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UtahRails.net

Rio Grande Western Cabooses

This page was last updated on July 27, 2023.

(Return to Rio Grande Cabooses Index Page)

Overview

(One source mentioned that an item in the January 17, 1890 issue of the Railroad Gazette included a note that St. Charles Car shipped eight cabooses to the Rio Grande Western. Later research found this entry to be referring to new passenger cars and not cabooses.)

The Rio Grande Western Roster #10, dated July 1, 1891 shows 18 standard gauge cabooses, numbered as RGW 1-18 (and only six narrow gauge cabooses)

The 1891 roster also showed that eight-wheel narrow gauge cabooses 390, 391, 392 and 394 had been changed to standard gauge cabooses, and numbered as RGW 15, 16, 17 and 18.

The RGW Roster #15, dated April 1, 1892 shows 24 cabooses numbered from 1-25. RGW caboose 3 had been destroyed by 1892, but was replaced by 1896.

The RGW caboose roster for April 1902 shows 45 cars, numbered as RGW 1-45, shown in five separate "types":

RGW Caboose Notes

Rio Grande Western began buying new standard gauge cabooses as the former narrow gauge lines were converted to standard gauge, which was started in early Spring 1890, with the mainline being completed by mid Summer, and various branches completed by Summer 1891. There were two types: a four-wheel car of 21'-9" length and an eight-wheel car of 29'-0" length.

The 18 four-wheel cars were originally numbered RGW 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22 and 25. In 1904-1905 the surviving 14 four-wheel cars were renumbered to RGW 0223-0236.

The 27 eight-wheel cars were originally numbered as RGW 4, 6, 15, 18, 20, 23, 24 and 26-45. In 1904-1905 the surviving 22 eight-wheel cars were renumbered to RGW 0201-0222.

By 1907 the RGW cabooses had been renumbered, as noted above, in 1904-1905, and their dimensions changed as follows:

• RGW 0201-0214, 0216-0218, 0220-0222 (20 cars), 15'-3" over body, 18'-10" over end sills, 4-wheel cabooses
• RGW 0223-0236 (14 cars), 22'-1- 5/8" over body, not including platform, 8-wheel cabooses
• RGW 0237-0251 (15 cars), 35'-0" over end sills, 8-wheel cabooses (possibly built by D&RG in 1906)

(Note that the above lengths and number groups appear to be swapped between the 4-wheel cars and the 8-wheel cars; 1905 vs. 1907.)

RGW cabooses 0237-0244 (8 cars) were built by D&RG at Burnham in June 1906.

RGW cabooses 0245-0249 (5 cars) were built by D&RG at Burnham in October 1906.

RGW cabooses 0250-0251 (2 cars) were built by D&RG at Burnham in March 1907.

When the D&RG formally took control of the RGW in 1907, the cars were renumbered into the D&RG caboose numbering pattern, as follows.

• The surviving 18 eight-wheel cars of the 0201-0222 series received D&RG numbers 01100-01117 (RGW 0210 became D&RG 01108, used on the Leadville Branch until the mid 1950s)
• The surviving 14 four-wheel cars in the RGW 0223-0236 series became D&RG 01118-01131

By 1912 the RGW cabooses had been previously been renumbered, with the following totals remaining in service:

• D&RG 01101-01109, 01111-01114, 01116-01117 (15 cars, reduced from 20 cars in 1907) former RGW 0201-0222, 4-wheel cabooses
• D&RG 01119-01121, 01123-01131 (12 cars, reduced from 14 cars in 1907) Former RGW 0223-0236, 8-wheel cabooses
• D&RG 0918-0931 (14 cars, reduced from 15 cars in 1907) former RGW 0237-0251, 8 wheel cabooses

By 1916 the car totals had dropped to 9 (from 15), 7 (from 12), and 14 respectively.

By 1923 the car totals were reduced further down to 7 (from 9), 5 (from 7), and 14 for the 1906-built cars.

During the ICC Valuation period of 1919-1923, many of the former RGW cabooses in series 01100-0117 (eight-wheel) and 01118-011131 (four-wheel) were still in Utah when they were inspected in July and August of 1920. Of the eight-wheel cars, three (D&RG 01106, 01108 and 01111) were assigned to Salida, Colorado. Of the four-wheel cars, three (D&RG 01119, 01120 and 01121) were still in service.

The "Thistle Caboose" 01120 was a representative of the RGW four-wheel design. It was built as RGW 3; renumbered to RGW 0225; renumbered to D&RG 01120.

All of the D&RGW four-wheel cabooses in the 01118-01131 series were retired before 1928, when the D&RGW built the eight-wheel 01120-01139 series in its Burnham Shops.

At the end of 1947 there were two former Rio Grande Western eight-wheel wooden cabooses still in service.

-- D&RGW 01106, ex RGW 0208, retired in March 1951

-- D&RGW 01108, ex RGW 0210, retired in July 1956

D&RGW 01108 was purchased by a private party and photographed by the late John Maxwell in September 1959, reported to be somewhere near Buena Vista, Colorado. Its present location and condition is unknown, though there are rumors that it is on a ranch somewhere on the old Westcliffe branch.

Also in the Westcliffe area, is their museum where they have the former D&RGW caboose 0825, as well as two ex-RGW boxcars, one of which was rebuilt by the D&RGW into an outfit car and the other, also rebuilt by the Grande into a boxcar caboose. The sole remaining example known.

Sources

Sources include private email communications with interested persons, and a wide variety of internet searches, with a few searches of online newspapers. Information was also taken from the defunct D&RGW discussion group at Yahoo Groups, with Jim Eager and John Tudek furnishing significant parts of the story.

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