Bob's caboose build

[ParTaxer]

Looking good Bob! Judging by the contrast with the tarp, black trim would be nice as well. Looking forward to visiting with you at CRA.

Mike W

[S. Heisley]

Looking good Bob! Judging by the contrast with the tarp, black trim would be nice as well. Looking forward to visiting with you at CRA.

Mike W

I agree with Mike! Bob's doghouse caboose would be in good company with Milwaukee RR's cabooses. It seems that caboose colors became a lot like school colors.

Bob doesn’t need this information but others might like it; so, below is an excerpt from http://trn.trains.com/Railroad%20Refere ... boose.aspx

...Railroaders affectionately called their cabooses by many nicknames, including cabin, crummy, buggy, doghouse, waycar, shack, and hack. On the Pennsylvania Railroad, the caboose was a cabin or "cabin car." The Burlington, C&NW, and other roads used the term waycar. Canadian cabooses were called "vans," a word similar to "brake van," used in England to describe railroad cars that performed a similar function to a caboose.

Most railroads painted their cabooses "boxcar red" for high visibility. However, after World War II, the "little red caboose" showed up in many different colors, typically associated with the paint schemes found on the railroads' new diesel locomotives. The colorful caboose with its railroad's logo and paint scheme presented a rolling image for everyone to see.

Denver & Rio Grande Western had cabooses of silver and gold, while Milwaukee Road's were orange and black. Pennsylvania Railroad cabooses were painted "tuscan red," and Southern Pacific's were reddish brown. Chesapeake & Ohio liked to paint their cabooses yellow and blue, and Boston & Maine chose black and blue. Chicago & North Western waycars were various shades of yellow and green, while Burlington Route's all-steel waycars were painted silver. A popular color for cabooses was green, some shade of which could be found on roads such as the New York Central and successor Penn Central, Northern Pacific, Lehigh Valley, Indiana Harbor Belt, Reading, Rutland, and Missouri-Kansas-Texas.

Two latter-day caboose colors were Burlington Northern "cascade green" and Conrail blue.

[pjo129]

Lookin good, Bob!

[josephhanson]

I've been following your progress and it looks great! Are you planning to add some RR type lettering on the sides when completed?
Something like BOB's Railways or BOB's Line Express or something like that? The whole project looks great?
Keep up the pictures, we all love the pictures.

[bobhenry]

I have a tenative plan The C&F.W. Railroad was decorated with an orange body and a logo with a black background with white lettering and white scroll border work.


I hope to use a agricultural tank built into a wood watertower for non pottablewater.

I may even decorate the tower with a couple petticoats........

Yep you got it the Hooterville Cannonball was a line on the C&F.W. Railroad

The Shady rest campground MAYBE

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[bobhenry]

Slow. Ya think I ought to do a ship style camper as another project another day !

[bobhenry]

Well here is the update......

Didn't really have the $$$ but it was too good to passup. The complete Harbor Freight 45 watt solar system marked down fron $229.00 to $149.00 so Friday I purchased 2 systems saving myself $160.00. I know " Boo Hiss" Harbor Freight but its a good system to learn on and perhaps later as $ is a bit more prevelant ( like when I get shed of my house) I can move up. I have already been in contact with a company that has a complete wind and solar system ready to plug and chug for $4,000.00 but that's a bit of a leap right now so I will start with my >$300.00 learners system. Next step is storage batteries I am gonna see if I can find some trade in 6 volts some where. I will start with big truck maintainance shops and golf cart outlets. Gotta save where I can. My idea is to have 2 seperate 45 watt systems primarily for lighting. I do have a fridge and a freezer as seperate units. My fridge is 1.2 amps running that's 144 watts almost 3 time the capacity of the panel but the fridge doesn't run full time so with a strong battery bank the generation might keep up.

This is a test this is only a test...... If it doesn't keep up I can tie the panels together and have a 90 watt system.

I picked up twelve 4.5 volt 9 lamp leds ( $12.71 total ) to be mounted in tap a light housings I have been collecting. A test Friday night after dark showed that just one cast a soft non directional glow totally adequate to navigate thru the entire caboose. I need to drop either the 12 volt or the 6 volt tap on the solar system to the required 4.5 volts so I guess a trip to Radio shack is in order.

Work Well yep did a token effort early Sat AM installed one layer of 1" blue foam insulation in the wall cavities. Want to install at least 2 more but I need to get the electrical installed first. So its still one step at a time

Rest of the weekend was spent helping organize a storage unit for the gal pal.

Anyone interested in a half ton of candle making supplies. ???

[S. Heisley]

Just keep chugging up that hill and you'll make it to the top!

[Shadow Catcher]

The railroad in Petticoat was the Sierra Railroad, Nancy and I took a ride on one of their trains over our honeymoon 40 years ago.

Solar can be done better and for much less than HF with a bit of hunting around. The HF controllers will not do a good job in keeping batteries fully charged. With solar controllers for the most part you get what you pay for. Steca and Morningstar both have good controllers that are well made and will do the job. Many of the Chinese made controllers do not.

[bobhenry]

"With solar controllers for the most part you get what you pay for."


........and the modified sine wave is a bit crude for the pickier electronics but at $3.31 a watt the panels were a fair bargain even if I later upgrade the controller. I had to start somewhere and as stated I will move up from there as the money fairy permits.

[Wobbly Wheels]

The build is looking good, Bob. I haven't posted but I've been enjoying your progress: it's a great concept.

I bought a similar (60W) solar setup for my build with the same idea in mind. This one will keep my batteries in good shape while in storage and, when I'm no longer spending my disposable income to build the trailer, I can put it toward a better system.
Just like building the trailer, doing it piece by piece will let me spread out the cost and selecting each piece will show me the pros and cons of different options.

Scrounging stuff and finding inexpensive alternatives vs ready-made, cookie-cutter solutions is half the fun. Keep those creative juices flowing!

[bobhenry]

Played hookey yesterday and left work about 9:30. I completed the solar furnace ( I know I know pics to follow)

My buddy Jimmy saw my truck and stopped in. I started discussing storage and my plans and such so out came the measuring tape. Armed with a few measurments I decided my thoughts on tromboning out the two bath walls may not be the best of ideas so we wound up making a bath suite instead. Here are the ideas for a shallow moving cabinet wall The drawing shows open and closed. bath goodies behing the bath tub will be accessable thru the pass thru opening when wall is closed for privacy.

[droid_ca]

Armed with a few measurments I decided my thoughts on tromboning out the two bath walls may not be the best of ideas so we wound up making a bath suite instead.

Hey Bob Henry do you have a drawing of the tromboning wall design ? would be interested in seeing that. One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure

[Shadow Catcher]

Bob at the top of the page on ebay is a panel for $1.41 a watt including shipping and one of the used panels I picked up was .57 a watt including shipping. My 185W panel was 2.22 a watt and I could do much better now. This is cautionary for folks looking, HF is not a good source for solar panels and if any one wishes help or direction there are a number of us on the forum who learned some times the hard way i.e. the 185W required an MPPT controller to handle the high voltage but turned out for the best despite my ignorance.

[bobhenry]

Well it's Monday again.......

No new pictures because everything looks the same. Not to say that we did nothing. I found a fellow at work who had installed a couple hundred rubber rooves and was willing to help me this weekend. So Sunday about 10 AM we went to work. I took about 20 minutes explaining my thoughts and ideas and he was well pleased with what I had done and also for knowing when to stop . We put in a good solid 5 hours each and have about 2 hours (each) of work remaining to tighten and final attach the rubber membrane and it is finished.

We brainstormed and he made a couple suggestions that would make the transition from the cupalo to the lower rooves a much neater look so some of the framing was changed to accomplish this. I am hoping for one more warm weekend before thanksgiving to make the final stretch and attachment and the caboose is weathered in for the winter. I'll toss in a heater and start the electrical ,plumbing, and insulation.

Saturday was nasty day starting with snow, sleet, hail, rain and cold so I spent a few hours paring down junk. Wound up with 2 trash bags of dishes and mixing bowls and tupperware that was deposited in the ex's pile and another two went to the curb for the trash guy and big leaf bag full of goodies for my bestest friends at Goodwill. . So I am a baby step closer to being in my tiny house.