Ben

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Hello, Ben:

What milepost are you located at?

Best wishes,

Frank Scheer
f_scheer at email.usps.gov

MP H46.1



Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 07:16:44 -0700 (PDT) 
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject:  Re: Caboose 

    
Thanks everyone your your advice and information.  
 
For those who don't know, I live on the Bristol Line,
literally.  It is in my back yard a hundred feet from
my house.  After seeing the local drag a caboose back
and forth every day I just thought it'd be nice to try
to preserve one myself.  Since they're no longer being
built eventually they will all disappear from the
rails.  
 
(In a perfect world, NS would sell me one and park it
on the tracks behind my house while a crane offloads
it onto my track in the yard and it would be oh so
simple.)  Well, it ain't a perfect world now, is it?! 
I'd have to park it in Marion on the old equipment
siding west of the old passenger station, have a crane
load it onto a truck and take it 5 miles west to my
house.  There are two bridges it would have to cross,
so permits for that would have to be secured, as well
as having to deal with overhead power lines and street
lights.  
 
At the house, I'd have to demolish an out building,
and build a stretch of track for it.  That may sound
easy, but I don't think it would be so easy to manuver
a full piece of rail around by hand.  There's a whole
lot to consider here.  Oh, and I can only imagine the
response the zoning commission will give me!
 
Building one may be easier, and cheaper, but it
wouldn't be authentic.  The best I could do would be a
good copy.  I am very early in this process, and I
expect it will be years before I get this project
"rolling", but I am serious about it.  
 
Thanks everyone!
 
Ben Blevins


=====
Dr. Frank R. Scheer, Curator
Railway Mail Service Library, Inc.
f_scheer at yahoo.com
(202) 268-2121 - weekday office
(540) 837-9090 - weekend afternoons 
in the former N&W station on VA rte 723 
117 East Main Street 
Boyce  VA  22620-9639