D&RGW Wooden Cabooses

Compiled by Don Strack

This page was last updated on November 15, 2002

Thistle Caboose

The well-known wooden caboose near Thistle, Utah, was the former D&RGW 01120. This fact was confirmed by Steve Seguine of Orem, Utah, from photos of the area above the caboose's end door. Steve also provides some background information: the Thistle caboose was owned by Bob Pace, a D&RGW locomotive engineer who also owned the U-Pace-O Ranch at Thistle, where the caboose sat for many years. Mr. Pace told Steve that he had moved the caboose to his Thistle ranch from Scofield sometime before 1960.

The caboose was swept away by the Thistle flood of April 1983, and was seen later by Steve Belmont. He reports that the caboose was laid on its side, with only about a foot of it visible above the mud.

Tooele Valley Railway Caboose

The Tooele Valley Railway caboose was a former D&RGW 01100-series caboose. It has a prominent steel underframe, D&RGW-style ladders, and a D&RGW-style sheet metal gate on the end platform. The side sheathing covers part of the side sills, so it is an H&B car. (information from Jim Eager)

Tooele Valley bought the former D&RGW caboose in 1957 for a purchase price of $796, plus another $378 in freight costs and the costs of preparing the car for service. It remained in service until the Tooele Valley shut down in August 1982. The caboose is displayed at the Tooele Railroad Museum in Tooele, Utah. (information from Larry Deppe)

D&RGW Wood Caboose Information

(from Jim Eager, via emails to D&RGW discussion group during September 1998)

D&RGW 0800-0899 were built circa 1887-90s with low cupolas, end platforms, and side doors. The earliest cars were painted yellow ochre when new with shadowed lettering. We discussed them a while back. The cars were later replaced or rebuilt with tall cupolas and without side doors and painted mineral red.

D&RGW 0889-0915 were built by the Grande in 1906. They were wood-body, wood underframe cars quite similar to the narrow gauge cabooses.

D&RGW 0916-0931 - The diagram sheet lumps them with the 0889-0915 but they are not listed in the ORER in the 1906-1909 period. They may be former RGW.

D&RGW 0932-0933 were ex-D&SL 10000-10002, blt by B&S in 1904

D&RGW 0936-0938 were ex-D&SL 10006-10008, blt by Danville Car in 1909

D&RGW 0939-0945 were ex-D&SL 10010-10021, blt by Pullman in 1913

D&RGW 0950-0959 were built by Haskell & Barker in 1909.

The cabooses of D&RGW and WP were very similar, but not identical. Haskell & Barker built cars for both roads in 1909 (D&RG 0950-0959) and 1910 (WP 20007-20056, renumbered to 731-779). I know that the WP cars had steel center sills and truss rods, but I haven't seen a photo of one of the Grande's cars or a diagram sheet for this series, so I can't say for sure that they were identical. The Rio Grande design was then modified and all of their subsequent cars had a substantial steel underframe, both those ordered from H&B and those built in their own shops. The WP built several groups of steel underframe cars following the original design, but they also had truss rods, thus a major difference that is readily visible.
As for the ladders, on the D&RGW cabooses they either curved toward the cupola at the top but did not turn down to meet the roof, or made a large radius curve to run straight down toward the running boards. The ladders on the WP cars curved tightly at the top, then ran down at a 45 degree angle to meet the running boards.

D&RGW 01100-01117 were ex-RGW

D&RGW 01120-01139 (built by D&RG at Burnham in 1928)

D&RGW 01140-01189 (built by Haskell & Barker in 1913)

D&RGW 01140-01189 were a little different from the 01120-01139 (Burnham 1928) and 01190-01199 (Burnham 1927). The side sheathing went a little deeper over the steel channel side sills on the H&B cars.
D&RGW 01189, painted MoW silver, with black flying Rio Grande (from Bob Webber, via Jim Eager)
In 1962 only 01157, 01166, 01167, 01173, and 01189 were still in service.

D&RGW 01190-01199 (built by D&RG at Burnham in 1927)

D&RGW 01200-01214 were drover coaches

D&RGW 01300-01303 were composite wood and steel body drover cars, based on the 01100 design built by Rio Grande in 1937

D&RGW 01350-01359 were composite wood and steel body regular cabooses, based on the 01100 design built by Rio Grande in 1937

D&RGW 01320-01325, former 62000-series, 36ft steel underframe boxcars used in transfer and switching service, painted MoW silver during the diesel era

The steel 01300s were all built by the D&SL as follows:

D&RGW 01390 was built as D&SL 10063 in 1947; painted D&SL for only one day; 01390 is privately owned, but it is not on display.
D&RGW 01391 was built as D&SL 10060 in 1936; 01391 is privately owned and preserved as D&SL 10060 at the CoRRM.
D&RGW 01392 was built as D&SL 10061 in 1936, converted to weed sprayer X-301
D&RGW 01393 was built as D&SL 10062 in 1937

The cabooses numbered from 014166 to 014477 were rebuilt from boxcars, some had side doors and cupolas.

The cabooses numbered from 060101 to 061474 were rebuilt from boxcars, some had side doors and cupolas.

***