Caboose #300
In case anybody is still following this thread...I saw some discussion of Oregon & Northwestern caboose #300 and how it looked like an old C&O caboose, and I thought I would toss in some information about the origin of the #300.
The #300 started life as a Norfolk & Western class CF caboose. It was built by the N&W in their Norfolk shops in September 1915 as N&W #18121, later re-numbered to #518121. The car ended up on the Oregon & Northwestern in 1945, where it served in regular service up until the road closed in 1984.
The car remains basically as-built by the N&W, with only a few interior alterations. The words "O&NW", "Seneca, Ore" and "10-29-45" have been welded onto three of the four bottom steps.
Good news for your modeling...pictures I have in my collection taken by Jimmy Bryant of the caboose on 21 July 1984 (or about four months after the road shut down) show that the lettering on the caboose consisted only of the initials "ONW" in small letters centered underneath the cupola, with an equally small "300" directly underneath the initials. The name spelled out down the side of the caboose was not added until well after the caboose arrived in Portola, meaning that the car carrying just the reporting marks and number are correct in representing the caboose in it's final days of Oregon & Northwestern service.
Most of the information presented here is from an article on the #300 published on pages 48 and 49 of the January 1992 issue of Model Railroading.
Hope this helps. I enjoy seeing the progression of the railroad in pictures throughout the thread, and I am impressed by the efforts. Good job. I think I will have to detour through John Day on one of my next trips to see my parents in Bend. The Oregon & Northwestern has always been my second favorite railroad (right behind the McCloud). I intend to write a book about it some day, and a friend and I are probably going to have a website about the O&NW out in the near future.
Take care,
JD Moore
Elko, NV