ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY #1413 Caboose

An outstanding example of restoration work, this classic wooden car was rescued from a scrapyard and restored by Museum members to its 1940s appearance, down to the condiments on its shelves.

Built by American Car & Foundry Co., St.Charles, MO; 1923

This cupola-style caboose was built on an 1890's Bx-B boxcar steel underframe, one of 240 (#1082-1171 & #1300-1449) in Santa Fe's first "Way Car" class without side doors, and the only one in its it "series"! ATSF #1413 is 36' 9 1/4" long, 10' 4" wide, 15' 2" high, weighs 50,000 lbs.(25 tons), and has AB brake gear and 33" wheels.

ATSF #1413 was used for about 40 years on various Santa Fe lines. Santa Fe replaced its mainline wood cabooses with safer steel ones in the 1930s, but they remained in local and branchline use. In the 1940s, wartime steel shortages halted steel caboose construction, and ATSF #1413 was rebuilt on a new steel underframe at Santa Fe's shops in Topeka, KS, retaining its original archbar trucks. It was given a new roof of sectioned sheet tin lapped and soldered, and was painted Mineral brown (halfway between Boxcar red and Tuscan red), with black roof (later Mineral brown), silver gray interior, and dark green floor. Last lubricated by Santa Fe at Barstow, CA in 1956, it was later retired and used as sleeping quarters for railroad employees in a car repair shed at Riverbank, CA. ATSF #1413 was sold to the California Railroad & Salvage Company in Tustin, CA for scrapping in the 1970s, in very deteriorated condition.

On April 6, 1979, ATSF #1413 was bought by the PSRMA, which outbid two restaurants for it. It was finally trucked to the La Mesa depot, arriving August 8, 1980. There it was restored to its mid-1940s appearance, the first caboose restoration by the Museum, which also rebuilt the La Mesa depot at the same (1980-82) time. ATSF #1413's restored interior includes coal stove, sink, toilet, closets, oak conductor's desk, folding bunks, a Missouri Pacific water cooler, three caboose lamps (including a 100-year-old UP antique), green window shades, caboose tools, and 1940s-era tin plates, cups, canned condiments, etc. Some missing parts were later salvaged from similar but non-restorable ATSF "restaurant" caboose #1122 in Anaheim, CA before its October 1983 scrapping. While in La Mesa, ATSF #1413 hosted many hundreds af visitors.

Moved to San Ysidro by the SD&AE, ATSF #1413 served as the caboose and carried the markers on the Museum's first "Great Freight" to Campo in July/August 1983. It was the center of a festive celebration when it rolled onto the Museum grounds behind the last equipment to arrive on that week-long move. ATSF #1413, which has again been refinished and repainted, is kept well-maintained in operating condition inside the carbarn at Campo to preserve its appearance. It is unlocked and shown to visitors on guided tours of the restoration area, and has given thousands of people a chance to see what cabooses are really like, and to hear how they were used in the "golden age" of railroading.

ATSF #1413 is now displayed proudly in our Display Building.

1991 Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association. W. Schneider