A 1930 CB&Q caboose, BN 1146, and a 1951 one of NP hertitage, BN 11363, long parked in Moses Lake, WA as part of the late Monte Holm collection, have been moved to Chiloquin, OR today for their new owner. Here are a few pics of the loading onto trailers in Moses Lake for the move by highway. Both were to have gone to an organization in Chehalis, but that deal supposedly fell through a year or so ago, with this move finally happening today.

Thank you for posting these pictures.

They bring back fond memories of the 10 days I spent as a C&S way car cleaner 42 years ago. (By the way, it might be spelled "caboose", but it is pronounced "way car" in Burlington Lines territory). Anyhow, it was a complete featherbedding situation, I was to cover Rice Yard (Denver), which never had more than two or three way cars there at once. In no time they were clean, and the car foreman told me that I would never again have it so easy on the Big Nothing. He said I could sleep, just so he knew where I was if he needed me, but I was on probation and thought that was a very bad idea. One day I had to shovel out the pit under the old sand tower, just so the bosses could see if I would work or not. Otherwise I read EMD service manuals as long as I could stay awake, but the day came that I had to make use of either BN 11456 or another member of the class as a hide out.

Near the end of this little paid vacation, I was in the break room reading, when the car foreman stuck his head in and said "The yardmaster just called me from the top end and told me that your boss and the Chief Way Car Inspector from Saint Paul just drove past the yard office, and they should be getting here in about one minute and twenty seconds. So, do yourself a favor and look busy".

I ran out to the way car track, grabbed an empty bucket, filled it about a third full from the barrel of BN 752 soap, jumped up in the nearest way car and sloshed it onto the floor as I ran through it, landed on the ground, set the bucket down and grabbed the hose, turned it on, stuck it in the door of the lucky way car, snatched up a push broom as I ran to the other end, then I started pushing it through the way car and made soap suds and trash come out the doors.

In a few minutes the car foreman stuck his head into the nearly spotless way car and told me that I could act normal again. He was looking out the window when the big shots pulled up, and he said that they didn't even get out of the paddy wagon, just looked at me through the way car windows, pacing back and forth with the broom, with a steady stream of soaps suds and trash pouring out over the platforms. He waited to tell me until our spy network called him to say that they had passed the yard office on their way out, most likely going to the golf course (or strip joint). I went ahead and finished the cleanup, because I didn't want to leave dry soap residue on the floor, which would have created a hazard for trainmen boarding the car with wet boots.

The top bosses had wanted to pull that laborer job off, but our local bosses wanted to keep it because that laborer could come in handy now and again. Everybody knew damn well that I was doing almost nothing to earn my paycheck, but they also figured out that they weren't going to catch me at it. The company and the union were both happy with me, not to mention the guys I worked with. The car foreman bad ordered the way car, so we could use it for a poker room.

A few days after that, I cleared my derail and was immediately drafted as a hostler helper. I got a nickel an hour raise, too.

There used to be a tender from the Alaska RR locomotive at the House of Poverty. Is it or any other rail items still there? A short block or few up the street is Seattle Everett car 53 masquerading as a diner with good food and inconsistent service.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/mom-and-pops-diner-moses-lake?start=10

I can't shine any light on it's disposition, but the tender that was behind ARR 557 in Washington came from the Copper River and Northwestern Railway. All indications are that 557's tender, which was 35 years newer, went to MOW use on the ARR and was replaced when 557 was sold as scrap. When 557 was returned to Alaska the CR&NW tender did not accompany it as the tender had no association with the locomotive other than being with the locomotive when it was shipped south as scrap and subsequently acquired by Monte Holm.

The only thing left of Monte Holm's collection in Moses Lake is that old tender he used with the 557. I'm unsure of the plans for it.

The 'deal' with Chehalis didn't fall through, we just decided to sell them and not ship them down to Chehalis because we already have a good condition UP hack and we don't run passengers with it.

Lee,
Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't sure if my intel on what was going on was correct.

Dan