Hello All,

The caboose at the Coastline Museum in Wilmington is in need of repainting again. The museum has this caboose painted red with Atlantic Coast Line painted on it. From the number, it appears that this caboose was built sometime AFTER the 1967-69 batch. That would fit with the build date on it too. I am pretty sure this would mean this caboose would have been an orange SCL M-5 number 01983. Does anyone have further information on this caboose, and is it indeed an SCL caboose, or was it perhaps an ACL one? Many thanks. Marc Hamel, NCDOT Rail Division

-- Marc Hamel, NCDOT Rail Div. (gigsup@aol.com), September 04, 2002

Answers

I was at the Museum in Wilmington on April 17, 2002. I personally checked this caboose over for numbers and found, on the side of the caboose closest to the wall, on the center sill is stenciled SCL 01036. This appears to be an original stencil as the underframe did not appear to have been repainted. If this number is correct, and I believe it is, this is the last M-5 caboose built by the SCL. It sure would look much better in the original SCL orange. And, please DO NOT let them paint over the number stencil on the underframe. Look where I said and you will find it, unless the underframe has been painted since April.

-- Larry Platt (lbp49@yahoo.com), September 06, 2002.

As William points out, this was an SCL caboose, built in the orange and black scheme. The "01983" number is a fake one - it might have been applied to represent the year the museum got the caboose, which I think was 1983 or around that time if not. The original, correct SCL number should be stamped into the underframe somewhere, although as I recall I could not find the original number the last time I looked over the caboose. Something else to look for would be the number stenciled on the truck bolsters. In any event, Marc, please use your influence to get it repainted in orange as God intended....

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), September 05, 2002.

Marc, With a build date of 1970 it is definitely a SCL caboose. The number would most likely be the 0983. My records, although vague, show the M-5's were built through 1969. SCL M-5 cabs were numbered from 0809 to 1036. Can anyone else help? William Billy

-- William Billy (CRRGator@juno.com), September 04, 2002.