While your still a ways from the finish line I think this needs to be A NO.1 for the claim that ANYTHING can be restored with enough effort, money and time. It’s amazing how far you gus have come and I will continue to watch your guys progress with great interest. Take care and good luck!

Yes, it's been a while since we have posted an update on PyPN. A great crew of young talent has really driven the project forward. Siding is now going on after a great deal of prep work, much of which will never be seen once the siding is on. Another day or so and this side will be done. Hope to have all for sides done for winter. Fingers crossed! What you see here are original windows and door installed in the new body structure. Again, we created an N6b kit of sorts as we disassembled the body originally.

Again, tremendous save. No windows on this side, eh? There aren't any photos from when you recovered it of one side.

> No windows on this side, eh?

There are windows on the side, we just did not cut the siding around them at this stage of the game. Various pieces of window trim have to be installed inside first then the siding cut to match the trim. There is a process here.

Looks fantastic. A pleasure to see some Railway Preservation News on RYPN.

I'm a bit ignorant as to the construction techniques so I was wondering what is the plastic looking material towards the far end that is not yet sheathed? Is that just tarp to keep the elements out or some sort of underlayment you are putting between the framework and the sheathing?

Were these cabin cars originally insulated (with horsehair I'd guess?)?

Thanks and keep up the great work.

> I was wondering what is the plastic looking material towards the far end

As built, the car had thin tar paper under the siding. We went with Tyvek from Home Depot as its cheaper and just easier to handle. We took some liberties with some modern materials here and there to keep costs in check. We are paying for this out of pocket so budget is a consideration.

So I’m going to plead ignorance here. Why go for yellow paint? I always thought of PRR cabin cars as Tuscan or some sort of brownish red shade.

Thanks JR. Does Tyvek have the same or similar permeability as tar paper? The reason I ask is because it is my limited understanding that, in a regular structure such as a home, putting a full vapor barrier between the sheathing and the siding is fine because the home is insulated such as the air on either side of the Tyvek will be the same or very similar temperature. In this application, if the caboose is heated and not insulated such that the warm moist air contacts the interior surface of the Tyvek, and the Tyvek is a vapor barrier, then if it is cold enough outside the inner surface of the Tyvek will be below the dew point and it would appear that you could get condensation at that inner surface.

This is why I inquired about the insulation.

The car looks great. Is the yellow you used a final match to the yellow in the photos? Were you able to get any paint flakes from the rotting carcass you saved?

Before the Pennsy went to full Tuscan Red on almost everything that moved except for the Brunswick Green on the locomotives their Cabin cars aka Caboose where painted a Bright Yellow so that in the curves the engineer could see if the tail end was still moving on the train. Also made it easier to see when and if you where about to slam into one if you missed a signal.

> Does Tyvek have the same or similar permeability as tar paper?

My main concern was driving rain. It will probably be a very rare occurrence that the caboose will be heated in the winter time, or really ever have any great variance between inside and outside temperature.

There was no insulation in the walls when we dismantled the body. Only the tar paper.

> Is the yellow you used a final match to the yellow in the photos?

We have plenty of exterior siding to make a match to plus photos. This is a second try at the color actually. You really can not go by what you see on a computer monitor as they vary so much. Actuals are more dependable as is an actual hard copy original color photo.

> their Cabin cars aka Caboose where painted a Bright Yellow

My understanding is that only MoW cabs were painted yellow. As found, this one was yellow and wearing a PRR MoW road number, thus the color we are going with.

J.R.

"Tyvek from Home Depot" (presuming this is a reference to Tyvek 'Housewrap') is not impervious like one might assume a plastic sheet is. From the product description:



Housewrap is supposed to block liquid water, but not block water vapor.

Rader - Thanks for looking that up. A few years back I looked at all of those type products - Tyvek, Henry Blueskin, Enershield - but I could not recall which was which.

Rader, thanks for the background on Tyvek. In truth, I looked at tar paper, but it was very expensive compared to the Tyvek. In addition, to me at least, tar paper seemed delicate, prone to tearing, ripping, etc. I have found Tyvek to be easy to work with, and as tough as nails. Trying to trim small pieces with a brand new knife blade proves difficult. Its amazing stuff. Again, my concern was driving rain more than anything else. If good enough for a house, I figured it was good enough for the cabin car. Oh, and it fit the budget.

JR, stunning workmanship, the cabin car looks great! I love the yellow paint. Maybe I'll paint the rail truck I got from you the same color!

Ray, good to hear from you. Yes, the wood body in yellow then the hoods, wheels and metal bits in black would look real sharp! Not sure you heard or not, but Ed Rizzo who did much of the work on the rail truck, died in December from Covid. A real shocker. His daughter tracks our progress and is happy to see some folks come forward to fill the void as we work on the caboose. Take care, J.R.