CABOOSE APRIL 2017

The caboose project is coming along with all the framing done inside. While waiting for the sheet rocker to schedule us in I worked on the outside metal work. Completed hand rails on the West end are shown below.

 To make the 4 hand rails I used 50' of 3/4" conduit as I have a bender to make the 90 degree bends and it looked to be the right size for hand rails.

 The hand rail was laid out on the floor and the pieces cut to fit the pattern 4 times then welded together.

3" X 3" X 3/16" plates were cut for the mounting plates and welded on.

 All the rails were ground smooth, cleaned and center chains added before painting.

 This is the East end with hand rails in place.

 1" X 1" square tube and 1 1/4" X 1/4" flat bar was bought for the step and ladder fabrication.

 I had a set of aluminum running boards from the 74 truck that were damaged from a tire blow out the I was able to straighten for the boarding steps. You can see one of them is cut in to three pieces as 6 steps are needed.

 A cardboard pattern was made and held up on the caboose to check how they would look. The first pattern stuck out to far so a second was made setting the two lower steps back with a little overlap.

 The running board steps were not wide enough for the opening in the deck of the caboose by about a 1" so I used a flat plate on one side and a channel plate on the other.

 1 X 1 square tube was cut and welded to the end plates to support the steps.

 This is the step assembly before paint.

 West end steps installed.

 East end steps installed.

 For the ladder the two 10' flat bars were welded to 1 X 1 square tube stand off's withe 5" X 5" X 3/16" mounting plates.

 1X1 square tube 12" long will be used for the ladder rungs.

 Ready to add the rungs.

The sheet rock, tapping and texture should be complete by the end of April.