Ridgway Colorado USA - When the D&RGW began to abandon their narrow gauge lines in the 1950s they donated a number of cabooses to Colorado towns that were served by the narrow gauge.
 
Caboose 0575 was donated to the City of Ouray in June of 1953.
 
The caboose was placed on Main Street south of the Beaumont Hotel where the Ago Gallery is currently located.
 
The caboose was used as the Chamber of Commerce information booth until 1977 when the Chamber moved to a building at the swimming pool.
 
In September 1977 Ouray County crews moved the caboose to the south end of the swimming pool parking lot.
 
At some point the City of Ouray donated the caboose to the Ouray County Historical Society (OCHS).
 
The caboose has been stabilized and partly restored several times since coming to Ouray.
 
In 1979, Bill Jones of Silverton supervised extensive repairs to the caboose with the goal of preventing further water damage.
 
The caboose was painted in its original 1886 lettering style.
 
In 1991-1993, the Ouray Woman's Club funded an extensive restoration to its 1953 appearance.
 
The caboose significantly deteriorated over the next 13 years with the end sills and roofing being the most serious problems and needing immediate attention.
 
There were also a number of other major structural problems.
 
In 2005, a grant was obtained from the Colorado Historical Society to evaluate the damage and delineate the needed repairs.
 
Through an agreement worked out by Tom Hillhouse, OCHS President, and Karl Schaeffer, Ridgway Railroad Museum (RRM) President, the RRM agreed to undertake the major repairs needed.
 
D&RGW Caboose 0575 is a uniquely important artifact of the railroad history of Ouray County.
 
The boards of both OCHS and RRM unanimously agreed that moving the caboose to Ridgway was in the best interest of the caboose and the people of Ouray County.
 
The agreement provided for a prominent plaque acknowledging the financial contributions of the Ouray Woman's Club, the Massard Foundation, and the citizens of Ouray.
 
On 20 May 2006, the caboose was moved from the park in Ouray to the Ridgway Railroad Museum where it has been undergoing restoration using the D&RGW guidelines for narrow gauge caboose repair.
 
One of the more difficult tasks in the restoration was removal of hundreds of nut and bolt castings from the car.
 
More than 50 years of rust made it necessary to cut off some of the bolts.
 
Several months of soaking in oil allowed about half of the nuts to be removed with a wrench while the others needed to be cut off.
 
All of the safety railings had to be removed in order to replace the siding.
 
This was also difficult because the bolts were peened over for safety.
 
A moto tool was used to cut the end of the bolt off so that the nuts could be removed.
 
All of the windows were replaced using the old windows as templates.
 
Both end sills were removed and replaced.
 
Each new fir end sill needed to have more than 30 accurately drilled holes to attach all of the hardware.
 
D&RGW rules allow the end and side sills to be spliced but not the center sills.
 
Fortunately, most of the damage was in the side and intermediate sills.
 
The side and intermediate sills were repaired with epoxy and new fir splices.
 
The decking on the ends was replaced.
 
All of the siding on the caboose was replaced with siding milled to accurately reproduce the original siding.
 
The old roof was also removed and a new roof constructed.
 
The roof walks were replaced and the smoke stack was repaired.
 
The caboose was primed, painted, and stenciled to the appearance it had when donated to Ouray in 1953.
 
By the middle of August 2007 restoration was essentially complete.
 
The restoration was completed under the direction of Karl Schaeffer with the dedicated assistance of about a dozen volunteers who contributed thousands of hours of work over a year and a half period of time.
 
Please come by the Ridgway Railroad Museum to see the results of the restoration and visit our web site www.ridgwayRailroadMuseum.org to see pictures of every stage of the restoration.
 
Author unknown.