I'm having to add a UP CA-7 caboose back into UMLER, and its asking a few questions I don't have accurate answers for. Specifically the height of center of gravity, and the amount of draft gear travel. I can probably take some measurements and make an educated guess for the draft gear travel, but without doing a LOT of math that I don't want to do with questionable data guesses, not sure where to find that.

Anyone have some original drawings or other data sources?

Greg

Doesn't the UP still have a few of them out in m-of-w service? Maybe with the fleet out in Cheyenne, or maybe Council Bluffs?

Disclaimer... Is this style of caboose the last of their wide vision cupola type?


Get me a number and I'll look them up on the computer at work and fill in your blanks.

This is not a wide vision caboose. Center cupola caboose. According to this list https://utahrails.net/caboose/caboose-s ... r-ca-7.php, it doesn't look like UP has any still left.

UP 25463 might be still renumbered to 906254, or Fairmont Tamper FTSX 812

UP 25464 might be in service as LPRX 25464

An equipment diagram would give you the dimensions and weight. Except I didn’t find one online with a quick search. If you’re an RPCA member, you can get a lot of help there. If I recall, in UMLER, cabooses are entered under MOW equipment.

I actually found these drawings,

https://harley-trains.smugmug.com/UP-FR ... Data/CA-7/

and it shows several data points I didn't know, but still don't have the center of gravity.

MofW equipment in many cases is not reported to UMLER as the equipment is not used in interchange service between carriers. Such equipment may only be carried on the owners equipment data base.

Center of gravity may require some guesstimating. I had to calculate CG for a passenger car loaded on a flat car. TTX was able to give me CG of the flat car, but there was no way to determine for the passenger car. After consulting with knowledgeable people in the field we arbitrarily choose 12" above the floor height as CG on the passenger car. With that we were able to complete the standard formulas for dimensional loads and submit our clearance requests.

- Alan Maples
Everett Railroad

I did a check on how to calculate the CG height. To do it from scratch, you’ll need a crane or jacks with load cells to weight the car and to lift one end to measure the weight shift. If you can find a similar car that is already registered, it would be much easier to extrapolate from that. As said previously, I think the current UMLER considers them MOW equipment with a car type of NE. You’ll need to verify that in the manual, though.

Sounds like how we do stability calculations for boats. :-)

I got it into UMLER, but had to guestimate the CG. It seems you only have to do that for Plate F. And yes, it's Miscellaneous > MW. From there I had to choose either a "shoving platform" or a "training car" I chose the later. :-)

Greg

Might I assume that the caboose is Plate B? Small car that can run anywhere.

According to the Umler Data Specification Manual Appendix J, Plate B tops out at 15' 1", Plate C tops out at 15" 5". UP CA-7 cabooses are 16' 1/2". If I'm reading things wrong, please help me understand. My profession is track, so I am just trying to read the manual and understand.

I forgot that later UP cabooses have those tall cupolas. Looks like Plate F? That tops out at 17’.

That's how I read it.

Greg