A couple of weeks ago the Delmarva Central Railroad, a subsidiary of Carload Express, leased 162 miles of Delmarva tracks from NS. If you haven't heard about it yet, here's the story:

http://carloadexpress.com/2016/11/carlo ... -maryland/

Last Wednesday I drove out to the DCR's office in the old PRR station in Harrington, DE, and spoke with Baron Emery, the DCR's Director of Operations. Our conversation included the three ex-CR bay window cabooses that have been sitting for many years in the yard south of the station, along with a lot of other debris. DCR intends to clean up the site and at this point the three cabooses are likely to be scrapped, but if someone provides the DCR with an alternative option, it might be seriously considered.

David Owens of Vienna, MD, has been working for years to set up a tourist railroad on some state-owned track between Hurlock and Preston, MD. Whether this ever becomes a reality remains to be seen, but earlier this week he spoke with Baron Emery about the possibility of obtaining one of the cabooses.

Although all three sit on live track, it's unlikely they have been inspected for a long time, and having been placed some distance from the station, over the years vandals have broken all of the windows and trashed the interiors. They are probably not currently roadworthy and would have to be either repaired in place or trucked out. Despite their appearances, I have seen cabooses in much worse shape be brought back to life, and these appear to be fairly intact. Here are some pictures:

All three
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4117482

21224
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4117644
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rspict ... x?id=17985

21260
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4117652
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4479651
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rspict ... ?id=192552

21292
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4117483
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rspict ... ?id=518541

If you go to this web page listing Carload Express Departments

http://carloadexpress.com/about-us/departments/

you'll find this contact information:

Baron Emery, Director Operations, Delmarva Central Railroad
412-699-4319 | baronemery@carloadexpress.com

If you would like to obtain and restore a Conrail caboose for your museum or tourist railroad, it would be better to take action sooner rather than later.

Also, further down the track is Jordan spreader CR 64619, seen here:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4001670

I didn't ask Baron about this one but most likely it's going to go, too.

Even better, they are bay window cabooses, which are easier to truck, because they are lower to the ground.

According to this page, the Conrail 212xx series, N-21 class cabooses were the only cabooses built new for Conrail, by Fruit Growers Express in Alexandria VA in 1978 (and therefore would be among the last cabooses built new):

http://hebners.net/CR/crN21.html