2006 WP668 – First Look – WP668 Caboose Story

This is the first post with photos from WP668’s history: the story from January 2006 when Katy Dickinson and John Plocher first saw WP668 at the Golden Gate Railroad Museum (GGRM) in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunter’s Point area. In December 2005, Katy’s mother, Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson, saw a notice in the San Francisco newspaper about a caboose for sale and told Katy and John about it as a joke. They were interested enough to drive to SF to see.

It turned out that the GGRM had lost their lease with the US Navy for the museum site in the Hunter’s Point Shipyard and was distributing most of their collection – including a “hospital train” of historic rolling stock that went to the Niles Canyon Railway. Three cabooses were for sale: WP668, SN1742, and WP646. WP668 was offered by GGRM and the other two by a private owner. WP668 had the most original wood and, even with two big holes on one side, was in the best condition. A few days later, Katy and John visited WP668 again with their family to look at the caboose again and discuss next steps with GGRM.

They ended up purchasing the caboose through a sealed bid process which included specific plans on how it would be moved from GGRM to San Jose within a few weeks. Katy and John had no idea what it would take to move a caboose into their San Jose backyard but they wanted to try.