One of the Tidewater's early cabooses.  TS 301 appears to have come to the Western Pacific by way of the Boca and Loyalton where it had been number 4, reported both as a passenger coach and a caboose.  In 1917, this car was rebuilt by WP to an in-house design patterned after their 1910 Haskell and Barker cabooses.  Renumbered to WP 20057, it later became WP 706.  On May 18, 1928, the 706 was sold to the Tidewater and was reportedly numbered 301.  This identification is conjecture based upon incomplete records.  The 301 served until probably sometime in the mid-1940's, although records are lacking. Similar WP cars lasted into the late 1950's.

Some of the construction details of TS 301 and 302 are uncertain due to contradictory records.  The Haskell and Barker cabooses were built as wood underframe cars and the 1917 rebuilds reportedly were also wood underframe.  Some of these older cars are reported to have been rebuilt with steel underframes, but which ones, if any, is unknown.  Finally, a WP equipment drawing from later years shows the class as steel underframe cars.

Considering the few photos available and their retirement before the last of WP's own similar cabs, it is likely that TS 301 and 302 were and remained wood underframe cars.

unknown, rebuilt by Western Pacific

unknown

1906, rebuilt ? 1917

Steel underframe Coupla Caboose

33 500 lbs?

35 ft  5-1/2 in?

8 ft  8 in? over framing

14 ft  6 in?

24 ft  1-1/2 in?

unknown

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Caboose 301

Tidewater Southern Railway