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September 1940. "Caboose of the Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge railway. Telluride, Colorado." Acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Olde Buck - thanks for the note that the caboose is now located at Knott's Berry Farm. My first job when I was 15 was at Knott's and I had been there several times as a kid before that (I grew up down the street from it). It's strange to see a photo today of something that I had seen as a kid a loooonng time ago several decades before I saw (and probably crawled around) it. I'm not sure what kind of whiplash time machine that is, but there's probably a term for it.
This shot apparently was taken the same day as the Telluride photo posted the other day. If you expand the earlier picture, you'll see the train has arrived in town with a boxcar behind the caboose.
There can be a number of reasons for placing it there. My guess is the boxcar has mechanical problems (air line leak; coupler drawbar issues) that forced the crew to bring it in like that. It likely was placed on a siding where the car dept. people could fix the problem before it continued its trip.
BTW, RGS caboose 0402 survives today at Knott's Berry Farm. (Too bad same can't be said for the Rio Grande Southern RR.)
Anyone know why this caboose wouldn't be at the end of the train?
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