Meet Ole Rusty

I'm really excited about the response to the Facebook Save the Trains campaign. I want to thank everyone who has donated and all those who are stepping forward with information and offers to help and volunteer.

One of those who responded, was Rick |Kfoury, a director of the B&M Railroad Historical Society. He has offered his assistance and give us valuable information about the history of our caboose.

He tells us, "The N-5s were built at the Concord Shops in 1932 as 104700 - 104724. These were essentially clones of a popular Pennsylvania Railroad design.

104707 was wrecked in 1936, and the remaining cars were renumbered to C-11 through C-34 in 1942. Some survived to the end of the caboose era under Guilford Transportation Industries in the 1980s. They were initially assigned to replace weaker wooden cabooses on the Fitchburg Division in order to withstand the strain of steam helper locomotives pushing from the rear up Ashburnham Hill.

When the B&M replaced the last of their wooden cabooses with a new order of cabooses from International Steel in the 1950s, the N-5s spread out to the rest of the system and were common on rural branch lines where they served as a mobile office and quarters for the conductor and brakemen.

In the late 1960s the N-5s received the famous scheme of blue sides with red ends, black roof, white trim, and a large B&M logo on either side."

So here's the question I have posed to our community on Facebook. When we paint Ole Rusty should we stay with the original caboose red, with gold lettering or blue with the large B&M logo?