M&StL Caboose

If you have any photos of an M&StL caboose, please contribute to this page.
You can send email to mstl@eldora.net

I will return any photos sent to me for scanning. If you have photos and a scanner you can send them as an email attachment. JPG format is best but GIF and BMP can be used if that's what you have. If you can save them in a resolution of 96 or 72 pixels per inch that will make them email MUCH faster. Photos scanned at a higher resolution can become so large that they take 15 minutes to email.

M&StL caboose in Sioux Falls - Mike Vana found/posted his photohttp://amflyer.home.radiks.net/htdocs/mstlcaboose.jpg

From Clark Propst in the Yahoo! Groups M&StL Digest #2010 Aug 25, 2002

As I remember the only word ever used to discribe an M&StL cabooses was "crummy'. Example: "Spot the crummy on the Ham". That's railroad talk for "Park the caboose on the first track east of the main by the depot at Mason City". Clark

From Gene Green in the Yahoo! Groups M&StL Digest #588 5/8/2002

The caboose in New Prague is the same 1306 as pictured in color on page 45 of the May 2002 issue of Railfan & Railroad. The M&StL re- used caboose numbers. As Mr. Campbell correctly states, it was rebuilt from the former box car 16594. M&StL box car 4410 was built by Michigan Peninsular in Sept 1892; 4410 was renumbered to 16594 as part of the general renumbering of M&StL and Iowa Central equipment between about 1909 and 1912, then rebuilt as caboose 1306 in July 1920. In October 1936 cabooses 1306 and 1186 were rebuilt with side doors for branchline service.

As regards caboose length and underframes, the M&StL bought some used Lehigh Valley cabooses with steel underframes (1101 to 1106 incorrectly listed on the M&StL equipment diagram as being built by the M&StL) built by the LV. The M&StL acquired the LV underframe drawing and all subsequent cabooses - cupola at first and later bay window - were all built on an identical underframe built for the M&StL first by Minneapolis-Moline (Mpls Steel) and later by American Bridge Co. This accounts for the fact that all the later M&StL cabooses - whether bay window or cupola - had essentially the same dimensions.

The end platforms of 1306 (all wood underframe) and 1201 (LV steel underframe) may not be similar. However, information, measurements, etc. from 1201 may certainly be a help in interpreting information in photos of 1306 to draw those details. The M&StL used some parts from scrapped cabooses when constructing the cabooses 1109 through 1311 at Marshalltown in the 1940s.

Mike Porter's Crummies
Presents
The Minneapolis & St. Louis Bay Window Wood Caboose

CLICK HERE

End of Caboose number

Gene Green has found that no lettering is required on cabooses if they are not offered in interchange. The M&StL diagrams call for caboose numbers centered over the door on each end in numerals 4 inches high.

Clark Propst notes that most have numbers above the doors. 1306 with end stripes had it's end number on the door itself.

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