Caboose SLSF 1291 left the factory painted freight car red, and remained in factory paint until 1984 when she was painted green. Some of the 1200s were painted "caboose red" in the early 1970s. I like caboose red paint, but SLSF 1291 never wore that color. What color would you like to see caboose 1291 painted? Do you think it would be acceptable to paint 1291 caboose red, or should we stay true to originality? I will post a couple photographs to show the different colors. Thanks!
I have done some work restoring antique furniture and other artifacts for museum clients in the past. Based on that work, I think you should attempt to restore the caboose as close to its original as-delivered appearance and condition as possible. It is not always the easiest or least costly way to go, but it is the best way in my opinion.
I have a question. I am not sure if all of the extended or wide vision cabooses were delivered as 200s or if some came in after the renumbering to the 1200 series. When new, was the it caboose SLSF 291 or was it delivered as SLSF 1291? Thanks. Tony LaLumia
Caboose SLSF 1291 was delivered as 1291 in July of 1969. Cabooses SLSF 1275-1284 and 1285-1292 were delivered with 4 digit numbers.
Thanks for the response guys, I hear you loud and clear. Freight car red is the color caboose SLSF 1291 will be painted. I always loved the bright red cabooses and a few days ago the thought occurred to me I could just paint caboose SLSF 1291 bright red and all would be fine. I wanted to run it by you guys to make sure I had not lost my mind. But it seems I had. Thanks for keeping me in check. Caboose SLSF 1288 will be painted Mandarin orange and white. It is just a natural fit for caboose SLSF 1288 since she was retired in orange and white. All the emblems and stripe separations are still visible under the paint so we can carefully measure and record the information in order to duplicate the paint job. Now, I still want to have a bright red caboose in "ship it" paint. The best candidate for that is caboose SLSF 1257 at Frisco City, Alabama. That is a very nice caboose hiding under the faded paint. Then we could get caboose SLSF 1240 from Liberty, MO and restore her to the American Bicentennial paint that she wore for a few years. And while were at it, we can stop by Mt. Vernon, MO and grab caboose SLSF 1202 and restore her in the Pullman green paint she sported for a short time. That way we would have one caboose each in all the paint schemes. Would not that be cool? Very cool, but not likely!
