As Victor mentioned earlier, if plywood was applied over existing siding, it would likely show at the windows. Either the guys would have just run the plywood up to the window trim (sounds really ugly) or they would have pulled the trim off and run the plywood underneath. With the former, it would be dead obvious that there was old siding underneath. With the latter, the window sashes would be 3/4 inch more inset, which might show in a photo. Especially when compared with the same caboose class where the t and g is still there.
Some GN plywood cabeese have the plywood seams at a window or two. I think this was the early approach, and that folks found out that a seam at a window was unwise. There are other GN plywoodies that have sides laid out so there are no seams at the windows.
Ed
Not sure how CPR budgets such funding historically, but I have worked in shops (non-RR) where such decisions also depend on what's in the budget and the available work force. It's certainly more labor intensive to strip down to the frame and resheath. My guess is many such rebuilds would likely include a double layer of plywood, too, so more materials could also be a factor. Then there's how many units of rolling stock need attention in the next year. It all tends to call on a set amount of funds, so the allocations can change with each new budget. All factors that likely apply beyond shop preferences and which could account for differing resulst from year to year from the same rebuild shop.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Ed,
Thanks for the info on the GN. One more data point that shows both approaches, with or without removal of the underlying siding, could be taken.
Makes sense, too. If done early in a caboose's life, it seems the practice may have tended toward replacment of the original siding. If done later one, it seems to trend towards just going over the top of the existing siding, so a much smaller investment in a car near the end of its service life.
Mike,
It was the GN. I can't think of anyone else up in the Northwest doing it. They re-sheathed a bunch of their 30' cabeese. I'm pretty sure they stripped the old siding off. I think it was done during or after WWII. The GN had a bit of a love affair with plyood about then, and built a bunch of boxcars using it for siding.
Someone commented on using 4' wide plywood on cabeese. While this would likely be the right size, it ain't necessarily so. The GN, for one, had lots of pals in the wood business; and they could use pretty much any size they wanted. I believe some of the GN plywood cars may have used some wider-than-4' plywood. Emphasize MAY. It's pretty easy to check by looking at photos.
I am part of a group restoring a 1927 B&O I5D caboose. The original vertical tongue and groove siding was repainted in the 1940's and then eventually covered with plywood in 1977 once part of Chessie System.
I almost purchased a wood, NYC "standard" caboose back in the 1980s from Conrail. (Conrail didn't even have it on its books but someone in Philadelphia wanted $2,500 as-is-where-is.) Anyway, this particular car had plywood nailed over the original siding inside and out. (You can usually tell from photos when this is done, particularly around the windows and the corners of the cars in comparison with other cars of the same class with the original siding.) I was once told that NYC did this to get a few more years out of the cars for local and transfer service. IIRC, the car number was 19545.
Well, to make a long story short, I met with the local trainmaster and we took a look at the car inside and out. Though the car had a steel underframe added some years before, I noticed that some of the wood stringers under the car were soggy. That indicated to me that water had got in the walls and worked its way down. Therefore, I lost interest. The car was still on its trucks in a small yard in Marion Indiana. It had been commandeered by a "Car Knocker" for his office a few years before.
I had made some preliminary negotiations with the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society to have the car moved there to begin my restoration. But I figured with hiring someone to work on the air brakes etc., to have it moved by rail, haulage and interchange fees, I'd have at least another $2,500 into it before I even started restoration. And the FWRHS people explicitly told me that they didn't want an "Ugly" on their property, so it would have to be restored in a reasonable amount of time. But, considering the condition of the car, it was not restorable in my opinion. I often wonder what happened to the car.
I think Overland or Precision made one of these cars in HO with the simulated plywood siding. If you wanted to do it yourself, I'd take a plastic car and cover the outside of the car with .010" styrene sheeting cut to nominal 4x8 size sheets. (Use something like a commercial jig cutting device to get uniform strips and sheets as getting it straight would be very important. And while you are at it, you may want to simulate wood grain with sand paper and a small toothed razor saw.) However, I think you'll have to experiment with a solvent or glue as most solvents might "bubble up" the sheet styrene.
Victor A. Baird
www.erstwhilepublications.com
P.S. I do have photos of the car both when it was in service and when it sat in Marion, Indiana but I find the system of posting photos here a PITA.
I could see it either way, depending on how bad the underlying siding was. Certainly, any bad spots of any size in it would be patched before the plywood goes on, if there was such coverage.
I vaguely remember one of the Hill roads (NP?, GN?) had plywood covered cabooses. I vaguely remember this as covering the original siding, but may be wrong. Someone in the know on that might be helpful here.
I was previously a member of a group that was restoring an old Canadian Pacific caboose, and the original siding was replaced with plywood in that case, not covered over.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
Greetings,
When a railroad resheathed a wood caboose with plywood did they typically remove the old planking and then apply the plywood, or did they put the plywood on the old sheathing?
Just wondering what was typically done, not any specific caboose, but I do model the NYC railroad, and was thinking specifically of the 19XXX cabooses.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR