial Street to past North Main Avenue. By the way, the passenger station would usually be disrupted for a few minutes. The time I saw them pull 75 cars, they were trying to load and unload trains No 106 and No 10! Tom
Tom, Great story. I hope the passengers on No 10 and No 106 had some patience! The Baldwin VO-1000s could really get down and dirty and pull! The Frisco loved them for that. Their weakness was in being different than an EMD and, ultimately, VO engine maintenance issues. Ken
I think that happened about 2:30 AM, they usually sent the transfer down around 9 or 10 PM. And it actually only took a few minutes, but the tractors pulling the express and mail wagons had to wait to crossover because the South Yard lead track was accessed by a switch from the depot's main track, Track 1. Tom
