Bringing Up The Rear Again Traditional Cache
Bringing Up The Rear Again
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Congrats to Cyberhntr for the FTF - it was great to run into you and BGYO. **Update** Ground bees were spotted near the cache but the owner has sprayed the area This cache should be fairly easy to get to. It does not involve any climbing. We ask that you use stealth as this location is quite often full of muggles. The previous version of this cache was unfortunately muggled. Hopefully this one will survive better. The new version of this cache is now a small container and contains just the log. BYOP. **Please only search for this cache between the hours of 9am and 9pm. ** This caboose is a Lehigh Valley caboose built in 1945. Its number is 95047. Rick Stevens bought it in Pennsylvania and had it trucked here on Mother's Day in 2006. It interested him because it is the sister caboose to the one that used to run through Canastota many years ago. Getting it here was quite a feat! It took two big rigs to get it here and once here he had to hire two cranes to take it off the rigs! The tracks that it sits on had to be built too. Rick said the trucks (wheels of the caboose) weigh 6,000 pounds each and the caboose alone weighs 14 tons! (It is constructed of steel.) An interesting fact: The box shaped top part of the caboose is called a cupola. Rick plans to restore it to its original Lehigh Valley colors in the near future. The Lehigh Valley Railroad had 92 cabooses on the property just before Conrail. They were built between 1939 and 1946 and numbered 95001-95140. When Conrail was formed in 1976, they reunited with the former LV cabooses that the Penn Central had purchased in April 1968 . Penn Central classified them as N-5Gs. The Lehigh Valley Railroad steel Northeast style cabooses were based on the Reading's NMj design, but were modified to meet the needs of the LVRR. The first batch was built in 1937 by the Sayre shops, using components purchased from Bethlehem Steel. The tool box located beneath the floor on the Reading design was eliminated, a single rectangular end window was added, located at the extreme right of each end wall, and stronger end platform posts with kick panels attached were added to the design. Hand holds were also added to the tops of the end ladders, although the diamond tread roofwalk fitted flush with the roof remained as on the Reading caboose. The Duryea cushioned underframe of the Reading prototype was also retained on the LV cabooses until 1944, when several design changes were made, including dual circular end windows, a raised slotted roof walk and a change in the shape of the end ladder hand holds. That first batch of 20 cars when delivered in 1937 did not have the distinctive peaked rain gutters, wind deflectors and three tread steps that are now recognized as LV caboose signatures. These appeared on the second batch in 1939, and were later retrofitted to the first batch. Over many years, other changes were made to cars in service as they were shopped. Sometime in the 1950s, a second rectangular window was added to the extreme left of the end walls on some cabooses. Doors were replaced over the service life of many cabooses, and the shape and number of window panes in the doors varies if you look closely at photos. Coal burning stoves were replaced by oil heaters on all mainline cabooses in the 1960s. These cars have taller stacks and a fuel filler located to the right of the rightmost side window near the heater. (Some cabooses received taller stacks prior to the decision to go to oil heat, so the stack height is not a reliable indicator that the coal stove was replaced.) Sometimes, the window next to the oil heater was blanked off. Still later, rock screens were added to many cabooses. Phase II has two round "port hole" windows, a raised roof walk, and inverted U ladder roof grabs. (This caboose is a Phase II.)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx arne gur pbhcyre.