D&RGW Steel Cabooses
Compiled by Don Strack
This page was last updated on October 23, 2009.
Additional Information
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Notes on Exterior Features
All of D&RGW's 01400-series cabooses (a total of 91 cars) were built by Rio Grande in their Burnham (Denver) shops. They were equipped with Duryea cushioned underframes and offset cupolas.
D&RGW 01450-01459 were delivered in 1947 with radio equipment, with two yellow stripes to designate the feature. The radio equipment included a rooftop induction antenna, very similar to the design used by Pennsylvania Railroad. D&RGW 01453 was equipped with a screened center window as protection from the generator installed inside at that location. The car also had fuel tank under the car as fuel for the generator, and a rooftop vent for exhaust. The car also had a battery locker mounted underneath, on the right side.
The window layout differed between the right side and the left side, with the left side (cupola to the right) being shifted a bit forward. On the welded-body cars, the rear-most window is more forward than on the riveted-body cars.
Window Treatment
D&RGW 01400-01459 (and possibly 01460-01469) were built with four-pane wood sash side windows. Their cupolas had four-pane side widows and two-pane end windows. The windows were later rebuilt to single-pane, and still later to sealed rubber-frames, then later they were completely blanked over. (from Jim Eager)
Photographic evidence shows that few if any of the 01400-01459 series cabooses still in black paint received the modernized window treatment.
In response to a Federal Railroad Administration safety ruling, beginning in (?), all windows on D&RGW cabooses were blanked over with steel plate. Usually the plates were simply welded in place of the older wooden window frame, or the newer rubber window frame on the newer cars, leaving an obvious weld bead, or other tell-tale of the window covering process. During later shop efforts, the window treatments were ground smooth and the blanked-over windows became less obvious. The program to cover all the windows was apparently completed by January 1986.
Other Information
D&RGW 01490 was ordered by Utah Railway.
Other modernizing changes included the installation of solid doors on the caboose ends (replacing wood panel doors), roller bearings replacing solid bearings (all 01400 series cabooses were delivered with solid bearings), and the addition of red and clear marker lights on the caboose ends. (from Jim Eager)
Caboose Assignments
- 01423 - Alamosa yard, local service, 10/98
- 01447 - Burnham yard, for sale, 10/98
- 01465 - Burnham yard, owned by ANSCO (Ski Train), 10/98
- 01480 - Burnham yard, 10/98
- 01489 - Pueblo yard, local service, 10/98
- 01503 - Helper yard, local service
- 01513 - Colorado Springs yard, local service, 10/98
- 01521 - Burnham yard, for sale, 10/98
- 01522 - Pueblo yard, local service, 10/98
- 01524 - Phippsburg yard, local service
Caboose Dispositions
(Roger Kirkpatrick is the source for most of the information presented below, along with numerous reports from other intertested people)
Four D&RGW cabooses (01481, 01483, 01486, 01490) were leased to the U. S. Navy, lettered as DODX numbers, and were used until 1995 as guard cars for movement of Trident missile stages between Alliant Technical Systems at Bacchus, Utah, and Bellingham, Wash. The cabooses were stored at Bacchus as of July 1999.
| Caboose Number |
Disposition |
| 01401 | Displayed at Anschutz Eagle Ranch, Weld County, Colo. |
| 01402 | Displayed at Burger King, Canon City, Colo. |
| 01405 | Displayed at Anschutz Eagle Ranch, Weld County, Colo. |
| 01407 | Sold to Jim Dobbas Equipment & Scrap, Citrus Heights, Calif. |
| 01408 | Displayed at Pine River Ranch, Bayfield, Colo. |
| 01409 | Sold to Jim Dobbas Equipment & Scrap, Citrus Heights, Calif. |
| 01414 | Displayed at Portola Railroad Museum, Portola, Calif. |
| 01416 | Displayed at Denver & New Orleans Model Railroad Club, Parker, Colo. |
| 01417 | Sold to Black River & Western Railroad, Ringoes, N.J. |
| 01418 | Displayed at Spanish Fork, Utah |
| 01422 | Sold to Black River & Western Railroad, Ringoes, N.J. |
| 01427 | Owned by private individual in Parker, Colo. |
| 01428 | Sold to Jim Dobbas Equipment & Scrap, Citrus Heights, Calif. |
| 01431 | Displayed at Train Mountain Park, Chiloquin, Ore. |
| 01432 | Donated to Pueblo Locomotive & Rail Historical Society, Pueblo Depot, Pueblo, Colo. |
| 01433 | Owned by private individual, Strasburg, Colo. (along with 01501); sold in (?) and as of early March 2006, moved to Tucson, Ariz., for display at the Gadsden- Pacific Division Toy Train Operating Museum. |
| 01435 | Displayed at Westcliffe, Colo. |
| 01438 | Sold to Iron & Scrap Metal, Denver, Colo. |
| 01440 | Sold to Santa Fe Southern Railroad, Santa Fe, N.M. |
| 01441 | Displayed at Walsenburg, Colo. |
| 01444 | Sold to Santa Fe Southern Railroad, Santa Fe, N.M. |
| 01447 | Sold in Denver; owned by the Greeley Freight House Museum and still stored in Denver; as of March 2005, the caboose will soon undergo restoration to its original 1946 appearance. (2005 update from Rick Bacon, via D&RGW Yahoo group) |
| 01448 | Donated to Grand County Historical Society, Hot Sulphur Springs, Colo. |
| 01450 | Assigned to SP Railroad Police (painted white) (information from William Martin) |
| 01457 | Donated to Ogden Union Station, Ogden, Utah (along with 01504) |
| 01459 | Owned by private individual, Roseville, Calif. |
| 01461 | Displayed at Eagle, Colo. |
| 01465 | Sold to ANSCO (Ski Train), Denver, Colo. |
| 01466 | Displayed at Anschutz Eagle Ranch, Weld County, Colo. (displayed as SP 01466) |
| 01468 | Sold to Jim Dobbas Equipment & Scrap, Citrus Heights, Calif. |
| 01469 | Donated to Arizona Railway Museum, Chandler, Ariz. |
| 01476 | Displayed at TriStates Power, Craig, Colo. |
| 01477 | Displayed at Anschutz Eagle Ranch, Weld County, Colo. (displayed as SSW 01477) |
| 01480 | Sold to Don Blansett and used on his Utah Central Railway in Ogden, Utah; moved to Modoc Northern Railroad at Alturas, California when Blansett started MNRR in late 2005; remained on MNRR when the assets of the Blansett family were split in 2007. (photo) |
| 01481 | Leased to DODX, at Alliant Technologies, Bacchus, Utah; stored at Cheyenne, Wyoming, pending sale or donation. |
| 01482 | Assigned to SP Railroad Police (painted white) |
| 01483 | Leased to DODX, at Alliant Technologies, Bacchus, Utah; sold to Empire Builder Private Cars in 2006; moved from Cheyenne, Wyo., in early September 2007 to Fremont, Neb., for use as an office on the property of Empire Builder Private Cars. (part from David Varilek via email on August 16 and September 14, 2007) |
| 01484 | Sold to Santa Fe Southern Railroad, Santa Fe, N.M. |
| 01486 | Leased to DODX, at Alliant Technologies, Bacchus, Utah; stored at Cheyenne, Wyoming, pending sale or donation. |
| 01488 | Sold to Santa Fe Southern Railroad, Santa Fe, N.M. |
| 01490 | Leased to DODX, at Alliant Technologies, Bacchus, Utah |
| 01501 | Owned by private individual, Strasburg, Colo. (along with 01433) D&RGW 01501 was purchased and relocated from Strasburg to Colorado Springs on 15 April 2002. It is on display on live track at the Colorado Springs Street Railway Foundation Roswell Shops. <i>(2002 update from Gregory Roberts, 22 March 2005)</i> |
| 01502 | Displayed at Steamboat Springs, Colo. |
| 01504 | Donated to Ogden Union Station, Ogden, Utah (along with 01457) |
| 01505 | Owned by private individual, Strasburg, Colo. (as GREX 01505); sold in (?), and as of early March 2006, moved to Casa Grande, Ariz., for display at the Arizona Railway Museum, Chandler, Ariz. |
| 01508 | Displayed at Salem, Utah |
| 01510 | Owned by private individual, Pueblo, Colo. |
| 01516 | Sold to Canon City & Royal Gorge Railroad, Canon City, Colo. |
| 01519 | Displayed at Baytown, Texas. (photo) |
| 01521 | Sold to Denver & Intermountain Railroad, Denver, Colo. |
| 01523 | Owned by private individual, Clovis, Calif. (as C&S 01523) |
| 01524 | Stored at Cheyenne, Wyoming, pending sale or donation. |
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