Katy Dickinson

Caboose Kiss on Front Page

Back on May 25, 2007, I wrote about our WP668 caboose move being the front cover story of the Willow Glen Resident, our local newspaper. We were surprised to find that at the end of last year, my husband John and I made the Year in Review 2007 front page story again with this picture:

We did not see the 28 Dec 2007 paper, so we only found out about the photo being republished when people sent email about it. (Surprise!) The Willow Glen Resident folks were very helpful and gave us extra copies of the paper plus permission to scan and publish it in my blog. Here is the May 25, 2007 story plus the new December 28, 2007 "Year in Review" story:

28 Dec 2007

25 May 2007

25 May 2007

25 May 2007

25 May 2007

Two videos of the big move are on YouTube, search for "WP668".

Images Used with Permission, Copyright 2007 Silicon Valley Community Newspapers

Posted at 11:16PM Jan 14, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

Ripping Out Caboose Floor

I am working from home today (getting over a cold) listening to the contractors in my backyard ripping the floor out of WP668, our caboose. From what we can tell, half of the flooring is in good shape but the other half is too damaged to save.

The floor consists of steel beams supporting 4"x4" wood joists supporting an underfloor (wood tongue and groove boards laid crosswise) supporting the floor (wood tongue and groove boards laid lengthwise). The steel is solid but the three layers of wood are rotted out from water from both top (kitchen and toilet) and bottom (thrown up from the wheels). There are also charred boards on the underfloor near where the old stove was. We knew from replacing the roof that WP668 had a roof fire sometime in the past. It looks like that fire ate a hole in the floor too. (We did not see the charring before because it was covered with a floor patch.) The contractors are ripping out the damaged wood now. Once that is gone, we can evaluate how solid the remainder is. We want the finished floor to be solid, flat, and level. The final surface will be linoleum, so the replacement wood will be plywood rather than tongue and groove boards.

Last weekend, we planted an Evergreen Pear tree (Pyrus Kawakamii) near WP668. It will eventually shade both the caboose and the cactus garden which we are planting between there and the house. The little tree is now in flower and its fragile white blooms are in danger every time the contractors toss a board out the caboose window. John is out with the contractors now to minimize damage to both WP668 and the surrounding garden.

Posted at 11:14AM Jan 14, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  |