What's the usual method for moving a caboose? Presuming that the caboose is landlocked or friction bearing and must be trucked. What's the typical cost?

It all depends on your route, the height/length of your caboose, and the type of trailer you can use.

If your caboose is a bay window, you could most likely use a roll-on/roll-off trailer. This is the least expensive option. We at CRHS moved our caboose off Long Island and down to Middletown, PA for about $3,900. If it's a not a bay window, you'll most likely have to put it on a trailer with the trucks (and possibly the underbody gear) removed to allow it to pass under bridges and wires. This requires cranes and can end up costing up to $10,000 depending on company, crane cost, etc. Where are you moving to and from?
Russ

There are many things to consider when buying and moving a caboose and nothing is cheap! Make plenty of planning and have everything ready and organized.Then after you move one you will have lots of maintenance and upkeep on it for the rest of your life because they don't take care of themselves! I think most people that want one have no idea what is involved with owning one and then after years of neglect they become a eyesore,then they don't want it.You see this with lots of old wood ones that end up for sale and on Ebay.Most are rotting away,windows out and the owners often want $10,000 - $15,000 for them.Sometimes you will hear of people locally that may have one that will offer it for free if you move it.

Most people that you talk to that have no clue about RR's or RR equipment will tell you that they've alway's wanted one for out in the backyard for the kids to play in,for a guest house,or other reasons ect.I hear this all the time from people that stop by and see mine,from the guy that delivers propane,to people that stop while driving by,and from friends of the family.I've owned my caboose for 15 years now,and have had it in my backyard for the past 10 years.I have 3 grown children and yes when they were younger they would play in it and have sleep overs with friends on occasions.But like anything else the novelty fades away after a few years and there it sits.Mine is a steel caboose and i just painted the roof a few weeks ago for the 3rd time since i've had it,i've got a few window sashes that need replacing again and the whole exterior needs painted.There's alot of upkeep in owning one!

Just for the move there are many factors that can make the price skyrocket.If landlocked is there room to even get a crane or trailer near it to load? Crane rental and movers prices vary.If it's on someone elses property be prepared to take care of their yard that you may rut up or damage with any heavy equipment when moving the caboose.In 2000 when i moved mine wich has a cupola i called and got estimates from several outfits and the prices varied from $6000 - $12,000 to move the caboose about 15-20 miles.

Since i'm rather stubborn and know a little about RR equipment and work for the RR i decided to do it myself.My brother-in-law owns a couple semi tractors wich he agreed to help me out.He had to get a permit to move it on the state highway using their routeing.We also went out and measured the 2 underpasses we had to go under just to make sure of clearance issues.I found and bought a old used lowboy trailer for $3800.I called a couple crane companies and yes their prices also vary.Most have a min. base rate of 4 hrs.wich at that time was around $500.After the 4 hours you start paying by the hr.! and if you have any big distances between your move from point A to point B that the crane has to travel it can really add up.And in most cases it's going to take 2 trips,or 1 trip with 2 semi tractors with trailers,one for the caboose and one for the trucks.

In my case i decided to do it the hard way and save money.Since my caboose was on rail with ballast level with the top of the rail to back the trailer on i decided to jack and crib the caboose up,roll the wheelsets out and back the trailer underneath and lower the caboose on the trailer.This took a total of 4 hrs. from start to finish.I don't recommend this as it's alot of hard work plus your messing with 17-20 tons.For me everything went fairly smooth but we were also very careful.I later moved a 40ft. boxcar the same way.In doing both we attached 3 lengths of pv plastic pipe rinning the length of the caboose from roof edge,over the cupola,to roof edge just in case there were any low hanging wires along the route wich there ended up being a few,wich this worked excellant for the wires to sling over the roof without getting caught or hung up on.I drove ahead of the semi truck with a pole mounted on my pickup that was the height of the caboose so my brother-in-law could see what wires were low to slow down for and watch.


I had already had my panel track in place at home but it was not at ground level to back the trailer over,since it was my trailer we parked it alongside the track and i had the caboose set later with a crane.I moved the trucks/wheelsets 1 at a time on a heavy car hauler trailer and they were a pretty good load on it at about 2 1/2 tons a pc.and unloaded them onto the panel track.Later i called the crane company to come out,lift the caboose off the trailer and onto my wheels wich were on the panel track.That was $500 for the min. of 4 hours,$40 for the crane permit.I had everything ready,the crane only shows up with 1 person,the operator.He pulled in the driveway at 8:00 am set the caboose on the wheels,we sat around had a pop and talked for a few minutes and he was out the driveway on his way at 8:50 am.For a 50 min.job it couldn't have went any smoother!

That was my experiance of moving a caboose.I hope yours goes as well when you decide to move one.As i said they are alot of work and everything takes planning.But for most of us on here it's probably something that we all enjoy and like!

Not a caboose but here is how to move a center cab switcher on the cheap:


Step 1. Remove hoods and take out motor generator sets.


Step 2. Load the carbody onto a trailer.


Step 3. Load trucks and fuel tank onto third trailer.


Step 4. Follow your locomotive to its destination, six miles away on the other side of town.


Step 5. Reassemble at destination.

Step 6. Pay $5,400 to Grim's Crane Service.


Step 7. Decorate locomotive for Christmas!

And since a locomotive by itself can be lonely, we found it a friend to spend eternity with.



Step 1. Dump water out of ladle.


Step 2. Use a 50 ton crane to fish tires out of the ladle.


Step 3. Load ladle onto trailer.


Step 4. Load car onto trailer.

Step 5. Move car seventy miles to Youngstown.


Step 6. Unload car.


Step 7. Set ladle on car.


Step 8. Sit back and admire our new hot metal train.

Step 9. Send Grim's another check, this time for $9,400. (also includes moving a teeming ladle from Pitsburgh and a 63,000 lb. ingot mold from the same place the loco came from).

What is that other car coupled to the ladle car? in the top 2 photo's where the water is being dumped from the ladle.That ladle car is pretty neat! i've never seen one before,thank's for posting the photo's!

Not a lot to add - cranes are expensive, so if you can do your own rigging with jacks, cribbing and beams, you are way ahead. Sideways loading of carbodies can be done by using beams as wide as required to get under the carbody and provbide room for the lowboy to back under alongside, and use heavy machine dollies (crocodiles) to move the carbody sideways along the beams. Tradeoff is cranes are fast and easy, jacking and cribbing and sliding troublesome and time consuming.

DO NOT presume the riggers are in any way expert in moving railroad equipment. Somebody knowledgeable in how and where to lift needs to tell them what to do to avoid damaging the car, especially a wooden car. Ideally you work out the plan with the rigger on site so he knows what he needs to bring, and surprises that cost time and money can be avoided.

Best wishes for your move.

dave

We moved a caboose on it's trucks near ten years ago. It was done by a contractor that moves trolleys. He supplied the truck, we supplied the manpower. I was told he charged us $1500.00.

Later!
Mr. Ed

The easiest way without the cost of a crane is to use a heavy duty towing company. The caboose body without trucks (even one with a cupola stays under the height. and normal weight limits.
Did this with my caboose on a 60 mile two state trip from live rail to backyard. Total cost was around $5000 which included the various permits. Yes I supplied a lot of the labor on both ends - a tractor and backhoe and lots of oak block cribbing. I had to do it this way as there was no excess (over 13' 6") hiway route available so a trailer was out of the question
Rich

Keep in mind that laws and regulations for wide loads will vary from state to state. The company that moved my caboose three years ago (here in CA) stated plainly that for the type of move I needed (through 4 jurisdictions, over city, county and state roads), the only option was a lowboy trailer. I had asked about using the caboose carbody as the vehicle and attaching house moving axles.

I think the most important factor is hiring a firm with a 'can do' attitude. I released the first company I was working with when every discussion became how difficult the whole process was going to be.

Without getting into specifics, I know of at least one instance where a caboose was moved from trackside to private property using a wheel dolly that was rigged to have the caboose's truck mount fit atop it--in other words, rubber wheels subbed for the rail-wheel truck. A tow truck handled the other end. The run was about three miles up a state highway. I've no idea whether permits were involved; for all I know it could have been a midnight run, and the railroad was more trouble than the road trip.

But check out your movers carefully. I've seen at least two equipment moves over roads come to very expensive grief, one with a jury-rigged trailer rig coming apart on a highway and incurring damage to road and equipment and lots of fines, and another rack up huge fines over a lengthy row between mover and police over just how much the load weighed. (As I remember, the police alleged an 0-6-0 minus tender on trailer weighed about what a 4-8-4 would have weighed on the same trailer. Volunteers spent a week stripping about ten tons of metal off the locomotive, and the load was re-weighed--with a higher reading......)

At risk of "loose lips"... From northern Ohio to southeast Michigan, about 100 miles. Presently located at a landlocked location, destination you can guess, hence the "loose lips" problem.

It is a wooden cupola caboose. The underside gear is flimsily hanging on, suggesting that it had been previously removed for the trip to this landlocked location. I've heard tell that the cupola had also been removed; I hope not.

I moved a wooden Soo Line caboose with the cupola removed on a drop deck semi trailer. There were no trucks, it was on blocks. There were only three of us including the driver. We jacked it up with I beams, backed the trailer under it and moved it 45 miles and unloaded it in one day.
Mike Nix

Here are a few photos of equipment moves at RMEO. I'm including a couple of boxcar moves as the height and method of loading was similar to a caboose.

We have moved five boxcars, five cabeese, two Otis gondolas, eight heavyweight passenger cars, a 65' wooden business car, a snowplow, a duplex railway dwelling, and a 4-6-0 by road so far, so I feel fairly well qualified on this topic.

We typically used a 60 ton mobile crane as it was reasonably priced and fairly local, but as others have pointed out, jacking works just as well but takes a little longer.

For the group or individual moving just one car, the jacking route makes great sense. You might save on float charges by dealing with an excavating contractor who owns a float to haul his own equipment, but you will likely need to do the permit applications and utility contacts yourself.

In our case, the crane cost, when the float time was factored in, did not justify the increase in volunteer hours. Your mileage may, and probably will, vary.

http://public.fotki.com/elliottd/sfrmeo ... e-002.html
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http://public.fotki.com/elliottd/sfrmeo ... 6-jpg.html

Currently, our cost is about $100 per hour for a tri-axle extendable railway bed float, and a 110 ton crane is $180 per hour. I haven't priced an 80 ton crane recently, but it will be slightly less.

These prices are in Canadian dollars in eastern Ontario- I don't know how this compares to rates in the US.

Steve Hunter
RMEO
Smiths Falls, Ontario

Wood caboose moved earlier this month: http://trainmuseum.blogspot.com/2010/11/x101-caboose-caper.html

Check out the video at the end of the post.

--Richard