Relaying a message from narrow gauge discussion forum, Colorado and Southern caboose 1008 was found at a LA home that was scheduled for demolition. It is just it's body the survives but the whole thing was thought to be destroyed in 1956. Its new owner plans to restore it to its former glory, this is some great news to hear being a C&S fan. Alex
According to the post it is Northridge area of Los Angeles CA. It was an area being cleared for development. Alex
Northridge is in the valley and the epicenter of the 1994 Martin Luther King day earthquake in 1994 that destroyed the I-10 freeway. To think that a beat up narrow guage caboose survived that is amaizing. My Republic Locomotive Works Nn3 shay did not 30 miles away.
It may not have even been there because we really don't know what happened to it after 1956, most just assumed it was destroyed. Some say it was in the outskirts of Leadville until the 1980's (I have no proof of this). What was left of it was sold in Alamosa, (not sure the date) and that is when it became really lost. Now if we can find the C&S coach stored at Leadville that was also lost in 1956. hmm... Alex
Alex, I saw an old, wooden coach near the Circle of Orange (City of Orange) about 10 years ago...I wonder....
Wow this is incredible news, it would be neat if the choach in Orange City is the one that went missing in '56...
The old wooden coach in Orange is likely the Carson and Colorado car that is being restored. I can't remember the number, but iirc, it is kind of like a drovers caboose.
Actually it's not that amazing; A prototype rail vehicle was built to be moved and designed to buckle around on a railroad track. It's made of wood and steel and won't break because of earth movements - provided that there were no structures nearby that were able to fall on it, it could survive even a 9.0 earthquake just fine. A model locomotive, made of more delicate plastic/brass/etc, wasn't built to be moved around like that and either fell down or something fell on it, which is why yours didn't survive!
I think its amazing. A car reported missing since 56 turns up NOW! Plus it doesnt have its trucks so it would have been a "permanent" structure. So no flex.So yeah it would have been amazing. I think its great these artifacts are being found and restored. Hopefully someone can find some pictures?
The new owner posted pics on NGDF, heres a link. http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,178175 Here it is it in 1937. http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00006377+OP-6377 Alex
Don't mean to start an argument here I do agree it is amazing that such a rare and old rail artifact turns up after such a long time. But being stored in an earthquake-prone region had nothing to do with it (We do have several well-known railroad museums here in California, BTW...). Having been through many earthquakes myself, a quake, even a large one, doesn't simply destroy everything in its path (despite what most people who have never felt an earthquake incorrectly assume). Even without its trucks, it was likely not permanently bolted to a foundation and was able to sway. And seeing one of the pics, it is mostly made of wood; it's not large enough to collapse. Mostly brick/masonry/concrete structures, if built without internal reinforcements, will suffer damage, as we have seen in the big Haiti quake last year. For it to be damaged, something had to fall on it, which was clearly not the case.
