Renovation of CPLT Caboose No. 2

Over the past several months, the crew of the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation began the renovation process on the Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad Caboose No. 2. Due to the poor condition of the wood structure on the caboose, it will be necessary to completely rebuild the caboose from the trucks up to the cupola. The hardware will be saved and reused where possible.

All the major pieces of the wood structure are being saved for the time being. They will be used as patterns to help the crew measure and cut timbers for the rebuilt caboose. Where possible, timbers in good condition will be used to build interior benches.

This picture shows the steel cupola frame on top of the caboose. Last Tuesday, November 6, 2012, the crew lowered the frame into the interior of the caboose. Volunteers first removed the walls and ceiling from the frame. Then they dislodged the frame from the roof of the caboose. The next step was to slide two 2x6 timbers under the frame to support it. The interior ceiling joists were next removed (one was completely rotted away on the right side).

Homer Rail steps onto the ladder after the crew positioned the cupola frame for the drop into the caboose interior.

It took five minutes to lower the cupola frame into the interior of the caboose. Two 4x4 pieces of timer were used as slides. Ron Sexton used come-a-long to pull the frame down the slice. Homer (out of the picture) and Bill Rodgers guided the frame from the roof.

Ron gives an enthusiastic thumbs up as the cupola frame comes to a rest on the inside of the caboose while Homer (standing next to Ron) and foundation president Keith Berry look on..

Bill coils a rope at the end of the work session last Tuesday. On Wednesday, the crew completely removed the caboose structure.

El Dorado Western Railroad Santa Run

Interior work on the Southern Pacific No. 1094 caboose

Crews from the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation are busy restoring the interior of the Southern Pacific No. 1094 caboose to its original condition. The current focus is to restore the interior color to the original paint scheme, a sea green green color. 

The railroad plans to use the caboose for its Santa Run on December 15, 2012.While the caboose won't be ready to run on the rails, Santa will "set up shop" in the caboose as he greets children. We will post information on the blog and on Facebook soon.


The main compartment of the caboose. The conductor's desk is located on the right side. The toilet is located in the tiny room to the left of the front door. The coal bin is located in the foreground.

The picture of the cupola shows the exposed grain of the redwood interior. The crew is currently applying primer to the interior walls and ceiling. We are evaluating how to treat the exposed wood grain.

The cupola corridor and rear door of the caboose. Several storage compartments under the cupola held the ice box, radio, generator and railroad tools.

Volunteer Steven Karoly removes the stretcher brackets from the ceiling in the caboose. The coal burning stove will be replaced with an authentic SP caboose stove in the future. Retired SP/UP conductor Davey "Doc" Wiser located the replacement stove last year. We don't know what happened to the original stove.

Anne's Caboose is located in the El Dorado County Historical Railroad Park at the town of El Dorado, California. It was build in 1940 to the railroad's C-40-3 specification for cabooses. Southern Pacific sold it to a Placerville family in 1973, where it was used an artist's studio. The family donated the caboose to the El Dorado Western Railway Foundation on Christmas Day 2010.