Delmar Caboose Restoration #4

I’ve had a few comments and questions about the restoration of the City of Delmar DE / MD Train Caboose.

One of the local businessmen who has a bar across the street from the caboose got a restoration committee going to spearhead some work in the city of Delmar.

The city was an old railroad town with a switching center and repair facility in town. Delmar is about half way from the northern border of Delaware where a link with Philadelphia /Baltimore trains would be connected to and the southern tip of Virginia where it is in the Delmarva Peninsula. (That Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, that make up the three states in the peninsula.) The peninsula is a gigantic sandbar that covers the area between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Many years ago the town was given the caboose and also the train station. No one wanted to maintain the train station and it was torn down. A real loss because I understand that it was beautiful and had a second floor because of all of the train employees that were in the area.

The caboose needed some repair work. The restoration committee contacted the Mason-Dixon Woodworking Club (Toy workshop) to see if we could help. Our workshop that we use is about 3 blocks from the caboose. I offered to build what was necessary in my shop at home.

It started with the windows.

I was suppose to make two windows but before I got completed with all of the work a vagrant climbed up on the roof of the caboose and put his foot through a window and climbed inside to sleep on the cots inside. The police caught him some time following that. So a third window was required.

Then I needed to make a door.

It also had been destroyed by vandals.

Weather had not been kind to the caboose and some siding boards needed to be made. They were tongue and groove and I made them out of Popular. Window molding was made to look like the original profile. A couple of pieces were still present on the caboose.

A facia board was also required because the original was split and falling apart. It was on the left end of the caboose.

All the assorted parts were provided to the painter who had been contracted to install the parts and to paint the caboose.

The paint color that was selected was the original color that was used on the Pennsylvania Railroad, who provided the caboose. The color is quite different from the previous color.

The restoration was completed last fall and a dedication ceremony was held. We got no recognition at that ceremony for the work that we completed, but the painter got thanked and he got paid.

Here are some additional pictures from inside the caboose if you have never seen inside. And if you have seen inside a caboose they are still here.

The door on one end with two cots. Notice the missing panel where feet and bodies got inside.

Standing by those cots and looking the other direction was a water tank and sink. It drained through the floor.

Behind the sink is a compartment that had picks, shovels, pry bars, wrenches etc.

Between two compartments were steps that led you up to seats above that allowed you to look out the windows and look at the train in front of you or track behind you. Unless you were facing the other way.

Standing by the steps you see the stove and coal box for your storage of heating supplies.

There was a small table for eating or filling out the required reports of the days activities.

Looking back to the first door you see another desk and another cot.

The steps are lightly visable on the right between the two compartments. I believe that one of those was the outhouse (Water Closet, Privy, Restroom) The transportation laws were changed to stop the dumping of raw sewage unto the train tracks, a holding tank was required.

The seats for the observation tower was on top of the storage compartments.

It was a lot of fun to do this project and it was my first set of windows and my first passage door.

I know this isn’t a caboose, but, it is a great picture from many years ago. A great shot

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com