www.topix.com/forum/outdoors/camping/TLINO0CIP8BRC74R2/p14




copy & paste.......there was some contact info from the son or grandson of the man who owned the factory there

Edit by moderator: Activated link.  Terry

Not sure what you mean about shivering about the siding...it's thin and cold or it's super heavy and going to be a bear to tow? Either way, not good.

I'll work on setting something upon my website as I go along. This will be a total learning experience for me. I've rehabbed a mobile home in the last 2 years, down to replacing the subfloor, so hopefully that experience will help in this endeavor. Weight it a biggy for me, since I tow with an '04 Tundra. The first major hurdle will be getting it home to the place in TN where I can work on it this winter. I'm currently sitting in southern MN, will be leaving tomorrow evening to haul the 30' camper south. The tire shop bear where it's at is calling me tomorrow with prices for tires, and I'll probably have to rig up some brake lights/turn signals, hopefully everything else will be ok for the several hour trip from where it's at in KY to south of Nashville.

Thanks Mike! I'm terrible at finding anything on the internet, I normally have to ask someone else to look stuff up for me. LOL

Not much has happened with the Caboose, although I think I may have found someone to haul it from KY to the house here in TN in the next week or two. Here's a few pics of the interior. The door is on the back end, this is inside the door left side. Large coat closet, dinette, there's a bunk that slides out so you could sleep up in the cupola.


Inside right side, fridge and kitchen. The aluminum trim piece on the floor is off the front, it was only held on with 1 screw so I pulled it off.

Kitchen. There's as much counter space in the caboose as there is in the mobile home here in TN.  LOL

Left side of bedroom, the mice obviously approved of the little shelf. 


Right side of bedroom. This will be a problem if I keep the original floor plan, I want a double bed.

The previous owner and his buddy putting the new tires on.


The siding is aluminum, so no rust, but the paint is peeling, trim work is loose in many places, etc. It's going to need tons of work, both inside and out.

I'm still stuck on getting a title for it. The last 2 owners didn't have one, not sure if it ws ever titled since it was parked at the lake and used as a cabin. I can likely get a home-built title, but I'd prefer to have it titled as a Semaphore Caboose if at all possible. I'm making a last run up to SD this week so I'll stop in and talk to the folks at the DMV about it. I'm taking the cordless drill with a grinding wheel along and will stop at the camper to see if I can uncover a serial number on the tongue.

That may work as well.

In an email from a fellow who worked at Semaphore Industries he sent the link to the patent on the caboose.

He also sent this info on the construction...

"We put 110-volt rooftop air conditioners on many of them. You could plug a 110-volt cord from the outside (left rear) to run it. Or, if you paid extra, you could have a 110-volt gasonline generator installed in the left rear. The small refrigerator could also use 110 vols AC, or 12 volts, or LPG. LPG was also used for the stove and furnace--the gas being provided by one or two standard tanks mounted on either side of the V-shaped tow bar.
CONSTRUCTION:
Each trailer begain with a steel frame laid out to a template, and welded, then painted black. Atop that were bolted sheets of 1/2-inch or 3/4-inch particle board, I don't remember which. Vinyl was cut and glued on the floor (bathroom, mostly) and the carpet was cut to shape and glued down. The automotive 12-volt wiriing was run beneath the floor, I believe, for the lights and brakes. 110-volt wires were run inside the walls, with approproiate channels and openings for recepticles being drilled and cut. A minority of the wiring was laid out on the floor in places where cabinets and other elements would cover them.

The walls (sides, front and rear) were built separately, laid out horizontally. The firrst layer was the aluminum exterior. Sheets of that came to the factory already sized, painted and corrugated. On top of the aluminum (remember: these walls were lying on their sides) was glued sheet of plastic to serve as a vapor barrier (same thing on the floor). The glue was pink, sprayed on.

Next came two-inch by two-inch pine studs, which made up the framework, and a small amout of fiber-glass insulation was placed between the studs. These were glued down, and in certain places fastened in with nails or bolts. Holes were drilled in the studs and cut in the paneling (see below) to accommodate wires and pipes.

Next: wood panels, also glued. This was the thin, inexpensive type of paneling used in apartments and houses--very popular in the 1970s. The kind of paneling made of quarter-inch plywood, with a finished surface on one side, and simulated vertical grooves.

When a wall was finished, it had window and door holes cut into it, per a temporary pattern laid atop it. Aluminum framing lined the holes, then the windows and door were attached to each unit after the trailer was assembled.

Speaking of which, the next step in assembly was for two or three people to carry the wall (usually the sides went first) to the base/frame, line it up, and hold it while a couple of guys tacked and then bolted it into place. There was much leveling and aligning and use of squares to make sure everything went in at all the right angles. Otherwise the frames and windows and doors would warp and make for lots of leaks. The sides were attached to the front and rear with bolts/nails, a rubber strip put over the joints, and chrome strips screwed on over that.

With the sides, front and fear in place, the roof went on. It was assembled like the walls. Wires came up through the walls to serve the 12-volt lights at the top. The ceiling was made of the same find of white material you see in dropped ceilings, except it was cut into units that stretched across the width of the trailer. I think they were three or four feet in the other direction, and thin wood trim was placed where two sheets came together. It was sealed to the sides the same way the sides were screwed to one another.

Some of the interior stuff (especially cabinets) was sometimes installed on the floor before the walls went on. The color of the carpet escapes me at the moment. The final touches were added to the rear deck (ladder, handrails, etc.) after the exterior was completed. The deck surface was part of the initial frame assembly."

Nightsky,

The link you placed in that one post is a bad link.  You might want to check that one again.

Also, with what sounds like a rather major remodel for the trailer, you might want to consider starting and writing a blog where you can include about as many photos as you want.  It would also leave you with the option of having a better search feature for your project.

Terry

nightsky wrote:

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Thanks for the heads-up, Terry. I think I've fixed it. Not sure how it got abbreviated.

Yep, I need to get a blog started somewhere, I was just thinking this thread is getting rather long, how many posts does it take to jump to page 2? Or doesn't it?

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 Yep.  It's working now.

As for how long before going to the next page, I've never counted the posts before it does.  I know it is quite a few before it does.

Terry.

Thanks Ed! I am frankly surprised I managed to get the blog up and running today. I find as I get older the learning curve is getting steeper, and I sometimes have difficulty learning new things, especially computer stuff.

I don't think anything will happen this weekend, it didn't sound like the new tongue jack and safety chains would be in before Monday (the RV place is closed Saturday and Sunday) and yes, the weather forecast is looking pretty wet for the next few days at least.