Wow, this may end up being the poster child for those considering prospective restorations.

Best wishes in your continued efforts. Looks just great.

The status is... It's still a frame.
I hope to change that soon.

> Wow, this may end up being the poster child for those considering prospective restorations.

Actually, in some ways this is a key point to me. We are primarily two guys doing the work, Ed Rizzo knows wood work, and then there is me who is learning how to do wood work. We are positive thinkers. Determined. We have no big budget. No fancy shop building to keep the project, and us, warm and dry.

We do have a set of drawings, which are really only good for reference as so many changes were made over the years. We kept enough of the old body to use as a reference as needed, even reused some of the old body. We spend a LOT of time studying the drawings, the actual car, and the parts we have before cutting a piece of wood. Measure a thousand times it seems, before cutting. We do spend time cursing the PRR crew who either built it, or repaired it, over its 60 year career. We have learned a lot about the people who built it and serviced it. To me, this is big part of the enjoyment.

Bottom line is that this kind of work is perfectly doable by the average guy with determination. No big expensive shop is needed, although a home or garage shop is key which Ed has.

Our N6b effort is not alone in our approach to such a project. I look at the Whippany Railway Museum as another organization that does amazing work, but with no shop building, no big machine shop. Yet they do amazing work on a large collection of equipment, both wood and steel.

With this thought in mind, not to bring up any details or names, but an item of local interest, which is mostly wood, is being scrapped as it was deemed too expensive to have a contractor restore it. I suggested that the people involved in that effort come out and visit the N6b site and see what volunteers, even a limited number and with limited resources, could do. We could help them learn some of the skills needed, perhaps give them a shot in the arm, show them funding sources for materials, show them where we get our materials, especially the larger timbers. Did anyone take me up on my offer? No. That is sad.

We seem to have this mind set in this country that if you do not have the money for Strasburg or GOMACO to do a restoration, then the item has to be scrapped. I do not buy into that crap. Our N6b, and Whippany, are just two examples that do not buy into that mind set.

So, I hope we do become the poster child of what is possible by a limited number of volunteers, a limited amount of cash, and limited facilities. We are happy to have people come by and see what is possible.

In closing, I'll tell you, it was a feel good moment when Ed and I got the last heavy timber in place last weekend. A sense of accomplishment. A goal reached. When two timbers, joined by multiple mortise and tenon joints, clunk solidly into place, it’s a damn good feeling. I am saddened by the idea that more people in this country will never feel that same sense of accomplishment.

J.R.

Just another quick update on our progress on the N6b. Ed and I hit another milestone this past weekend with the completion of the X bracing, or diagonals, on one side wall. Next weekend we will be working on the other side wall. We now have some much needed help from Chris Lynch, Greg Lacko, and David Donley who have taken on the truck rehab work. Timing is good as we may have to move the caboose about 100 feet to allow room for a drill rig to come in and drill a new well for the farm where we are located. We may put the caboose on its trucks for the move, have to see. Stay tuned.

Fantastic progress Mr. May! Keep it up!


Les

So this is where the stove is going.

A milestone has been hit and we thought should be celebrated. As of this past weekend, all the heavy timber work has been completed on the body of the N6b cabin car. As the photos show, all the diagonals are in place, filler wood pieces to nail the siding to are in place, the long rods that hold it all together are tight. Overhaul of the trucks has also been completed. We now move to the roof and siding part of the project.

You might say we are on the homestretch here!

We have attached some photos of where we are at the moment and the completed body frame work along with the overhauled trucks.

Have also included one "before shot." Gosh, what were we thinking??

Enjoy!

Really nice work. And those wacky PRR cabin car trucks with the pogo stick spring!!

Howard P.

Yeah, right? What a ride, Howard.

I'd suggest that the restoration team may want to send an update to the barnfinds.com website that featured this cabin when it was listed for sale:

https://barnfinds.com/nice-caboose-pennsylvania-rr-caboose/

I think it would be a good news story about railroad preservation, showing a new audience what a persevering and skilled restoration effort can accomplish.

Good to see this how this is coming along - was only thinking about it the other day. Not seen the arrangment of the diagonal bracing and the triangular metal pieces before on anything railway wise.
Michael

> Not seen the arrangement of the diagonal bracing and the triangular metal pieces before on anything railway wise.

It is an interesting approach and suspect it made building 1,200 of these cars much easier/cheaper using less skilled workers. Very few angled cuts as a result. Whole thing held together with mortis and tenon joints and 9' long irons rods.

Those are cast iron "shoes" with round lugs on the bottom that fit into round mortises that can be made with an auger, no? Those were quite common on larger structures such as water towers, and I'm sure I've seen them on sectional drawings of wood freight cars. As I recall, they show quite prominently on D&RGW narrow gauge stock cars.

Earlier in the thread you said that one of the ends was salvageable. Not knowing much about rebuilding wood cars I assumed that meant you would take the whole end- siding, door and all- and just drop it into place, but it looks like you disassembled it first, right?

That is our car. That is what we started with. Go back to the very beginning of this thread and you will see the same picture.

Later!
Mr. Ed