Union Pacific Cabooses
Competing and Connecting Roads' Cabooses
Compiled by Don Strack
Southern Pacific Wooden Cabooses
Southern Pacific's wood caboose fleet shares many features with UP's wood caboose fleet. This is understandable due to the Harriman-era Common Standard that were used for both road's cabooses. The SP cabooses follow the four-window design, with both vertical sided cupolas and slope-sided cupolas.
SP's final wooden cabooses were completed as two classes of "replacement" cabooses, being numbered into the vacant number slots of previously retired cabooses. The first class, C-30-2, were completed in 1928 by SP's Los Angeles General Shops. The second class, 26 cabooses in the C-30-3 class, were also completed in 1929 and 1930, also at Los Angeles.
Truss rods were added to SP's wooden cabooses in 1917-1919. For its solution to the same problem of needing to strengthen the end platforms and end frames, UP chose to add longitudinal steel beams.
Southern Pacific Steel Cabooses
Southern Pacific received its first 50 steel cupola cabooses in 1937. SP had an eventual total fleet of 265 steel cupola cabooses, all delivered in 1940-1942 as the C-40-3 class. In 1947 SP received the first of a total fleet of 974 steel bay window cabooses, in three classes: 180 in the C-30 class (new in 1947 and 1951), 412 in the C-40 class (new in 1961-1967), and 392 in the C-50 class (new in 1968-1980).
In 1937, as Southern Pacific began receiving its first steel caboose cars, the railroad had a fleet of 690 wooden caboose cars, in both all-wood and wood with steel underframes, and subsidiary Texas & New Orleans had another 213 cars.
Southern Pacific's steel cupola caboose fleet consisted of 265 cars, including 30 cabooses built for its T&NO subsidiary. The first 50 cars, class C-40-1, were built in 1937 with numbers 1000-1049. These first 50 steel cabooses were 35 feet long . The remaining 185 SP cars, all in class C-40-3 (there was no C-40-2 class), with numbers 1050-1234, were all built in 1940 to 1942. SP subsidiary Texas & New Orleans received an additional 30 cars, with T&NO numbers 400-429. These 215 C-40-3 cars were 36 feet, 4 inches long. Five were built in 1940; 40 were built in 1941; and 165 were built in 1942, the same year that UP received its first 100 steel cabooses.
Between 1947 and 1951, 180 C-30 class cabooses were delivered: 135 SP cars, with numbers 1235-1369; and 45 T&NO C-30 cabooses, numbers 500-544, in 1947 and 1949.
With higher cars becoming more predominant by the late 1940s, SP changed from the top mounted cupola design to their now familiar bay window design, which were assigned the C-40 class. SP's steel bay window caboose fleet consisted of 974 cars in the C-40 and C-50 weight classes.
The 412 C-40 class cars were built between 1961 and 1967, including 400 for SP, with numbers 1400-1799, and 12 for subsidiary St. Louis Southwestern (SSW). During 1973 to 1975, SP rebuilt 203 of the C-40s, upgrading them with the necessary features needed to address the safety and environmental concerns of the mid 1970s. Of the planned 475 cars in the rebuild program, with a intended 4000-4474 number series, only 120 cars were actually completed, with numbers between 4000 and 4403
There were a total 392 cars in the C-50 class: 20 were built for SSW in 1968; 181 were built for SP between 1970 and 1974, and carried numbers 1800-1980; 16 more were built for SSW in 1974; and 175 (with numbers 4600-4774, and the newest cabooses on the railroad) were built for SP between 1978 and 1980.
St. Louis Southwestern (SSW, or Cotton Belt) received 45 wide vision all-steel cabooses from International Car between 1959 and 1963, with numbers 1-45, numbered before its 12 1967-built, SP-design C-40 cars, numbers 46-57. Following the C-40s on the SSW roster were the 20 SP-design C-50 cars, numbers 58-77, built in 1968, and 16 more, numbers 78-93, built in 1974.
In 1955 SP rebuilt 24 steam engine tenders into transfer cabooses, for service in the Los Angeles and Bay Area yards. In 1964 five flat cars were rebuilt to five more transfer cabooses, followed in 1966 and 1967 by five more for service in the Houston area yards. These last five made a total of 34 steel transfer cabooses.
In a test of a new caboose design, in late 1980 a wreck damaged bay window caboose was rebuilt to a modern, short body bay window caboose. This departure from traditional caboose design may have been inspired (as was UP's CA-11 class) by the much admired Missouri Pacific's 13700-series home-built examples, completed in 1977 and 1978. The new SP caboose was given a new class, C-50-10, and a new number, caboose number 1.
These totals gave SP full steel caboose fleet of 1,264 cars: 265 cupola cars; 974 bay window cars; 34 transfer cars; and a single, modern, short body bay window caboose.
D&RGW Steel Cabooses
Rio Grande's first 10 steel cabooses were built in 1941 by the road itself in its Burnham shops in Denver. These were the first 10 of a total fleet of 91 steel cupola cabooses (not counting the 25 modern wide vision cabooses). All 91 cars were built by D&RGW in their own Burnham shops, in groups of 10 in 1942, 1944, 1944-1945, 1947, 1951, and 1955. A group of 11 was completed in 1959. All were numbered in the 01400 series (01400-01490).
Click here for additional information about D&RGW steel cabooses.
Western Pacific Steel Cabooses
Western Pacific's first steel cars were built in 1955 through 1956. Numbered as WP 426-460, these 35 cars were the first of a total fleet of 61 cars, all built between 1955 and 1980. Of those 61 cars, 59 were still on the WP roster when it was merged with UP in 1982.
Click here for a complete roster of WP steel cabooses.
AT&SF Steel Cabooses
Santa Fe got its first steel cabooses from ACF in 1927, numbers as AT&SF 1500-1649. Between 1927 and 1931, the railroad purchased 501 steel cabooses from ACF. The railroad then built 400 similar cabooses in its own Topeka, Kan., shops between 1942 and 1949. Most of these later cars were rebuilt into Classes CE-1, CE-2, CE-3, CE-4, CE-5, CE-7, CE-9, CE-10, and CE-12. None remained on the active roster by early 1996. (Information from Evan Werkema, e-mail dated March 13, 1996)
Great Northern Steel Cabooses
GN's first steel cabooses were built in 1947-48. These 44 cars, with numbers X250-X294, were built by the road's St. Cloud, Minn., shops. During the same time, cars X199 and X229 came in for repair of wreck and were rebuilt using the same design steel bodies.
Northern Pacific Steel Cabooses
NP's first steel cabooses were 20 cars in the 10000-10049 series and were built in using high cupolas. These cars were completed during 1951.
Burlington Steel Cabooses
CB&Q's first steel cabooses were built in 1930. The number series for these pioneering 25 cars was 13500-13524.
