| MILW X5001 at Bensenville, Illinois on February 9, 1986, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Here's what I have so far. The X5001 was a former Milwaukee Road drovers car and was one of a group of 15 original cars. These steel cupola cabooses were built by the Milwaukee in 1929 and were their first steel cabooses. The X5001 was originally built as the MILW 01612 but later became an instruction car, then a superintendent's office and was renumbered MILW X5001 somewhere along the way. When the SOO Line assumed control of the Milwaukee Road in 1986 the car retained the X5001 number, and was painted in SOO's candy apple red. This may be one of the only cars in the group to ride on express reefer style trucks. This caboose is now part of the collection at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. Another source suggests this may have been a dynomometer car. It does have a wire run to the second journal from the far end. Although the rest of the journal box covers are missing, they are no longer necessary as it is equipped with roller bearings. For the record, it appears that MILW X5000 was a dynamometer car and the X5002 was an instruction car. This photo was used in a soft-cover book entitled Caboose Country put out by the NMRA in 1995, by the staff at Kalmbach Memorial Library, and here is their caption: The Chicago Milwaukee Saint Paul & Pacific (Milwaukee Road) riveted-steel caboose seen here in 1986 started life as a drover caboose in the late 1920's. Drovers functioned as both cabooses and as a rolling home for cowhands accompanying their 'doggies' to market. This one originally had six pull-down bunks. Later a kitchenette and swiveling parlor car chairs were added, transforming it into a 'business car'. The box near the cupola houses a water tank for the kitchen. This caboose boasts air conditioning as well as underdeck lights to view the track. |