So I’m Drawing a Caboose…
…and I have to say I’m pretty excited about it!
My interest in trains didn’t come until I was an adult, the time that a lot of kids get into them was taken up with fire trucks and spaceships. I didn’t get to really ride a train until I was an adult and loved that experience and shortly after that I fell into a friend group that included several train enthusiasts and by that exposure my interest and eventual love trains began (peer pressure is alive and well!). I’ve always got my eyes and ears open for them at all times and try to include trains in my travel when I can. My social media feeds are full of trainspotters and history videos of them and so when a client came to me and asked if I was interested in helping update his 1926 Chesapeake & Ohio caboose I couldn’t say yes fast enough!
My client has owned this train car for a few years now and the a previous owner converted into a mini-house which allows it to be used as a rental property. It’s not insulated and located in New Hampshire so it’s safe to say that it’s not for year-round use! The intention is to winterize it, add a shower to the small bathroom and make some other changes that will undo some of the conventional residential feeling that the space currently has. In the words of my client, the goal is to “bring the caboose-ness back”, which if we’re successul will become the new slogan of HinterSpace Architecture.
The process is kicking off with some historic research and right off the bat a very helpful person at the C&O Railroad Historic Society let us know that this particular caboose was actually built in 1921 rather than the 1926 we had previously thought. In addition it was originally painted brown, then red and later may have been painted yellow, which is a color I’d love to see brought back as part of our work. I am absolutely loving the dive into history this one is giving me, and I can’t wait to go up there in a few weeks for my first look at it.
In the meantime I’m developing simple existing condition drawings in Revit, which is a software that was not designed with railcars in mind, but we’ll make it work.
