Monday, February 25, 2013

Homeward bound!

After several false starts, yesterday was finally the day to move the Caboose home! I'll admit I was a bit nervous about getting it loaded onto a trailer in one piece. Despite getting bad directions from his GPS which sent him a few miles in the wrong direction, the shipper backtracked from Eddyville and arrived at the Marina just before I did.


He looked the Caboose over carefully and aired up the flat tires before backing his trailer up to the Caboose. Let the winching begin!


The bottom of the Caboose was very close to scraping on both the front and the rear, but once the tires started up the ramp the clearance at the ends improved. The next issue was the low hanging plumbing in front of the axles.There was much checking for clearance, then inching it forward, then rechecking, then a little more movement, then more checking.


The pipes did rub for a couple inches, and I fully expected them to break up or just shatter due to their age, but somehow it all stayed together.

It's on the trailer! YAY!  It was secured with several chains and tie-downs, then he started putting some tie-downs over the top to help keep the siding from coming off on the highway.

As he tightened the first one he asked if I could see the roof, and was it getting flattened or damaged? I just about burst out laughing and told him the roof was in trouble long before he put anything over the top of it. Does this look like a pristine roof to you?  LOL


 All strapped down and ready to roll.


I snapped a quick pic of the sunset over the lake before we pulled out.

The drive home took about 4 hours at a nice leisurely pace with one fuel stop, and I was grinning like an idiot following behind it going down the interstate. Nothing flew off or fell off the Caboose which pleased me no end. We also managed to get it unloaded in the driveway instead of on the street, again with no issues.

I am very pleased with the guy who hauled it for me, he was very professional and extremely careful with my fragile pile of scrap metal, definitely someone I would recommend.   He also expressed the opinion that the frame isn't in as poor condition as I believed it to be, and he thought that a good welder should be able to fix it up fairly easily. I sure hope he's right about that!

Tomorrow I get to start photographing every square inch of the beast and measuring everything I can think to measure in preparation for the disassembly process.





4 comments:

  1. It will be interesting in following your progress. Please post as often as you can on the progress.

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  2. Congratulations getting her home! This is exciting to follow along, it is such a unique piece of Americana.

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  3. Insanely jealous! I'll be following as you she is restored. I've been thinking of creating a replica caboose camper inspired by ALTI. They were located nearby (Ohio) several years before I was born. Always loved watching the cabooses pass as a kid. Its sad my kids don't get to see them.

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  4. So glad to see it made it to its new beginning.......cant wait to come out and help a little

    Congrats!!!!!!!

    ....your Buddy
    Lucky mike

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